I’m off to buy some laminate flooring for my place tomorrow. I’ll probably make the purchase at Lowes, so my choices are Pergo, Armstrong, and Kronotex. Are there any thoughts or suggestions on what to get? I’ve heard some bad things with Pergo. The Kronotex is the cheapest.
Thanks,
Adam
I have instaled it many times. Most like it . I think it works fine. I have on fav brand. Get the color you like best.
Dirt
Check with Tibbs I think he has it installed in the Lavender Room…
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I installed Pergo in my family and dinning room last year. It was easy to install, looks great and is just about bomb proof. The kind I put in was Pergo Presto. They make several different styles and sell some of them only through certain retailers like Lowes. I was able to find a great price for it on the net and it was delivered right to my house. Saved me about a grand on 500 sqft over buying it at Home Depot. Good luck.
Good luck with the Lowes stuff. That’s all I’m gonna say about those brands…
If you want really good flooring, get Columbia Clic - http://www.columbiaflooring.com/
Basically you get what you pay for. The cheapest stuff will generally not look as nice (the pattern is not as realistic) and the durability of the material will be less. They all pretty much install the same way nowdays, but defnitely make sure it’s all snap-n-click type stuff and free-floating as opposed to glue-down. If you are in a situation with a wet subfloor, make sure you get a nice moisture barrier as the underlayment.
" It is swelling at the joints in a significant number of spots."
I had the same thing happen with my pergo (dog pee). personally, i would put hardwood down and acrylic or urethane the shit out of it (whatever is indicated for hardwood).
In a prior life I installed floors.
One really really bomb proof way to seal a slab on grade is to lay down a really inexpensive layer of linolium (vinyl). Easy as can be and a true barrier, unlike a lot of the liquid sealers on the market.
Slowman’s suggestion also has merit for preventing water from the top down. But be sure you check with the manufacturer as you can get some real interesting results otherwise. (It is a chemistry lesson you probably don’t want to be reminded of on a daily basis.)
of course there is the other solution, which i relied upon when i moved into my current house. lay ceramic tile instead.
“did you do the tiling yourself Dan? cause it’s pretty neat…”
yessir. i do it ALL myself. tiling’s pretty low-skill, tho. if you tiled half a day with me, you’d be an expert.
I also put down a hardwood floor in my place - tongue n’ groove maple, to be exact. Came with 6 (I think) coats of clear urethane on it already, so it was just a matter of renting a nailer and goin’ to town on it. Instead of a layer of linoleum underneath, we used black roofing felt. It’s dirt cheap, moisture-proof (as long as you don’t put any holes in it), and thick n’ cushy enough to suppress squeaks. One other suggestion for squeak-proofing, if you’re starting with the plywood underlayment, rather than installing over an existing surface - locate the joists and mark ‘em with a chalk line. Then, take some deck screws and use them liberally to really secure the underlayment to the joists. Lay down your roofing felt over that and re-chalk the joists. Then, get hammerin’.
Hey while we are doing home improvement jobs, I have some Wilson Art flooring in my kitchen. The wife decided she wantes to remove a cabinet in the corner. Any recommendations on how to “fill in” a section after the fact? What to do if don’t have the tounge and grove edge where they cut it to fit around cabinet?
Thanks,
Mike
I hate lam flooring for anything other than super-high traffic areas (or kids). If you absolutely HAVE to use it, then I’d suggest Pergo because of their reputation for quality. I wouldn’t touch any of the “house” brands for anything so important.
Dan, maybe I need to spend some time tiling with you because even after >1000 sq ft of marble flooring, two showers, a bath enclosure, and other misc tile work in my house, my work is still not perfect! Flaws are easy to spot when you use 1/16" grout joints…
If you’re doing a basement workshop or something and the floor is nasty old concrete that is cracked, uneven, etc, I highly recommend Race-Deck flooring. It’s not cheap, but it works out to less than most laminates and other floors that I researched. Plus, it looks totally awesome.
No sealing cracks, no removing old adhesives from ill-thought out wall-to-wall carpeting.
This also solves the problem I have with efflourescence. With the linoleum tiles that were there, mineral salts were pushed up between the cracks in the tiles. With the Race-Deck flooring, this isn’t a problem, because there is room under them for some airflow.
BTW, Dan, good article on workshops. I just finished building mine as a home/bike shop, and it came out great. Still outfitting it, but I hope to put a Park stand in the middle of that floor before long.
More pics:
http://jupitershunter.com/images/basement07.jpg
http://jupitershunter.com/images/basement08.jpg
I’ll have to get some shots of the bench I built. All 2x6 construction. Total cost ~$70. Very badass.
“Flaws are easy to spot when you use 1/16” grout joints…"
One word my man — Chalkline. Learn it, Live it, Love it.
For the smaller stuff, think about selecting tile mounted on a mesh backing. Use spacers liberally.
“lay ceramic tile instead.”
Also a good choice.
Happiness in tile is a wet-saw.
On another note, have you ever published your demographic analysis of this board? Seems to be a fierce interest in a pricey topic to go with the bike porn and a few other indicators. Home Depot would probably buy lots of space;-)
Flaws are easy to spot when you use 1/16" grout joints…
well, this is the sort of grout joint size for a shower or a counter top. for floors, more like 3/16" or 1/4", and for saltillo tiles probably 3/4", or even 1". start in the middle of the room. make perpendicular chalk lines, have at it.
At Lowes I saw the other day that they have ceramic tile that is mounted to a wood backer board and snaps into place…then you have whip cream stule cans of grout…kinda neat…no mess…$3000.00 to do my kitchen though, and that is with me doing the labor…screw that.
“$3000.00 to do my kitchen though, and that is with me doing the labor…screw that.”
i did an 1800’ house, entirely, and it cost less than that. if you find the places in your area that do tile cheap (like along state college blvd in anaheim, if you live in the L.A. Basin), and you aren’t overly picky, you should be able to buy tile for under a buck a foot no problem. thinset, $8 a bag, probably 1 bag for 150 or 200 feet. shoot. some spacers. the hand tools. grout sealer.v tile is cheap. the only expensive thing is a nice tile saw, probably $300 or $400 anyway, something like that. but then you have it.
I priced normal tile and install and it was up there as well…union made house, the floors are to thin for tile and they would need to add more wood…but me being an idiot would prefer they tear out the current floor (Fiber board) and replace it with 1" plywood as a base…less creaks. Then my other issue is that all of my walls in the kitchen are marble - floor to ceiling, hard to match that with ceramic…and best I can find for marble floor tiles is about $5.00 a square foot.