Laminate floors....

[Jobe]

great if you don't mind a 1 inch drop from room to room or you can afford 30K to do your whole house

real oak floor can cost a fair bit but looks far superior.
i've laid a few laminate floors in the past and will be doing all my downstairs(bar the kitchen) in real oak. the cost is £50 square metre which is oak prime pre sealed.
on a side note to any budding d i y ers out there, always seal a concrete floor for damp, even if the house is over 2 years old

jobe

 

[int]

Enjoy your cold and echo filled house

 

[jaybee]

See personally the laminate we bought (which is cheap to medium range) I think looks nicer than the stuff in the pics above, just because its a nice natural look one with a good pattern. We layed ours about 4 years ago in the lounge with good underlay:

Pros for me:

- Doesn't stain like carpet would with people eating in there and spilling drinks
- Looks good, we have a rug with ours - although becoming overly done these days
- Was cheaper than even an ok carpet

Cons:

- Cold to walk on
- Room is colder generally than with carpet
- Stereo sounded a bit nicer with carpet (wood is more echoey)
- On the first week she dropped the iron on the floor and it chipped
- A few months ago my speaker was knocked over on to the floor and it chipped
- It's actually more time consuimg to clean than carpet (assuming carpet is not stained) because the hoover doesn't pick up everything so you have to sweep all the bits up and then mop/clean it properly leavin it wet and slippery
- Took a whole weekend to lay


For me it's a "been there done it" thing and was designer for a while and now just looks cheap really and carpet is in all honesty much much nicer for so many reasons including playing/laying on the floor with kids.

 

[Bri]

like i've said previously laminate doesn't exist for kitchens or bathrooms. I challenge anyone to find laminate flooring suitable for bathrooms.

I have some Aqua Lock laminate in the bathroom. It's been down for 2½ years and looks as good as the day it was laid. We have a bath Mat/Rug thing so it's not too slippy.

We had laminate downstairs when we moved in which we replaced with a carpet. So much nicer for a living room.

 

[Nodiggidy123]

the last place i lived at had laminate flooring in the living room. the only problem was that i had to put my trainers on to play wii sports as it was just so hard it hurt my feet!