Laminate flooring advice please

broona

broona

broona

Soldato
Joined
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Location
Hexham
We had a full damp proof course put in last year, it was a carpet up job, so we're now eventually looking to put some flooring down again.

The Mrs wants laminate, but neither of us are clued up about it, so we'd love some advice please.

Any recommendations on suppliers, thicknesses, underlay, etc please? We've been recommended 6mm sonic gold underlay so far, but open to options on everything, hopefully without breaking the bank! ;)
 
Have a quick search on here, I made a post about 6 months ago with a similar question and got some great advice.

Engineered v Laminate floor

I've got two small rooms to floor, a study and a play room totalling about 20sqm, I was adamant that I would be fitting engineered oak until the wife saw the cost approximately £800 for both rooms. And is now pushing for laminate at easily half the cost, my experiences with laminate albeit cheap...
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk
Found it, we went with Quickstep Largo in the end with a decent acoustic underlay.
 
JRJ said:
Have a quick search on here, I made a post about 6 months ago with a similar question and got some great advice.

Engineered v Laminate floor

I've got two small rooms to floor, a study and a play room totalling about 20sqm, I was adamant that I would be fitting engineered oak until the wife saw the cost approximately £800 for both rooms. And is now pushing for laminate at easily half the cost, my experiences with laminate albeit cheap...
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk
Found it, we went with Quickstep Largo in the end with a decent acoustic underlay.
Click to expand...
Thank you, I'll have a read through.
 
Got gluedown karndean in both bathrooms which has been great so far, and just today laid some click lock polyfloor lvt had to have something quite thin as only about 8mm to the lip of the new bi folds, so 6.5mm thick and just laid it straight on top of old laminate that was already in there. Went in easy enough and the wife is happy. Was £30 sqm so about midrange but really happy with the quality relative the karndean which seems to sit at the top of the market.

I've laid all 3 and obviously the click lock stuff is a million times easier in terms of prep and ease of laying, more expensive but with the time saved it's probably worth it.
 
SoliD said:
Got gluedown karndean in both bathrooms which has been great so far, and just today laid some click lock polyfloor lvt had to have something quite thin as only about 8mm to the lip of the new bi folds, so 6.5mm thick and just laid it straight on top of old laminate that was already in there. Went in easy enough and the wife is happy. Was £30 sqm so about midrange but really happy with the quality relative the karndean which seems to sit at the top of the market.

I've laid all 3 and obviously the click lock stuff is a million times easier in terms of prep and ease of laying, more expensive but with the time saved it's probably worth it.
Click to expand...

We're laying directly onto a concrete floor, so I think click would be our best option, sure we'd need some kind of moisture barrier and insulation under it.
 
Does lvt "feel" better than laminate. I'm going yo br doing my dining room in a few weeks or so and I'm on the fence between laminate and svt. I made a mistake previously of using some thin underlay that felt a bit like polystyrene and was very poor.
 
It depends entirely on the product. Bad laminate and LVT feel equally as trash, likewise you can get good laminate and good LVT.

They 'feel' different, the finishes are different at the end of the day. You really just need to get samples and compare.
 
We got laminate in our kitchen. We thought about LVT, and could afford it but they asked how long we planned to have it. We said we’d likely move in 5 years and they said don’t bother with LVT, as both it and laminate will look the same in that timeframe.
Laminate has come along way imo.
 
One thing to consider when it comes to LVT, if you have click and a plank becomes damaged you cannot just remove the damaged plank, with glue down you can. This is what a flooring installer advised me.
I’ve had both laminate and LVT in my previous property, my new home is having LVT installed from the front door right through to the rear. I’d never have laminate again.
 
On a simple train if thought, between laminate/lvt/engineered wood, what's the best underlay as there seems to be many different types and it's quite overwhelming.
 
Not all underlay types are suitable for all types of hard flooring. Work out that flooring you want and follow the instructions on the box is about as good advice as you can follow. Most places will sell suitable underlay alongside the relevant flooring product, you don't need to overthink it nor do you need to spend a load of money for extra 'special underlay' for hard floors (IMO).

I've got some LVT with the underlay built in and some LVT with separate underlay and to be honest, I cant tell the difference, both seems to do a decent job of damping down any noise.
 
We have engineered in the kitchen and laminate in the lounge/hall. Just go with whichever you prefer, I find the laminate to be much more forgiving. I couldn’t care less about the feel and honestly can barely tell the difference. Underfloor heating under all.
 
We've ended up going for Egger Aqua+ 8mm laminate with 6mm sonic gold underlay, and it's getting fitted over the next couple of days, hopefully it's decent, and many thanks for all the replies.
 
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