Topic: Laminate / wood flooriing... (Read 9451 times)

Martin (Admin) · « **on:** August 05, 2008, 01:35:40 pm »

After the 'Mrs' saw my work on the Bismarck and in particular, the planking, she said;
'That's good enough for you to take up the carpet and lay a wood floor in the living room!'

Never done this type of thing before, any tips, hints, guidance please...... :(

gribeauval · « **Reply #1 on:** August 05, 2008, 01:38:30 pm »

Best tip of all Martin.......................GET SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT!!

Martin (Admin) · « **Reply #2 on:** August 05, 2008, 01:42:10 pm »

Sage words.....

John W E · « **Reply #3 on:** August 05, 2008, 01:54:09 pm »

hi ya there Martin

What you basically have to do is find out whether the Mrs really does want laminate flooring - sometimes the waiting game really works :) and she may change her mind

A couple who live down our street, have the dining room, lounge & kitchen floored throughout with laminate. We were invited to have a look - cos we were considering putting laminate down too - we took our shoes off to acknowledge their prize flooring - because some of it is prone to getting black marks
:-\ on it.

When we came back home, after the courteous oh it looks nice, my Mrs said to me she felt that it was cold to walk on. Phew I got out of putting it down in our house - apart from the conservatory where it does the job. :)

When I next spoke to the neighbour, he was saying his floors were insulated well underneath all the laminate - he felt is was not only cold but also disappointing and noisy to walk on - its clip clop like horses hooves.....

So keep Sage thoughts as well as sage words!

aye
john e

bluebird

dreadnought72 · « **Reply #4 on:** August 05, 2008, 02:01:03 pm »

Practical, though, when you have five cats, a dog and three kids.

My own experience of laminate laying: I had a small kitchen in a flat a few years ago. The instructions said "leave 20mm around the outside for expansion". So I did. But there's no way a four foot wide laminate floor would ever expand that far. The stuff seems extremely "stable". IF you go for it, best advice would be to rip off your skirting and lay it under that, with a smaller gap hidden by the skirting board once it's back on. And prepare to re-hang/lift/plane off the bottoms of all your doors.

Oh, and buy decent stuff. The cheapest laminate is godawful to lay - the "lock" part of it seemed to be made out of cardboard. My first floor luckily floated away when my washing machine leaked, so, in kitchen floor #2, I bought and laid better quality stuff, which was the bees' knees.

Andy

Colin Bishop · « **Reply #5 on:** August 05, 2008, 02:13:15 pm »

Just remind her how long it took you Martin..... And it's still not finished.

grasshopper · « **Reply #6 on:** August 05, 2008, 02:30:19 pm »

Laminate / wood floors are great for the tropics / med area.

Got to agree with the cold / noisy brigade - and seems to create dust and mucky marks where you go into a carpeted room from wooden hall.

Colin Bishop · « **Reply #7 on:** August 05, 2008, 02:46:16 pm »

There is also the consideration that if you kick the dog/cat there will be no discernible reduction in velocity by the time the animal makes contact with the wall - more mucky marks. ::)

DickyD · « **Reply #8 on:** August 05, 2008, 03:14:15 pm »

Speaking as someone who used to lay it for a living I would say if you really, really want it get someone who knows what he's doing to do it.
Personally I would not give it house room.
Its cold, noisy and incredibly slippery.
My next door neighbour has it and he has just had to fork out for mats so that his dogs can at least stay upright where the mats are.
Any way its only a fad, in a short while everyone will discover how good fitted carpets are.

Big Ada · « **Reply #9 on:** August 05, 2008, 04:54:16 pm »

Hi Martin,
Why no scale up deck planking,paint the floor brown and use a fat black felt tip pen!. Ho Ho.

Len.

polaris · « **Reply #10 on:** August 05, 2008, 07:12:39 pm »

Dear Martin,

Dicky is absolutely right, and I think you have had other good replies in connection with this matter.

Model ships/vessels is one thing, domestic installation is quite another matter. For a ground floor installation, to do the job properly it needs a good concrete base (with Regs. insulation underneath), 2"x 2" treated timber - brass screwed down, proper up-to-date flooring Regs. Spec. insulation between these joists, decent flooring timber(preferably oak), and then this sanded off and thoroughly treated. Whichever way you look at it, and without even asking floor area. the cost will be a min. £2k. to do the job properly. A planked floor need not be cold.

So get all the prices together (making sure it's about £3k +), suggest you are not quite sure you can do it and it is probably best to get contractors in (another £2k), and I am sure this will get you out of the fix you are in!

Regards, Bernard

Martin (Admin) · « **Reply #11 on:** August 05, 2008, 08:12:07 pm »

......... 'Mrs' Martin here.... he's just passed out!

andygh · « **Reply #12 on:** August 05, 2008, 08:28:51 pm »

Fitted it myself 7 years ago in hall & living room on top of concrete floors, still looks as good as new.
Noisy? no one wears shoes indoors at our house so no it isn't.
Cold? nope, no one's ever complained about it.
Slippery? s'pose it depends what type you have, none of us have had a problem, the dog sometimes hits the front door at a good speed when the doorbell goes but she should have learned by now ::)

Personally I've been very happy with it and I was very pleased to get rid of the carpets & all the nasty things living in them but each to their own I guess

PS, definitely agree about removing the skirting first, looks much better

tonyH · « **Reply #13 on:** August 05, 2008, 09:10:28 pm »

Martin,

Laying the stuff is the easy bit! Getting it right is a totally different animal.

1. Wood/laminates and water DO NOT MIX. Mrs M mops the floor a bit too often and - bingo - it will warp or swell at the edges. This assumes, of course, that it hasn't already done so because the Rh (wetness) of the sub-floor is over the recommended level. Some of them have an edge coating of wax to 'help'. Others, even the 'clic' ones need to be glued on the joins in kitchens - again to help prevent seepage.
2. Sub-floor needs to be good and smooth. None of the 7mm underlay to cover up the deficiencies. 3mm is normally what you get and if the floor is out by more than that you get nice bouncy bits where the laminate doesn't touch what's underneath. Out comes the screed.
3. Both Andys were right - take the skirtings off and do a proper job. Make it look as it should do and not just a temporary arrangement with bits of brown scotia along the straight bits and loads of mid-brown filler in the bendy bits.
4. If you've got a concrete floor underneath - think of the direction where the boards would run if you had a Victorian pile.

I'm sorry if the above gives the hint that I dislike laminate but after nearly 40 years in the trade I'm afraid I do. There has been more argument about the supposed hygene merits of laminate than anything else since the inception of 'FREE' fitting. Part of the 'health education' budget for laminates allegedly coming from a Scandinavian timber source.

That said, the builders still love it. It's difficult to wear out and PROVIDED YOU SPEND THE TIME AND MONEY AND GET IT RIGHT it can look good.

Just don't get it wet!

Tony

tobyker · « **Reply #14 on:** August 05, 2008, 10:05:31 pm »

When Mrs Tobyker got her new kitchen we had a solid bamboo floor laid (Bambooflooringcompany.com) They sent us a couple of samples - one laminated from solid bamboo and one made from smashed up twisted and reconstituted bamboo - the hardest option. We borrowed Jack the dog's paw and he could scratch the laminated stuff, so we went for the hard stuff. When I asked the co about laying it and edge-nailing it to the floor undeneath he said we'd only bend the nails trying to do that - he advised using a hi-tech glue to fix it. Apparently it stays flexible to accommodate movement in the boards underneath. Materials 22sq m plus glue (£75) etc £656. I got a man in to do it because we were tight on time and though I could have done it the experts who do that sort of thing every day are 3 times faster! The hard bamboo is very hard on saws - the expert cut two planks by hand then went off to get his circular saw! It's been down 6 months now, we're very happy with it and the dogs switch on the traction control before going in the kitchen! Incidentally I left an offcut in a bucket of water for a week - no discernible penetration. I can post a photo if you like but will have to wait until SWMBO is out of the way!

sheerline · « **Reply #15 on:** August 05, 2008, 10:58:19 pm »

Hi Tony H, you're the right bloke in the right place at the right time! Right now, we're about to convert an upstairs room into a bathroom. We are going to take up the floor and fit this green waterproof interlocking chipboard stuff which will be the base. Now SWMBO wants to put this ruddy laminate flooring down on top of it and she has a fixation on it and I can't sway her... even though I have passed on your views regarding it! She states that an interlocking laminate product called 'Aqualock' is designed for bathrooms and therefore must be ok. We discovered it in B&Q, so, what do you think and have you come across this product?
I would love any excuse to get out of the job but be honest, is it REALLY waterproof?
Yours in anticipation...........Chris

DickyD · « **Reply #16 on:** August 06, 2008, 08:22:10 am »

Another thing that you should bear in mind when laying laminate flooring is the fact that apart from concrete floors, all your pipes and house electrics are under the floors.
Should you ever need to get to any of these you have to first destroy your very expensive laminate flooring and then repair it afterwards (more expense).

sheerline · « **Reply #17 on:** August 06, 2008, 09:02:59 am »

Dicky, I threw that one at her but she's a determined woman... and you know what that means!

John W E · « **Reply #18 on:** August 06, 2008, 09:22:50 am »

Hi all

Here is food for thought; I used to work for the Company (Formica) and they produce the overlay laminate /grain effect that you see on the laminate flooring - about 8-9 years ago (approx maybe longer) - when it was first being developed; there were serious problems with it won't go into too much detail.

The actual contact face/wearing face of it is only approx 0.002'' in thickness; which, once it breaks down deteriorates rapidly - thus allowing dampness into the print face and the print face is only printed paper. This is why on edges of the plank (sometimes) you will see it buckling as it becomes damp. Although the manufacturers give you what they call a 'lifetime guarantee' its true lifetime span is somewhere in the region of between 10-15 years before it actually begins to break down.

To be honest with you; if you want proper wood flooring it may pay you to go for the real 'I AM' stuff - 3 times as expensive but it lasts a real lifetime.

Here is the real nasty bit; we could purchase a full box for One pound UK sterling from the Company and it cost 30 pence to manufacture - I am not sure what it would cost now. Of course that offer was only to employees - typical.

aye
john e
bluebird

Proteus · « **Reply #19 on:** August 06, 2008, 09:31:51 am »

Wood Floors is the new Artex in five years everyone will be trying to get rid of it and find there skirting's have been butchered etc so it becomes a Major job to get shut of it.

Proteus

DickyD · « **Reply #20 on:** August 06, 2008, 09:33:53 am »

I agree with John that real wood is far superior to laminate, also you will notice that B&Q only guarantee it for twelve years.

I agree with Proteus also, its only a fad.

Colin Bishop · « **Reply #21 on:** August 06, 2008, 09:45:02 am »

I used it as a replacement floor covering in my conservatory where it actually looks quite nice but I don't think I'd give it house room. As others have said, you simply cannot beat real wood for appearance and wear. I'm reminded of those textured wall panels you could buy back in the 70's, I thought they were the bee's knees back then.....

Colin

Proteus · « **Reply #22 on:** August 06, 2008, 10:13:30 am »

I got this sample when I was looking not long ago, not the cheapest but it looks good and will stay stable and can be repaired.

Proteus

FullLeatherJacket · « **Reply #23 on:** August 06, 2008, 10:19:08 am »

As part of a major house upgrade we had a flat roof converted into a gable roof a while back, and we've equipped the resulting mezzanine out as ACTion HQ. Liz decided that she wanted a solid oak floor so that's what we got (of course). I think it cost something over thirteen hundred quid just for the materials. It's about 10mm thick and looks fabulous. The contractors did fit it with an allowance all round for it to expand under the skirting but, for a few terrifying weeks until it overcame the friction from the sub-floor, it had a bulge in the middle of about two inches! Happily it settled down and the contractors avoided a painful and lingering death by VAT inspection............

As for that laminated stuff, I haven't seen any I felt I'd be comfortable with, and I'm always suspicious of something that seems to be sold by every Del-Boy outfit in town, often undercutting each other to silly levels. Too much like replacement windows, soffits and fascias?

Suit yourself; we still prefer carpets in main rooms.

FLJ

sheerline · « **Reply #24 on:** August 06, 2008, 11:27:31 am »

SWMBO now looking a solid bamboo and going by Tobyker's post it would seem like the best option. I may be winning the argument against laminate and your posts have helped immensely. This thread has appeared at exactly the right time for me...thanks chaps!
Chris

News:

Author Topic: Laminate / wood flooriing... (Read 9451 times)

Big Ada

andygh

Proteus

Proteus

FullLeatherJacket