Saturday, February 18, 2012

Laminate Flooring

I've had a couple requests for information about our floors so here it goes. I'll start out by saying that I adore hard wood flooring. I would have it throughout my whole house if I could. I love the look, and while it's not as cozy to the feet as carpet, it's much easier to clean. I'm certainly grateful it's not carpet every time my four-year-old and two-year-old spill juice, popsicles, etc on the floor.

Initially I was a bit of a wood snob and wasn't interested in anything but solid, high-end wood floors. I wanted the real deal. I was used to seeing earlier versions of laminate that looked cheap and fake, and I wasn't a fan. However, I have a sister living in Washington who got new floors prior to us, and they ended up choosing laminate flooring. She loves her floors and convinced me to at least check out laminate. I'm glad I did.

We debated a lot on what to get, but ultimately decided on laminate floors because of their durability, ease of installation, and most of all price. We looked multiple times at several stores including Lumber Liquidators. Hands down, they had the best quality/options for the price. We bought our flooring on sale for $1.99/sq ft. I was initially very skeptical about the floors, but I love how they turned out. Can I tell it isn't wood? Yes, but you have to look close. If price weren't a consideration, I probably would have chosen wood but for our starter home the laminate is perfect.

Here is the exact flooring that we installed.


















12mm Imperial Teak Handscraped Laminate


The hubby and I installed it ourselves. It was pretty straight forward and relatively easy. It took longer that we were hoping, but we also have two youngsters that we had to tend to while trying to work. It's a floating floor so the boards don't get glued or nailed down. The boards click/snap together and they come with their own pad attached to the back so there's no need to purchase separate padding. 

The photo below shows how the boards fit together with the padding attached to the bottom.
 

We only used a few tools, but we did end up buying a jig saw to help cut out areas around the kitchen island and openings for the heating vents. We already had a miter saw which was very useful for making cross cuts.

These pictures show the transition pieces that we used in the bathroom/bedroom doorways, around the base of the banister, and on the end/nose of the top step. 








Before




After
 

31 comments:

  1. Simply AMAZING job! Looks like pros did the work!!! Congrats to you! Thanks for sharing the before & after pics! It looks beautiful!

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  2. The floor looks amazing!!!

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  3. Hi! My husband and I are about to install the same floors y'all have! Just wondering what you use to clean them. How are they holding up? ETC? Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Hollie,
      Sorry it's taken me so long to respond, I somehow missed your comment when you posted it. Anyway, yes we still love our floors, and we're still happy with our choice. They're holding up great. There are a couple dents/chips where a forks or keys fell off our counter, but I was able to cover it up with black permanent marker. You can't see them unless you get very close to the floor. I'm sure if we had real hardwood we'd have a lot more dents with my two kiddos...and I'll be honest I'm kind of a klutz myself. :) As for cleaning the floors, I just sweep with my broom or Swiffer sweeper and mop with the Swiffer jet. I haven't had any issues with spots or streaking.

      Delete
  4. My wife and I are about to install the same flooring. I was wondering if you installed it on your stairs also. If not what type of wood and stain color did you use because it seems to match very well. thanks for the help

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  5. Good job on choosing laminate floors for your home. You'll never go wrong with its durability, ease of installation, and cost. Enjoy!

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  6. hey, thanks for providing information on laminate flooring it was realy helpful for me to understand about it. have instaled laminate flooring which is of very good quality at affordable price. I have installed Laminate flooring Inovar Floor

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  10. Notion have transformed into an outstanding differentiating choice to Laminate Flooring as they are less expensive, snappier to introduce, less demanding to keep up, utilize less of the regular timber asset, yet still give the look of a honest to goodness timber floor. On the off chance that a board gets harmed, it’s a genuinely simple undertaking to supplant it with another one.

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