DUNBAR

Some applications call for laminate before wood. The office which I work out of, the floor is a laminate floor. I've worn the fake wood finish off completely where the chair constantly moves around. To repair, or cosmetically make this look better, I would consider peel and stick tiles in the area affected, knowing this will be a short term repair but look better till the wheels grind into the finish again.

If this was a real wood floor, I would be thwarted with the damage and how much effort it would cost to replace those sections of boards, refinishing the entire floor, not a small area.

Water does absorb into wood, especially on the sides of wood/slats.


I live in an area that snow/rain is common, and the retention of this water would instantly destroy a good wood floor in a high traffic area.


Nice wood floors have their place, but high traffic areas...preferably not.


Northern Kentucky Plumbers

granite-girl

I have laminate "wood" flooring & I don't think I'd do it again. We had a 50-60 yr old house with old VCT tiles on top of concrete. When my son started crawling we wanted new flooring, we couldn't afford much at the time & didn't want to rip up the tiles- afraid of asbestos... I think Menards was having a great sale on it also...
Of course weeks after it was finished- partially finished- Our drain pipe fell off the drain in the kitchen for some reason & we didn't catch it in time. Now we have warped boards & huge cracks. Never have fixed it. It looks better than that old VCT tile, but if I ever build new- it's the real thing for me.
By the way- it's not as easy to install as they say. My husband is no handy man at all, we couldn't do it. Had to hire some guy in to finish it for us. He told us he'd put down the quarter round after it was done. And then at the end he said that part wasn't his job & he wasn't going to do it. Now 5 years later- it's still not done. Who's responsibility is that ? He was a flooring installer- shouldn't they do that. I shouldn't have to hire a carpenter to come in & glue down "plastic" quarter round should I ? My husband's never got around to it. Wouldn't know how to cut a miter anyway....

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oldognewtrick

Granite Girl, I know it's to late now but, next time get a defined scope of work, in writing and don't pay till the terms are met. Saves a lot of "gray" areas.

I think if you went to the hardware store, picked up a cheap miter box and saw you could finish that quarter round and show your husband that it can be done. We'll walk you through it if you do.

4x4v8

I had laminate in a rental home. It was there before I bought it. Terrible mistake. I will never use laminate again. It have seen too many terrible installations (because home owners figure they can do it themselves), huge gaps, water damage and so on. Sure it is cheaper, but definitely not better.

Grofica

I agree with most of the posters... i chose laminate it suited my needs.

However i do know lots of people who have laminate flooring for a lot longer then 5 years... it depends on the quality... my mother in law has 10mm laminate, i opted for the 12mm laminate with a really good underlay.... my MIL floor is 7 years and going and still looks like brand new....

Mine is still under construction ha ha ha ha ha ha

SJNServices

I personally don't care for most of the laminate products. The "engineered hardwood" floors are much more realistic (particularly the distressed flooring), has a better feel underfoot since it's typically a glue-down instead of a floating floor. Engineered hardwood floors also hold up better to moisture or spills. A natural hardwood (not engineered) are great for doing patterns or designs in a hardwood floor as long as you always use a biscuit jointer so you have some kind of mechanical connection like a T&G and a full glue-down. That said, wood floors are my favorite.

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Rustedbird

The one nice thing about laminate floors is that they are real easy to tear out. Yellow pine (Longleaf only) is really beautiful in the sunlight if finished clear. It's just too soft though, so I lean toward Red Oak me-self.

AngieR

i lucked out about a month ago and found 1500 square feet of solid oak flooring on Craigslist that someone had removed from their home and was selling for $150.00! even the nails were removed because they were planning to reinstall it in their basement but changed their mind. i've had laminate installed in a basement bedroom, but wouldn't have it upstairs at all. i think as far as durability you can't beat hardwood. i'm looking at my reclaimed floor and once it's buffed stained and varnished it's going to look amazing, and the planks are 15 yrs. old. it's certainly worth the work we put into cleaning and stalling the wood ourselves.

cal

It depends what characteristics you want in the floor. I tried Johnsonite flooring and had a bad expereince. Select carefully !

woodflooringguy

Well, there's a lot of laminate options that actually are more durable than hardwood flooring and do better job repelling water. If you use a rubber walk pad for sound and water emission sealer any good laminate floor will outlast most traditional wood floors hands down.

Water is usually the killer of both floors but most newer laminates on the market take advantage of sealing both sides of the floor keeping moisture out. Most manufacturers have been building up the aluminum oxide finish with a layer of microbial surface just like a countertop basically keeping everything that used to destroy laminate flooring off the surface.

Anyway just my 2 cents but I've installed alot of wood floors and laminate floors and I tend not to get call backs on the laminate jobs I've done.

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