laminate flooring

[dmc]

[snip]

I installed the Fake tile stuff in our kitchen last summer. Can;t remember what it was called but its pretty much the most expensive laminate that B&Q sell. I think it was about 30 a sq m.

It is fitted just as the instructions said. Click fitted with *no* glue. The instructions mentioned that glue can cause problems with the joints being so tight (as you hinted)

Well, a few days after fitting it we had a new washing machine. It turns out that this pumped out a lot quicker than the old one and had been overflowing the standpipe for quite sometime. No visable damage to the floor. A couple of weeks ago I found an offcut laying outside on the patio in a puddle where it had been for 6 months (including all winter). It seems fine and still clicks into another piece as well as it did when new...

I don't know what it is made of but it is certainly waterproof. I'm impressed!

Darren

[Tim S]

I got my Pergo from Allied Carpets, The joints are fairly tight on that.

I'm just a worrier. Sounds like it's better than I gave it credit for. The clicky stuff was very sweet to lay - it was just in summer that I saw some hairline gaps open at every joint on cooler days. They weren't ugly - but I just remarked to myself that they might be scunge traps if in a kitchen.

To the OP: don;t worry. Worth fiddling around with some experiemnts. If you do glue it, then it won't cause any problems assuming the glue doesn't prevent the joint going together correctly.

In every other respect it's excellent stuff. Hardwaring (if you got a quality brand) and very quick to wipe off.

[Mary Fisher]

Everywhere is. Just because you can't see scunge doesn't mean it's not there.

And as for noticing hairline cracks - well I know everone needs a hobby but can't you take up lampshade making?

:-)

Mary

[Tim S]

I dropped a potload of grease last weekend at my Dad's house - one of those quick roasts in a little foil tray - caught the edge on the oven shelf while taking it out. Fortunately Dad has a "proper floor" - real quarry tiles, so no harm done.

The floorpaint sounds like a class idea.

Our rented house would have a 12x8 kitchen, except they turned it into a half-arsed kitchen and diner combination - both bits too small to adequately fulfil any meaningful function :(

Tim

[Mary Fisher]

We never have anything like that ...

Oh yes, I have a friend in Stevenage with one of those. She slides around all the time because it's covered with a film of oil and grease ...

LOL!

We could make a magnificent kitchen by knocking down the dividing wall between the existing one and the sitting room and turning the dining room into the sitting room.

But I do like the sitting room as it is, everything about it is perfect for its purpose. I'll make do with the scullery sized space I have, at least I don't have to walk between appliances.

And if I can make meals for eight on a two burner hob in a 10' caravan I reckon I can manage in our little kitchen at home.

Although I dream about a larger kitchen it's not important or desirable enough to sacrifice my sanctum.

Mary

[Tim S]

Sounds like something my friend "Oily Mike" would do. He made reproduction exposed ceiling beams (non structural) from an old industrial-robot pallet he got from his mate's workplace, carefully hacked down as if with an adze and coated with black paint thinned with petrol for that "blackened timber look". Complete with fake woodworm holes. It *was* an

18th century cottage, so it did look kosher.

Hmm. 3 coats. That *is* a lot of work... I might think about wax or just use a stain/sealer for the non-polished look.

I'm expecting that. Can't be as bad as when my other mate sanded his walls with an orbital sander - now that *did* get everywhere. Forever. Plaster dust too - doesn't do the video heads any favours.

I copped out with my vinyl - I know I'm cr*p at cutting large sheets of floppy material so I paid a couple of blokes to do it. Took them about 20 minutes and didn't actually cost that much.

Thanks for the tips Mary :)

Tim

[Tim S]

Got a sprog now. I don't worry about hairline cracks anymore. Too busy stopping her from trying to wash her feet in the loo :-o

Tim

[Mary Fisher]

Quite. There are more important things in life than cracks in the floor and what they contain.

When you have sprogs you don't really want to know anyway ...

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Yuk!

er - what's kosher about blackened timbers in a C18th cottage?

Timber framed mediaeval houses didn't have dark beams when they were first built. They darkened because of the smoke inside the house (no chimneys). If Oily Mike's house didn't have them it wasn't built with them. If it had been built with them they wouldn't have been black, by that time houses had chimneys.

Yes, but worth it. I reckon it will see us out.

But it might not wear as well. Restoring it will take as long, just spread out over more years, possibly.

Ah but plaster dust is heavier than wood dust and it settles more quickly so it doesn't travel as far. We even had the dust in the loft - from the ground floor.

...

Well, that's another reason for not having vinyl again. The floor's nothing like big enough to take the full width of a roll, in any direction.

We had vinyl tiles before the continuous stuff, they wee awful. I don't want to draw attention to the floor.

Paint it is. He likes the idea.

Of course I think the bit in front ot the sink will have to wear through to the underlay before it happens ...

Mary

[dmc]

I helped fil lay something similar in his conservatory and you can at times notice hairline cracks like you describe. Not noticed them in my kitchen - and the joints are slightly different. Maybe they have improved it a bit.

I suspect this maybe the answer. You get what you pay for (usually...)

Darren