Laminate Flooring?

[kitkat]

We need to replace our kitchen floor. However, I'm thinking of knocking down a small wall in the kitchen to open the room up into the family room next to it. However, if we do that, then we really need to replace the flooring in the kitchen and the family room area. The front doorway doesn't line up with the hallway doorway across the room so there really isn't a good stop/start point for 2 different flooring types. Right now the kitchen is vinyl and the family room is carpet. I'm thinking of doing a laminate flooring. I think tile would be too cold in the winter (I'm in WI) and I can't see doing vinyl in the whole room. Those of you who do have laminate, I have some questions:

Is it pretty slippery for the kids? My aunt's is really slippery. My parents' is kind of slippery. My friend's isn't slippery at all.

How well does it clean up in the winter time?

How well does it clean up in the kitchen?

If you are very happy with your laminate, what brand do you have?

[dEHmom]

We just bought some of the cheaper stuff on sale. I'm not sure of the quality and such as of yet. We did it about a month ago in 2 of the 3 bedrooms. 1 more bedroom to go, then we are buying a little "better" quality stuff for the living room and hallway. We considered the kitchen as well, but to be honest, wet boots and dogs tramping through, I'd CONSTANTLY have to be wiping up water. If you let water sit on it, it ruins it. If there is a lot of moisture/humidity in the home, then the laminate will be ruined. So you really need to consider that. I have seen people with laminate in their kitchen/bathrooms, but don't know if it's holding up well or not.

BUT I normally hate any flooring thats not carpet for the fact that you feel every grain of sand, dust, etc on your feet when walking and I hate it. So far, I haven't found the laminate to be causing this issue. The laminate we picked out isn't slippery at all, it's almost like a rougher texture? i don't know how to explain it cause it' snot rough at all, but it's not like it's coated in wax?!?!

[jen]

We have hardwood upstairs and laminate in the toy room and the kids rooms. We really like it! I have armstrong downstairs, but I don't remember what the brand is in the bedrooms.

Super easy to clean! So far its holding up great, but I wouldn't suggest buying the cheapest stuff, try to go middle of the road if you can.

You can get great deals at lumberliquidators.com

(they use it all the time on Extreme Makeover Home Edition)

[Blackcat31]

We need to replace our kitchen floor. However, I'm thinking of knocking down a small wall in the kitchen to open the room up into the family room next to it. However, if we do that, then we really need to replace the flooring in the kitchen and the family room area. The front doorway doesn't line up with the hallway doorway across the room so there really isn't a good stop/start point for 2 different flooring types. Right now the kitchen is vinyl and the family room is carpet. I'm thinking of doing a laminate flooring. I think tile would be too cold in the winter (I'm in WI) and I can't see doing vinyl in the whole room. Those of you who do have laminate, I have some questions:

Is it pretty slippery for the kids? My aunt's is really slippery. My parents' is kind of slippery. My friend's isn't slippery at all.

How well does it clean up in the winter time?

How well does it clean up in the kitchen?

If you are very happy with your laminate, what brand do you have?

What kind of laminate are you talking? We have the hardwood kind and it is awful!! We bought high end stuff too so I am surprised by the lack of quality. We are saving up to replace it as soon as possible. If you mean the laminate that is squares and looks like tiles, we had used that in our old house and it was nice looking, inexpensive, easy to clean and durable...but both kinds we had/have had were very sippery. The wood kindg is terrible to clean!
We are in MN so cold floors ****, but if you do want tile, wh not consider putting warm board down underneath. It is like in-floor heat. They are coiled mats you lay down under the tile that keep the floor warm ALL the time. It is fairly inexpensive, easy to do yourself and it is awesome!! NO more cold toes and it makes it cozy to lie on the floor any time of the year!!

[missnikki]

I have laminate floors throughout my house. It's great for temperate homes, as it shrinks and expands with temperature. I got the 12mm with padding, snap together stuff (a little more expensive) and it is separating already in some places (little gaps betweek planks) that you have to tap from the end with a special tool to fix. When it's clean, it looks amazing, but since I got the darker sort of orangey cherry color with a 'handscraped' texture on it, it highlights EVERY EINGLE SPECK of dust or dirt or hair. No joke. I have to sweep/ vacuum/ dust constantly, and it only stays perfect until the dog runs by, I swear. Very embarassing for when the MIL swings by.
Basically, I recommend it for easy clean up if you get a lighter shade with a lot of 'action' in the pattern to camoflage dust, and avoid putting it in moist or damp places.

[dEHmom]

By cheaper I didn't mean cheaper quality per say. It was the last of a certain kind they aren't intending to bring more into stock because of newer kinds. So it was on sale for really cheap like .99/sq ft. so $30/case.

So far its great, even stands up to the hot wheels dragging across it!

[laundrymom]

We used a floating hardwood laminate snap type from menards. LOVE. No scratching, snagging, etc. Have had it two years in our only bathroom looks brand new. And I have dogs, heels, boots, kids, toys, and general mess making.

[countrymom]

so I'm on my 3rd floor in the kitchen. First was tile (when we bought the house and they were falling apart) so we put the floating/laminate floor. I hated it, dirt migrates to the corners, this is a common complaint among ever one, I was constantly sweeping. and food crumbs where always on the floor. so now i have ceramic. Its not as cold as you think and my floor is lighter so its easier to clean (you can't tell its dirty)

[Greenshadow]

We did laminate flooring throughout our last house. After doing it all, we really didnt like it. It was SUPER slippery!!! (The kids LOVED it for that reason but what a scare for safety). It was really hard to find a laminate floor cleaner that actually worked and didnt leave streaks. The other thing about them was that with more traffic, the floors started bending in due to the old subfloor under it. (Had we known that, we could have replaced the subfloor but thats very costly!! We had it level to the subfloor but the subfloor was old and had expanded, etc over the years.) Just so many things that effect this type of flooring. We vowed we'd never get a house with laminate flooring again.

[MG&Lsmom]

My parents have laminate in all their rooms except one. They have a dog and 3 cats, 5 adults living there. The floor is so dirty all the time and all my mom does is mop and mop and mop. She hates it. It's slippery and coming all apart everywhere. They had it professionally installed too. I wanted to pull up my living room carpet and do the same thing until theirs started falling apart. Now I'm saving to replace our whole house with cork. Very $$$ but from my research it's a 1000x better than most flooring. Soft landing but not squishy, waterproof, sound reducing and insulating. I'll probably still put a nice plush throw rug in the living room since by the time I can afford it I'll be done with daycare. ::

[VanessaEO]

We have laminate wood flooring in our living room. My husband wants to put it in our kitchen instead of our tile, but I'm worried about water getting on the floor. I guess we'll see.

We bought really cheap stuff and its doing OK. There are some dents/chips in it after 15 months. From things like a huge firetruck tonka truck being thrown. (Yeah, it was a bad day)

I also find it a lot louder than carpet.

That being said, I like it and will do it again in another house. Its easy to clean. We dry mop regularly and that seems to keep it looking pretty clean. Its a light color, which I like.

[Pammie]

Is it pretty slippery for the kids? Mine's not slippery at all! I have it in my livingroom/kitchen, which is where I have my dc kids for much of the day. The laminate does have a textured (wood-grain looking) surface which helps - some laminates are mirror-smooth, which I would imagine would be much slicker.

How well does it clean up in the winter time? Like a breeze! I have a steam mop with an absorbent head cover- everything wipes up (messy/snowy/wet footprints) and wipes clean with only the steam! Best part is that I clean the floors with just water and vinegar in the steam mop - no chemicals - ever!

How well does it clean up in the kitchen? Again, beautifully with my steam mop. All the sticky/messy food messes - as well as paint, glue, from craft projects wipes right up! I am extra cautious with spills - and clean them up right away - but we've had the floors for 5+ years now and they look as good as new!

If you are very happy with your laminate, what brand do you have?

I have Armstrong Grand Illusions - cherry. 30 year warranty. It's the click-and-lock product and we did pay extra for a sound-dampening padding underneath. I really LOVE it!

[LaLa]

I have Armstrong Grand Illusions - cherry. 30 year warranty. It's the click-and-lock product and we did pay extra for a sound-dampening padding underneath. I really LOVE it!

I used to work in flooring. The warranty generally means it will not wear down. SO you could stand in the same spot for 30 years and keep moving around and it wouldn't wear down.


I HATE HATE HATE our laminate! If I could do it over again I would choose heated tile.

Also, black cat the "squares" your referring to is Vinyl not Laminate. I prefer Vinyl over laminate any day. My Dhs grandparents have Vinyl and it looks so nice! It also cleans up nice and I couldn't tell at first that it wasn't tile.

[AnythingsPossible]

My husband works in a flooring store and we put laminate in the dining room and kitchen....we hate it!! As others have stated, it doesn't matter how many times i sweep, it is always dirty, when i mop it, it always shows streaks, even when using the special cleaner for laminate. It is not a wood style, more of a tile look, you can see the seams where it snaps together. The floor has issues in front of the dishwasher which I assume is from steam, but who knows. We do also have it in our entry way, a lot of moisture is in that area, but there haven't been any issues with buckling. We are wanting to pull up the laminate, even though it's only 3 years old and put down earthscapes, it is like vinyl but you don't need anything under it or need to glue it down for that matter. We have it in our laundry room and I love it. Earthscapes is sold by Carpet One, but other flooring manufacturers have the same type of product, just called different things. I'm probably using the wrong terminology saying it is like vinyl, but it is a sheet of flooring, not the snap together stuff. My brother and his wife have laminate in their living room and same issue with keeping it clean. Their floor is always dirty!!!

[Xylifrost]

Laminate Flooring

We currently have laminate flooring in the house we bought, but dislike the colour. Is it possible to lay new laminate flooring directly over the top of the old with the underlay between?