Laminate Flooring? EDITED: I guess hardwood would be better.

[lovemyfamily6]

We want to pull our carpet up soon and were going to get hardwood floors. I'm hearing so much about laminate though from friends that love it. I called around to a few places and everyone said for our ages of kids, the laminate would be our best choice.

For anyone that has laminate, are you happy with it? Does it hold up well? Is there a better brand out of Pergo, Shaw or Armstrong? What are the pro's and con's to it? Is it easy to clean?

It's kind of pricey to install and everyone says we can do it ourselves, but dh and I are pretty UN-handy people, so we'd need to have it installed.

[lovemyfamily6]

Crap, I think we should just go with hardwood. I didn't realize that laminate was so full of chemicals.

It's too bad because I think the laminate is a lot more affordable for us than the hardwood. I want to do it right though. We're in our "forever house". We only have one room because two of the other rooms have hardwood already and we need to pull the carpet up.

I just worry about scratches and warping of hardwood.

[lifeguard]

I wouldn't worry too much about warping - I've been in many older homes with wood floors that have been in place 50+ years & the only time I've seen warping is if there is severe water damage.

Yes, you will get some scratches. You can either stress about it or enjoy the character it adds to the floor. When we had really dark wood floors I found the scratches showed more but there is a product out there that looks like a crayon that comes in different wood colours. It works really well to fill in any obvious scratches & make them less obvious.

The great thing about wood is that they will last "forever" - but may need to be refinished one day. I doubt you will find laminate would last 50+ years & still be salvageable.

[TinyFrog]

Just wanted to let you know there is an eco friendly version of laminate out there, it's called Marmoleum. Prices are less for sheets and more for tiles. I believe I was told it was $2-3/sq foot for the sheets.

From their website

The most natural of materials
Life-cycle analysis shows that our linoleum products are the ecologically preferred floor covering. Linoleum is produced from renewable materials: linseed oil, rosins, wood flour, jute and ecologically responsible pigments. These materials underlie the charm that gives each design its inimitable, distinguished look.

We came very close to using is some portions of our home but decided to go with woven bamboo throughout since by the time we buy subfloor and mess with that, it likely wouldn't cost us less and would take us longer to complete with the two flooring styles vs one.

I may still go with it in a small summer cabin we use to cover up the old 50 year old linoleum but that partly depends on whether the old stuff has asbestos or not.

[lifeguard]

Marmoleum is wonderful!

But I think the OP was meaning the laminate click flooring that looks like wood (usually). In which case Marmoleum may not be of interest.

[nd_deadhead]

We put hardwood in our living room and dining room. I have never been a fan of laminate - I don't like the fake wood look, or the holow sound when you walk on it. Laminate has about the same useful life as carpet (10 - 15 years), while hardwood floors last as long as the house.

Since you plan to stay in this house a long time, I would consider hardwood floors to be a terrific investment.

[MilkTrance]

Our hardwood is 50+ years old. No warping, and we live in a very rainy/humid climate. And it's not even an expensive hardwood -- it's old growth fir (which, yes, would be expensive NOW, simply because of rarity, but fir isn't an expensive wood)

If you get a high-quality hardwood (say, oak), it should last you at least that long. There are houses out there with 100+ year hardwood.

If you were just living in a condo to resell, or whatever, I'd go with laminate.

But for a forever home? Definitely, definitely hardwood.

[LilMama23]

Since you plan to stay in the house, I'd get hardwood. We opted to go for laminate because we do plan on selling our house in the next 5-10 years.

[AuntLavender]

We just removed Bruce hardwood floor from our kitchen

It is engineered wood however and not solid so do your homework before you buy since not all wood flooring is created equal!

We put Kronotex laminate flooring (http://www.krono.com/cms/ziel/31654/EN) in the kitchen and the great room. It was $0.68/sq ft and we installed it ourselves. You'll need a circular saw to cut the flooring for installing around doors and also to cut the trim. (We bought our laminate from The Laminate Store locally which is now out of business.)

We've had our laminate for 4 years. It still looks nice but with 4 children on the spectrum and two dogs it does have wear. I don't think it's loud and we have a 14' high ceiling in the great room. You install a vapor barrior and then a silver pad which muffles the sound. I don't have anything to compare it to since the Bruce hardwood floor that was in my kitchen was glued down over sheet vinyl!! It was louder but then it was not installed properly.

My SIL has real wood floors that you sand and it's not easier to take care of either but at least you have the option of sanding the floor and theoretically your house might be worth more.

Best wishes in whatever you decide upon! We just had new carpet installed and our old carpet was SO DIRTY! We've been in our house 8 years and we didn't replace the carpet when we bought the house so who knows how old the carpet is! Oh the dirt that sifted through the carpet and throughthe pad! It was like silt or fire place ash! GROSS! LOL!

Sincerely,
Debra, homeschooling mom of 4