Laminate floors....the good, the bad, and the ugly?

[spima3]

Anyone have any opinions on laminate flooring? We have to replace our kitchen floor, old vinyl sheet. We only have around $350 that we can put into a new one, so I had thought we have to go with vinyl again.

However, Lowes is having a sale on Pergo and we could probably manage this as long as we do it ourselves. BUT, is this a good thing? Of the few we like, they are Pergo Casual Living and Pergo Simple Renovations. Are they a good value for the $$ or are we wasting both time and money. Also, how hard is it to install. We have never done one, but we have done home improvement, plus DH's uncle is very handy and has lots of tools, so I know he would be of assistance if needed.

TIA, lori

 

[staceyhzoo]

We have had Pergo floors for just over a year. I LOVE them. DH and a helper did our 2 halls, the great room, and our entry in 2 days (only part that was a pain was the fireplace). Me and kids went to stay with my mom and grandparents (ds was only 3 months old).
The floors are very easy to clean and don't show scratches nearly as bad as hardwoods (we have dogs too).
My only complaint is they are hard to fix if they 'chip'. Dh was running to catch ds from falling off the back of the sofa and he flipped the rocker over and it took a chip out of the floor and we have to cut the board and patch to fix it. Still not a huge deal, but really my only complaint.
Check out Home Depot, they beat out Lowes on price once we added in the extras (moulding, toe board, thin padding) by almost $200. We did do a huge area though (700+ sqft)
Good luck as long as your hubby is semi-handy it will be easy once he gets going.

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

I would try it if I were you. Laminate can be very durable because they bake on the finish or something that makes it very hard and resistant to scratches.
It is fairly easy to install, most just click together. Tools required would be a table saw for ripping the last row. On this note, you want to take into account the width of the piece that the floor comes in. You don't want to end up with a 1 inch strip at the end row because you decided to start with a full piece on the first row. That would be a waste of full pieces just to get a small strip out of it.
so..yeah you want a table saw, jig saw(for cutting around floor vents) you could also use this for end cuts but a chop saw would be much faster.
One more thing I thought of...if you are going though any doorways it is very important you cut the door jamb so you can slide the flooring underneath the door jamb so the jamb i resting on your new flooring. If you do not do this the end result will not look professional.

Because you are putting this floor in a kitchen, you must be careful with liquid spills. As long as you wipe them up quickly and the liquid is not allow to swell the laminate, you should be OK with a quality floor that has at least some water resistance.

my .02¢

 

[big_red_s]

I installed several laminate flooring.

The secret that no-one wants you to know about is that the one thing you SHOULD spend money on is the mat that goes under the floor. Buy the most expensive one.

I used 12" miter saw I borrowed from a friend to cut the pieces and a jigsaw for the corners. It was easy to install just make sure you read the directions.

 

[spima3]

I installed several laminate flooring.

The secret that no-one wants you to know about is that the one thing you SHOULD spend money on is the mat that goes under the floor. Buy the most expensive one.

I used 12" miter saw I borrowed from a friend to cut the pieces and a jigsaw for the corners. It was easy to install just make sure you read the directions.

According to the description, this applies:

"Pre-attached premium underlayment maximizes sound reduction".


So would the same thing apply where the "mat" is concerned?

 

[Kies99]

Our flooring is suppossed to be in at HD today. We are putting it in ourselves. We do not have experience with this, but do have general construction experience.

We ordered Pergo and are not putting down a seperate mat underlay. It comes with a light padding already and we are going just with that.

We'll let you know how it goes.

 

[dfchelbay]

Anyone have any opinions on laminate flooring? We have to replace our kitchen floor, old vinyl sheet. We only have around $350 that we can put into a new one, so I had thought we have to go with vinyl again.

However, Lowes is having a sale on Pergo and we could probably manage this as long as we do it ourselves. BUT, is this a good thing? Of the few we like, they are Pergo Casual Living and Pergo Simple Renovations. Are they a good value for the $$ or are we wasting both time and money. Also, how hard is it to install. We have never done one, but we have done home improvement, plus DH's uncle is very handy and has lots of tools, so I know he would be of assistance if needed.

TIA, lori

We have Pergo floors from Lowes. They installed it too. They are great...couldn't be happier with the floor. I'd recommend them to you.

 

[Anne34]

I think the cheap laminate looks cheap. We have had pergo for 12 years in our front hall, kitchen and powder room. Still looks great -- we have 3 kids and a dog. There are a couple small scratches where I dropped something, but you really can't see them unless you look really hard.

I would go with it!!

 

[Shleedogg]

We've had Pergo floors throughout our downstairs for over 3 years and our bedroom for 2 and we love them. They have held up really well. We have 4 cats who are always chasing each other and scrambling/clawing to get traction. If we had real hardwoods, there would be a ton of scratches. They're constantly getting up on the dining room table and when they jump down their back claws dig into the wood table and leave marks. They're much rougher on the floors.

They do show streaks when I clean them with the Swifer wetjet, but I'm not sure if that's the Swifer or the floor.

We installed them all ourselves (well, DH and FIL ). It's very easy, just put down the mat first, then lay a plank and snap together, usually w/ the help of a rubber mallet. You do need a saw though. Make sure to stagger it when you lay the boards and don't start every row with a full board so it looks more natural.

 

[finz2left]

Well, we have had 2 homes with laminate -- 1st house Pergo, 2nd house Costco. Both we put down ourselves -- and we like the Costco brand much more and it was 1/4 of the price.

Both are noisier than hardwood, but more durable. We can hear our dogs nails, etc......

Resale -- many people prefer cheap carpet to laminate....many love laminate over carpet. Of course I'd prefer hardwood, but I'd also love to own a Mercedes Convertible. In our price range, it is carpet or self-install laminate and we prefer the cleanliness and look of the later.

 

[big_red_s]

According to the description, this applies:

"Pre-attached premium underlayment maximizes sound reduction".


So would the same thing apply where the "mat" is concerned?

Yes, I couldn't remember the nomenclature.
I put down the red underlayment, which was the best one I could find.

 

[momxx5]

We have laminate typle and it looks very real. We always get compliments on it.

I could not decide on a type of wood, stain, etc.....too many choices. The choices for lam tile were a lot less so I was able to make a decision.

 

[lindsmom]

Because you are putting this floor in a kitchen, you must be careful with liquid spills. As long as you wipe them up quickly and the liquid is not allow to swell the laminate, you should be OK with a quality floor that has at least some water resistance.

my .02¢

Ask the people in the flooring department about gluing the seams, which on some floors makes it more water safe. Not that you would want a bucket of water spilled and sitting on the floor, but you don't have to worry about every drip. That being said, we've had spills on our living room floor and it did bubble slightly, but the bubble went away on its own (phew!).

 

[TupperMom7]

We have had Pergo floors for just over a year. I LOVE them. DH and a helper did our 2 halls, the great room, and our entry in 2 days (only part that was a pain was the fireplace). Me and kids went to stay with my mom and grandparents (ds was only 3 months old).
The floors are very easy to clean and don't show scratches nearly as bad as hardwoods (we have dogs too).
My only complaint is they are hard to fix if they 'chip'. Dh was running to catch ds from falling off the back of the sofa and he flipped the rocker over and it took a chip out of the floor and we have to cut the board and patch to fix it. Still not a huge deal, but really my only complaint.
Check out Home Depot, they beat out Lowes on price once we added in the extras (moulding, toe board, thin padding) by almost $200. We did do a huge area though (700+ sqft)
Good luck as long as your hubby is semi-handy it will be easy once he gets going.

We have Pergo floors and I never know what to clean them with. I've tried a Swiffer wet jet and that did a horrible job and left a film all over the floor. Tried some kind of mop supposedly made for laminate floors - left streaks.
What does everyone clean them with??

 

[poohs_hunny]

We have Pergo floors from Lowes. They installed it too. They are great...couldn't be happier with the floor. I'd recommend them to you.

Could I ask how much the installation cost?

 

[squirrel]

I have laminate floors in my house.

The cheap one wasn't in when we drove all the way over to the store (45min or more away). My dad thought I wanted the darker one so the owner gave me a good deal on a higher priced laminate. We bought enough of that to do the downstairs.

My dad installed it in one of the two rooms and it was terrible. It was a different kind than the cheap one he installed at my sister's house. We packed up the rest of this more expensive laminate and took it back and got enough of the cheap one in the color I wanted to do the whole house (except two bedrooms, the bathroom and kitchen).

The one room that has the more expensive laminate has so many chips in it from chairs falling over. That is in one of the daycare rooms.

 

[Poohbear5]

We picked up some pergo to do a bedroom this weekend. In stock pergo is 15% off at Lowe's through tomorrow.

We did pergo in one other room. At first, we tried the HD brand laminate and it was an exercise in frustration. We packed it all up and exchanged for pergo. Much better quality product and much easier to install the the cheapie stuff.
It's great not to have to shampoo carpet!

 

[Mickey1Fan]

I found a laminate cleaner at Home Depot and I also like simply vinegar and water. I don't use a swiffer wet mop, I find a cloth is best.

 

[arminnie]

Because you are putting this floor in a kitchen, you must be careful with liquid spills. As long as you wipe them up quickly and the liquid is not allow to swell the laminate, you should be OK with a quality floor that has at least some water resistance.

Ask the people in the flooring department about gluing the seams, which on some floors makes it more water safe. Not that you would want a bucket of water spilled and sitting on the floor, but you don't have to worry about every drip. That being said, we've had spills on our living room floor and it did bubble slightly, but the bubble went away on its own (phew!).

I bought some of the original laminate (Pergo) about 10 years ago. I had a water overflow in the kitchen which warped the floor. I collected from the insurance but was traveling internationally a lot so was never home. When I got around to fixing it 90% of the warping had gone down so I just left it. That was a lot of water with major flooding - not just some spilled water.

I had some laminate put in here about 3 years ago. I don't remember the brand - but it is awful. One of my dogs had an accident and it just totally disentegrated and the laminate peeled off from not a lot of moisture. Plus some of the planks look like they are warping from nothing. I would be trying to get some warranty coverage, but I am moving so I don't really care.

When I first bought 10 years ago I took home a sample and really did a stress test on it. I put nail polish remover and tons of other stuff to see if it did anything. I even took a knife and tried to damage it. I wish I'd done that with the second go round.

 

[Nolcrest]

We have Pergo floors and I never know what to clean them with. I've tried a Swiffer wet jet and that did a horrible job and left a film all over the floor. Tried some kind of mop supposedly made for laminate floors - left streaks.
What does everyone clean them with??

I have a a Swiffer Wet Jet but I prefer The Bruce hardwood & laminate spray cleaner found at Home Depot & Lowes. I also have the Bruce mop with the removable/washable cloth on the head.