We are closing on a house next month and need to replace a couple thousand sf of flooring. We will stick with carpet in the bedrooms but are going to lay 12mm laminate in the loft and living areas. Does anyone have experience with the stuff? Any advice on installation? The lady at the flooring store demonstrated putting the pieces together and it looks super simple. We thought about hard wood but she said if you have heavier pets it tends to scratch more easily than the fake stuff. Any advice is appreciated.

Carlos

Ive laid laminate for a friends room before. Not too bad to do but make sure you have sharp blade on either a table saw or a miter saw w/ enough capacity to cross cut each piece.

Time, attention to detail and patience are also your friends on this job. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Get the real hardwood. The wood-grained plastic crap will drive you crazy after about 2 hours of walking on it. The noise it makes just doesn't sound right and it feels all wrong.

In case you don't already know, long hair critters leave enough hair laying around to stuff a mattress. This will never be more evident than after you've installed a laminate floor. Make sure you choose a color that blends well with your pet. I go a little more crazy every time I see another pile of Border Collie hair on the floor.

We are also putting in some wainscoting downstairs so a mitre saw will be purchased before the projects begin. Patience is not always my strong suit but this will be a husband/wife project so she will be there to help lay the flooring and also help keep me from losing it halfway through the project.




I agree if you're talking about the 7-8mm stuff but we were able to walk on some of this stuff at the store and did a little "golf ball drop" test to see the sound difference. Our first house had the cheap Pergo stuff that sounded like a hollow gourd but this stuff is just as thick as the real wood and with the thin pad underneath didn't seem to make much noise. (very muffled) Also, with the dogs running around the laminate is much more scratch resistant. I'm going to cross my fingers and will let you know in a couple of months if I made a mistake. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />




We have a West Highland White Terrier now and will purchase a boxer when we actually get moved in. Unfortunately the color of the stair rails are driving the color of the floor. (dark brown) We really liked a lighter color flooring but didn't want to have to replace the bannisters as well. So I'm gonna have to live with shaggy white hair on dark wood.

Thanks for the advice guys. After a couple weekends and a few cases of beer the place will be either really nice looking or we will have a half-installed floor and a mitre saw partially embedded in one wall. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Carlos

As for the dog hair situation, there's nothing you can do about it.

Myself, I'd rather know there's excessive pet hair so I'll clean it up versus hiding it. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Exactly the reason we want laminate instead of carpet. Carpet looks like crap two months after you put it down.

Carlos

Rapha...listen...if it's on-grade, go with real hardwood and glue it into place. I've been in the business for 22 years. And I don't have anything to sell you, except advice, which is free. PM me.

John B.

Put Pergo in my house. I like it so far. PITA on the knees, and back though. fricken 1300 sqft of that stuff in here.

PM sent. Thanks man.

The Pergo we had in our old house was awful but this other stuff seems really good as far as durability and noise reduction. We have not made a purchase yet so everything we learn from now to then will help in our decision making.

Carlos

HA! Yeah right. I'm glad you have it like that. Not in my house... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />