laminate flooring

[Phil]

am looking to using laminate flooring for lounge as opposed to carpet. can anyone give any hints and tips of what types etc to look for that would be hard wearing etc, etc, etc.

cheers

[STEPHEN]

Its price, as always. there are £2.50p a metre and there is over £12 a meter. I am going through he same process and bother in law is a layer of the floors. You get what you pay for in laminated floors So clear the floor, I.e. get rid of the existing floor and then you can decorate the room and then order the wood/floor and while your are doing that, get a floor layer in

in my situation I knock down a wall. I stripped the skirting boards and I decorated the walls. I then in the process of removing the old laminate floor then order the new floor, and while I am doing that order the floor layers and get a price off them and a date. While I get date from the layers, I have to order the floor to come on the same day as the layers .The floor as to be cleared out complete I stripped the skirting, so the layers fit the floor right up to the wall. The joiner will come in and put the skirt on top of the floor and you don't have to buy quadrant to hide the mistakes in cutting up to the walls

good luck, because I need it ;-)

Stephen

[BeeJay]

Buy the cheapest you can find because it won?t be down for long. Remember wood chip paper and artex on the ceiling? In five years time some long haired leather fetishist will be appearing on tv telling you that if you want to sell your home you will need to get rid of all that laminate.

When buying flooring you will notice knee pads placed strategically nearby. You may be tempted to ignore them thinking they are for hairdressers, ice skaters and Mazda owners. Wrong! You will need them if you are laying anything more than a square metre of flooring.

Think about what the laminate is going to replace and how you will dispose of it. If you start to lay laminate on a Saturday, you will suddenly realise that upwards of 20 square metres of carpet is heavy and bulky. Leave it in your garden and you might as well get the sky digital dish, leather sofa, Alsatian, stick a Kenwood sticker on your car and put a gold chain with your name on it around your neck for the total effect.

Local council will inform you that despite you paying community taxes they won?t uplift it without charging you even more money. Here?s a tip. Drag it onto the pavement and phone the council to complain that it?s been dumped, they will then uplift it free. In fact if you are smart enough to dump it outside a neighbour?s house they will probably make the phone call for you. Here you can learn from my mistake. Don?t dump it outside the house of neighbour who has been inside your home. They may recognise it and get suspicious. If this happens, just say. "Carpets!!!! Carpets!!!! I have laminate flooring in MY home." Sound indignant when you say it.

Laying the flooring will involve sawing some of it to fit. This is more easily done in situ rather than making umpteen trips outside. Therefore before you start, give any women who live in the house a handful of notes and tell them to treat themselves to some new shoes. Trust me on this one, they will not be back until 45 minutes after the shops have closed and you can get on with the job without complaints about the mess you are making. GBH on the ears is the last thing you need when laying flooring. It?s also potentially psychologically damaging, you being on your knees and a woman standing above you talking down to you.

When finished, watch telly until you hear women returning, they will not have had any thoughts in their heads about buying food or preparing a meal. Hold hands to small of the back, in same pose as women who are pregnant, and say you will start clearing up shortly, grimace as you say this. You will find that you can now relax for the evening and all the sweeping up etc. will be done for you. Another small tip here. Give explicit verbal instructions as to where your tools go otherwise next time you need them they won?t be there.

Plan your time carefully. Laying about 20 square metres of laminate flooring takes about an hour. Lifting old carpet, lifting carpet treads, removing nails from floor etc. takes about half a day. Once planks are down the fiddly bits of edgings etc. takes another half day. Therefore a rough rule of thumb is 20 square metres equals one hour plus a day.

Lastly and most importantly, you remember the money you gave the women for shoes? Well they only had a day to buy them, which is not enough time for any woman. As they haven?t got the shoes you need to claim your money back. It?s a small point but easily overlooked as you bask in the afterglow of having joined the 2005 version of woodchip and artex.

[GTS]

I would look at the textured laminate, as it appears much less artificial than the usual. Or you can now get real wood veneer laminate - the top layer is wood and can be sanded upto five times. All packs come with gaurantees that indicate how hard-wearing it is - usually 10, 15, or 20 years. Ignore the nay-sayers - laminate is so easy to clean and looks great when layed well, and you can plonk a nice rug on it if you want. If you later want to go back to carpet it can be layed over it. It does look more polished if you remove the skirting and put a new one on after instead of the quadrant. If you do use quadrant, using a real wood one looks a lot better than the cheap cardboard type they sell in the big DIY stores...If your lounge is faily wide, then using a tensioning belt helps a lot and prevents you getting to the middle of the room and finding you can't slot the boards in easily.. Graham

[chas]

My tip would be to get the correct tools for the job. You'll find them lurking amongst the laminate stuff. I did my last house out entirely with laminate flooring and in the kitchen and bathrooms we had ceramic tiles.

(Main reason was one of the family has bad asthma and it made an enormous difference to them. Saved hoovering the carpet daily as well - just a swipe it over with Swiffer cloths now.)

The only slight drawback I can say about laminate floors is they can get slippery when wet or if you have a dog charging about on them it can be dangerous to your wallet.

A friend's dog slipped and slid across it one day breaking his leg!

In the summer expect to stub you toes at least once as you enjoy walking on it barefoot.

The plus side is that it does look good, it's easily cleaned and all you need to do is look for special offers on Swiffer cloths!

Don't go near the glue laminates - click and fit is just so much less hassle. And if you spend more on a decent underlay and you'll reap the benefits of a 'quieter' and better insulated floor.

chas

[ken]

Laminate flooring has brought with it a new modern annoyance--namely noise. It is obviously noisier to walk on and the noise level of the whole house/room goes up. If you are in a flat, then expect complaints. Other drawbacks-- the cheap stuff marks easy and doesn't like stiletto heels.

[Rod]

Why, its not hard to lay, if you take your time

The flooring should become acclimatized to room temp for at least 24=20 hours before laying.

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