Does anyone have any experience with the laminate flooring that Lumber Liquidators carries? I'm thinking about the line that runs for $1.69/sqft ("Nirvana"). I've done a bit of googling on it and can't seem to find out much about the company or whether or not the flooring is any good or not. Someone did suggest that it was actually made by Bellawood but I haven't been able to find anything to corroborate that.
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Nirvana page:
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Any thoughts? I know a lot of you probably don't like laminate flooring, but in our case I really think it's our most realistic option.
We bought some of this last year, so we haven't owned it long enough to say anything about durability (though it's held up well to a toddler so far). Installation is fairly easy with two people, though one could do it just as easily and maybe take a little longer. It looks pretty realistic to me, much more so than the $3 per sq ft Pergo stuff you find in the big box stores. The price is actually quite good when you consider that the backing is attached. I haven't found any independent information online either. It looks like they're exclusive to Lumber Liquidators. So far, I'd recommend this stuff to someone putting in a laminate floor.
It sounds like you and Sandy were talking about hardwood flooring, not laminate, unless I really misunderstood. You had some good thoughts though, on preinspecting the wood and so forth. Unfortunately it is not generally possible to preinspect *all* of the wood, but I will definitely check several of the boxes to make sure there is not a big problem.
What rooms did you put it in your house? we have a small house and are thinking of putting it just about everywhere, except for bathrooms and the laundry closet.
i ripped it out of a condo i bought for in-laws. condo built in 2003. the floor had gaps, curled a little and sounded like plastic when walked on. do not know the brand and it was on a slab.
make sure there is plenty of gaps on edges and nothing bolted down like a island. this stuff needs to move.
make sure you do not use to much water on it. i think it needs a special cleaner. they kind that evaporates fairly quickly.
I put down about 500 sq. ft. of the floor in a living room, a dining room, and a hallway (high traffic area). jdk's comment about leaving a space at the edges is very true. I left 1/4" to 1/2" of gap at the walls and any other edge to allow for expansion. This stuff should not be used in a high-moisture area, and I think any documentation that can be found will state that spills should be wiped up quickly and not given a chance to soak in (this doesn't mean you have to walk around the house with a wiping rag in your pocket all day, but you shouldn't leave spills any longer than you have to). Wet mopping is most definitely NOT recommended, I think a "Swiffer" type cleaning pad will work for most cleaning, sweeping with a broom worked well on dust and dirt. That reminds me of another note: Keep it clean! If you leave dirt particles on the floor and walk on it, you could scratch it, though the surface seems to take quite a lot of abuse (daughter banging hard plastic blocks around on it). I still stand by my statement that I like it, but like hardwood floors, there are things you can and can not do with it, and it needs to be cared for.
I installed about 1600 sf of Armstrong Swiftlock Springfield Maple and we like it alot. Don't install it in wet areas, kitchens, bathroom or laundry rooms. Avoid the stuff that has grooves between the panels as they are big time dirt collectors. Use the better grade of underlayment. Buy a couple extra boxes of the planks, and a roll of the underlayment for future repairs. Check the prices on the T-strips and other special items cause they stick you deep on those things.
Something else I just remembered. Study the *repeat* in the pattern. In ours the repeat covered 7 full boxes of planks. Nothing looks more amatuerish than an installation with obvious repeat errors. Dry lay the planks out on the floor and watch the grain, coloration and knots.
We're planning on installing it in the kitchen and being as careful as possible with spills and so forth. Have you had a bad experience with this? I understand the necessity to keep it dry and all; I'm wondering just what bad stuff will happen if we do have the ocassional spill. I'm hoping as long as we get things wiped up that it will be ok?
We're still at a decision point. We could put down vinyl instead (although that is something I know abosolutely nothing about). We have to put something down, as we have only subflooring in right now.
Yes, a double bad experience. I'll try to make this short. Moved into our new home 3 years ago, it is on a well with a water softener. My wife put a bottle of JetDry in the GE dishwasher, and did a load of dishes. The JetDry combined with the soft water caused the DW to fill up with an over abundence of suds which were forced out around the door seal onto the laminate floor. 3 hours later (we went somewhere) we noticed this and it was too late, the damage was done. The planks in front of the DW swelled and buckled. Fortunately this areas was toward the *end of the run* in the flooring so all I had to do was pull up about 8' worth of flooring, replace the swollen planks with new ones and then relay all the old ones back down. (Thats why I said previously to have several extra boxes on hand for future repairs) This took the better part of a saturday to do. If something similar had happened in the center of my living room, for example, it would have been a major pain as you have to cut the culprit out and then *glue* new panels back in. In our next house I will not put laminate in the kitchen.
All in all we're very pleased with the laminate I installed and will do it in the next house. Our dogs fly all over the house and have left nary a scratch. The surface on this stuff is very hard.
I understand the necessity to keep it dry and all; I'm wondering
We have small spills all the time and as long as you wipe it up pretty quick its no problem. If the water goes into the seam between the planks it will be quickly absorbed by the material of the planks. Take a look at the stuff, it is like a compressed paper product. A sponge just waiting to happen.
Consider tile. It is usually more favorable than vinyl and not prone to the problems inherent to vinyl. Many people complain how *hard* tile feels when standing on it. Doesn't bother me, as I keep moving and don't stand still too much.
They make something that looks like tile, but is put down like a laminate floor now. We have used this laminate floor in the kitchen and dining room. We used the laminate tile in front of the patio door. Not much chance of scratching this stuff....but, it is a pain to keep clean. The cleaner that you buy...wants you to. "MOP-RINSE-then DRY"!!! It always looks smeary. The laminate tile is MUCH easier to take care of than the laminate wood floor! They both require that padding, tho.
Tile installation? Off the top of my head I'd say to check the
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page. With tile its best to not lay down to much cement at one time. Lay the tile down dry first to determine how the pattern works out. Try to avoid a lot of thin cuts along the edges. In some circumstances its good to start in the center and work out to the edges.
The "laminate tile", is that the stuff Lowes sold under the Edge brand? From what I've read it's a problem child because the hard surface chips and cracks just from normal traffic. Lots of lawsuits and unhappy people.
This is called "CermaiTile".......it's VERY hard and it seems if it is installed correctly...there should be no way of any chips... and we haven't been able to scratch it yet. Don't know what brand people are having trouble with but ours is doing wonderful....also, a friend of ours put it down in wife's home beauty salon....it's working great....we did NOT buy ours at Lowe's...we bought ours at the local Hardware store.
This is called "CermaiTile".......it's VERY hard and it seems if it is installed correctly...there should be no way of any chips... and we haven't been able to scratch it yet. Don't know what brand people are having trouble with but ours is doing wonderful....also, a friend of ours put it down in wife's home beauty salon....it's working great....we did NOT buy ours at Lowe's...we bought ours at the local Hardware store.
that is a good idea. go to a good store that sells this item. have them, or they already have, a fairly large area set up. walk on it and bang on it. see if you like it or not.
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