Thick Laminate flooring - 14mm?

Vanilla

Vanilla

Vanilla

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18 Oct 2002
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Hi all,

Redoing my entire flat and also the flooring. I'm looking at laminate flooring and i'm seriously considering some really thick 14mm flooring for the general feel and noise reduction.

Has anyone put that thickness down? or even 10mm?

Looking at these right now but i've yet to start the actual 'brand' researching

http://www.ukflooringdirect.co.uk/laminate-flooring/thickness/14mm

I know not all floors are made equal.

Notes:

- The level of the floor will be good. I'm having new floors put down (caber rather than planks).
- Noise insulation will be good - having existing floors removed, 45kg rockwool places between and new boards laid.
- Will have 5mm Sonic Gold throughout.
 
Yeah I think if you're looking at the extra expense of the super thick commercial stuff you may as well go for engineered or even solid. Saying that some modern v-groove laminates do look very good these days and have the benefit of being more hard wearing and scratch proof compared to solid/engineered.

I think 14mm would be overkill though, as long as the sub floor is level and sturdy with 12mm gap around the entire room and using a decent quality underlay the 8mm+ stuff should feel nice and solid. If you walk in somones house and their laminate floor feels bouncy, its usually because they didn't leave sufficient expansion gaps and/or used a cheapo underlay.
 
Mark A said:
Yeah I think if you're looking at the extra expense of the super thick commercial stuff you may as well go for engineered or even solid. Saying that some modern v-groove laminates do look very good these days and have the benefit of being more hard wearing and scratch proof compared to solid/engineered.

I think 14mm would be overkill though, as long as the sub floor is level and sturdy with 12mm gap around the entire room and using a decent quality underlay the 8mm+ stuff should feel nice and solid. If you walk in somones house and their laminate floor feels bouncy, its usually because they didn't leave sufficient expansion gaps and/or used a cheapo underlay.
Click to expand...

So been reading the last hour and my thoughts so far:

- I'm erring away from engineered. The difficulty to install puts me off a bit and i'd suck at maintenance. I'm lazy and clumsy.
- I've spent a load on re-insultation, reflooring and underlay so I may as well get thick laminate as i've already spent so much....but I know this is a bit of a weird statement - the same could be said for engineered - why not go the whole hog?
 
Engineered wood is harder to install and requires maintenance while being surprisingly easy to damage.

Vinyl looks nice, but it's just not the same as any kind of wood, even laminate, for a larger area. The tile/stone effect variety look much better, ideal for bathrooms and kitchens etc.

So that really leaves laminate is the clear winner. Decent stuff looks just as good but is much easier to fit and much more hard wearing with little/no maintenance required.
 
If anything tounge and grooved engineered is easier to install than click laminate, you can slide the tricky cuts in place a lot easier. I also find it is a lot more solid and doesn't really need maintenance unless you absolutely muller it.

Carpenter by trade, have laid hundreds of meters off flooring and that is just my opinion/experience
 
ash_91 said:
If anything tounge and grooved engineered is easier to install than click laminate, you can slide the tricky cuts in place a lot easier. I also find it is a lot more solid and doesn't really need maintenance unless you absolutely muller it.

Carpenter by trade, have laid hundreds of meters off flooring and that is just my opinion/experience
Click to expand...

We've laid 1000's of apartments and houses with tens of thousands of meters of flooring, mainly Havwoods or Solid Wood Flooring Company both engineered floors on either floating foam or glued down, all fantastic.

https://www.havwoods.co.uk/installation-cleaning-and-maintenance/

https://www.thesolidwoodflooringcompany.com/woodflooring-technical-library

However you won't see much change out of £50 sqm just to buy.
 
darreny said:
If you want laminate throughout I'd consider underfloor heating
Click to expand...

Fitting underfloor heating between laminate and a suspended timber floor is a recipie for disaster. Underfloor heating also relies on there being significant mass which the OP won't have unless he lays a bed of screed first.

Standard radiators will be a far more effective way of heating the space.


OP I personally wouldn't bother with thicker laminate, it'll do next to nothing for acoustics. Invest your money in the floor construction and underlay as you already are. Although personally I would be upgrading the rockwool to celotex/kingspan or similar. Better thermal properties and I can't stand rockwool.

I wouldn't assume your new floor will be level though, have you agreed a tolerance with the company laying the floor? If they are fitting to existing joists you may well have some significant level differences.
 
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