Laminate - Bad rep or actually bad?

[unseen]

Well it's near xmas once again and the last minute DIY jobs are here once again..

SWMBO has complained over the last couple of weeks about how cold the living room floor is. Now it's carpeted but it was a cheap carpet due to the work going on in the room at the time. So now she'd like to replace it but we're now both stuck with what to do with it.

After looking at the "real wood" floors from the likes of homebase I'd love something like the dark bamboo but budget wise at £25 sqm I just couldn't do it (not and replace the kitchen which is on the jobs list too!).. So I started looking at the cheaper end around £7/8 a sqm nice colours SWMBO likes some of them so onto a winner perhaps. But reading here I see comments along the lines of it'll be cold which is the main reason to do this..

So is the cheap stuff that bad? I'm not expecting it to out last me but a few years at least... Anyone know how it'd cope with 3 kids, 2 cats and a dog?? The main thing swaying me away from carpet is being keeping it clean..

The rooms 20sqm, no skirting (purposely left off while we decided on a floor covering) and I overboarded it with hardboard to help take out some unevenness in the original floor.

Thanks
Rob

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Thermal Socks and slippers, me thinks
I can't see there being much difference in room tempreture one way or the other, but carpet is always going to feel warmer to the touch then laminate is.

 

[crazydaze]

Cheap laminate will wear badly under heavy use, good laminate will wear very well. Use insulating underlays like fibre board or TimbermateXL and they will feel much better underfoot and to the touch, but they certainly won't be homely and fluffy like carpet, but they will be very practical, use rugs for a more homely feel.

Personally I would stear well clear of cheap laminate, remember, you get exactly what you pay for when buying floorcoverings, ignore the discounts and look at the product you are actualy buying at the price you are paying, laminates will not really be colder than real wood, they will likely be harder wearing and less prone to denting and marking than real wood though, and the really nice stuff like Pergo and Quickstep have a better look than cheap brands, they will also have a proper range of finishing profiles and accessories.

 

[crazydaze]

Cheap laminate will wear badly under heavy use, good laminate will wear very well. Use insulating underlays like fibre board or TimbermateXL and they will feel much better underfoot and to the touch, but they certainly won't be homely and fluffy like carpet, but they will be very practical, use rugs for a more homely feel.

Personally I would stear well clear of cheap laminate, remember, you get exactly what you pay for when buying floorcoverings, ignore the discounts and look at the product you are actualy buying at the price you are paying, laminates will not really be colder than real wood, they will likely be harder wearing and less prone to denting and marking than real wood though, and the really nice stuff like Pergo and Quickstep have a better look than cheap brands, they will also have a proper range of finishing profiles and accessories.

 

[unseen]

Thanks for the replys..

Prentice: I mentioned your reply... The answer is not broadcastable lol..

Crazy: Thanks for that reply.. We've read the good things about both Pergo and Quickstep so we'll be looking into them tomorrow.

Out of interest... Does anyone know who does the Homebase laminate?? I only mentioned them at the moment as apart from a local B&Q and Topps we've not been able to look elsewhere yet.. We saw quickstep at Topps and to my untrained eyes the higher end laminate at HB looked very similar.

Again thanks for the advice so far!

Rob

 

[crazydaze]

The difference in the quality of the boards will not be immedietly obvious to the untrained eye.

Visually, the better laminates will be a much better quality of picture, for example most good laminates will be a 4 dye picture, Pergo is a 6 dye. The part you actually walk on are clear wear layers applied over the top of the picture. The quality of the clear wear layers will dictate how well the floor wears and keeps it's appearence, it will dictate how hardwearing the floor is and it's resitance to marking, scratching, staining etc.

The good laminates have very good quality clear layers, often built up in 2, 3 or 4 layers to give excellent protection, the cheap laminates often have a rudimentary coating that suffers from poor abrasion resistance and wears, dents and scratches very easily.

The actual construction of the board makes the difference between a stable, great looking floor and a floor more likely to bend and warp. The engineering of the joints is vital for closeness of fit and strength, the 'balance' of the floor to stop unequal expansion is vital, there will also be layers built in to resist denting of the floor and these will be below the picture, but above the HDF core.

As you can appreciate, you may not be able to see all these specs, but they ARE there in the better boards and will all add up to the quality of the installation and look of the floor.

Perrgo is the original laminate floor, all other laminates are a copy of the original Pergo product in general, Pergo has the highest wear rate and guarantee at it's various price levels on the market, that said, Quickstep is a trustworthy product. Neither of these companies make laminate floor for anyone else

Like I said earlier, you get exactly what you pay for with flooring, a cheap laminate is a cheap laminate and should'nt be confused with a branded quality product that is likley twice the price or more, they will not be of the same quality.