DiY-ers - Laminated flooring?

[Luv2Roam]

Just wondering if anyone here has laid down their own laminated flooring.
After going through our old dog and puppy stages, we are now ready to replace our flooring, room by room!
We wanted to start in an area that badly needs replacing after our old dog frenzied one day and tore up the linoleum. We decided to wait until she was gone before replace the floor.
This area is fairly small, but to me, looks complicated. And I was wanting to get some thoughts or pointers.

Area:
As we walk in from the garage, there is a small entry way. (Family area ahead, to left are are stairs going to the mid level.)
To the right is a hallway. Large closets line the hall. Laundry area on one side. Large closet on the other.
At the end of the hall is a 3/4 bathroom.
We are going to replace the flooring and the bathroom cabinet.
Because we have two (large) dogs and a cat (and probably ALWAYS will have animals) we thought we would go with laminated flooring.
DH is a very handy guy. He has done 99.9% of all household fix up's over the years, including gutting our first house and completely re-doing everything, room by room.
So he is not foreign in the handyman dept. But he has never laid laminated flooring. (Parquay tiles, tiles squares, carpet and linoleum, even going back years ago.)

With a confined, but yet long area, and lots of cut outs, I just want to read up, be prepared and get some input.
This year we also want to do the mid level, livingroom and kitchen, in laminated flooring. That is a much larger area, but maybe easier. ???

Also -- Anyone have or install stairs in laminated flooring?
We have two short flights.
DH doesn't want to because of cost.
I would like to, except my concern is safety. They would be very slick, I would think. (Unless there is some sort of built in traction.) Then you have to put a carpet runner over them anyway. So what would be the point?

Thoughts, suggestions? If you have laminated flooring, what brand and what do you think of it?
TIA!

 

[DNSDisney]

We just finished up doing our kic and dining areas in Armstrong wood laminate. I love it, (so does our cat). Before we bought it my hubby took his car key and tried to scatch it... no scatch what so ever!! The area we did was 14 by 32 and took us (i only helped one day) 3 days to do. There was alot of cutting . But for your size area there probably wouldn't be too much. We purchased our at Lowes, they seemed to be cheaper than Home depot. If i could i would do most of the house in this.
There was a video with instruction on how to do the flooring for about 9.95. It is fairly simple to do. And it does truely look wonderful when you are done. The pine to me looks more like real wood than the oak but that is just a matter of opinion...
hope this helps
Sharon

Also you don't have to remove the old linolium sp?
Use it for extra padding underneath the padding it works fine. and saves hours of work and very sore arms!

 

[RNMOM]

We had the Uniclic laminate installed last spring. If I had it to do over, I would have opted for the real wood instead of laminate. I like it but would just like the wood. The guy who did the installation was done in about 12 hours. I had a lot of cuts, did the small foyer, laundry room and closet too as well as kitchen. It looks nice and is easy to clean. You have to use a special spray cleaner and mop head. Just spray and wipe.

 

[Disney Dee]

We also have the Armstrong laminated wood floor, it was in our condo when we bought it last yr. I can't get over how much it looks like the real thing! We love it. we have the special cleaning and clean ups are so easy! And it shines up real nice, and does not scratch. Since our kitchen and living room are actually one big room, it goes with the carpeting in thr living room much better then a kitcheny tile would.