Laminate flooring pro's & con's

[mojoputter]

My wife wants to get rid of our carpet and replace it with laminate flooring. We have 2 dogs and she thinks with the laminate flooring we could keep things a little cleaner. But she is afraid the our 2 little dogs would scratch the laminate floor when there running around playing. My questions is does anyone have laminate with dogs or with young kids and how easy does the flooring scratch and if its scratch is there a way to repair it..?

Whats good whats bad about laminate flooring..?

[GotOne]

Pretty scratch resistant-more so than solid or engineered. Pick up water/spills as soon as possible, could get edge swelling. Some dogs don't like the flooring because they can be slippery. Individual planks can be replaced fairly easily if you are handy or a professional can do it for a around 100.00 per plank (this price was a few years ago when I checked for someone). Have you thought about ceramic tile?

[Stratosman]

Laminate is an OKAY choice for flooring, pro's are: It's easy to clean, a good quality shouldn't scratch from dogs, it's affordable. Con's are: It looks like it is, laminate, like stated earlier, it doesn't like water at all, and also can be very slippery.

Not sure if you're doing yourself or not, if so you can do it relatively cheap. Hiring out the typical rate is about 2-2.50 a square foot.

Tile is the absolute best for wear and tear and longevity, especially with dogs, if done correclty and sealing the grout (or and epoxy grout) it should last darn near a lifetime. Only con is that it is alot more expensive to install, about

4-5 bucks on concrete and about 6-7 over subfloor (because of cement board that is needed.) So weight the options and how long you are going to live there and of course budget, but I tell you what, I install tile, hardwood and laminate for a living, and for your situation, I would pick tile 10 out of 10 times.

NOw if you are talking about a living or family room, that's a little different, then maybe lean towards laminate. As far as repairing, anyone that's a little good with thier hands and not afraid to dig in can repair it themselves pretty easy. THe piece can be cut out and a new one modified a bit and glued in, or it can be taken apart from the closest wall and re-installed.

[walleyeseeker]

I have laminate flooring in my dining/kitchen and also have two labs inside. My floor is full of scratches. It is 9 or 10 years old, but there were scratches visible fairly soon. I've installed a couple of Bella hardwood floors in houses with pets and the finish holds up much better. I'm switching when I catch up this winter.

[mojoputter]

Stratosman,

the plan was to do it myself and it would be the kitchen and livingroom. Most of the laminate we have been looking at uses locking edges and they kind of snap together. You mentioned replacing pieces if they get damaged but if you have a piece in the middle that gets damdged how do you replace that..?

[GotOne]

Look up what ever manufacturer of flooring you are looking at, it will show detailed instructions on how to replace a plank-pretty easy. Many of the new laminate floors have aluminum oxide wear surfaces and are much more scratch resistant.

[mmeyer]

clickity clickity clickity! That's all I heard when I had laminate flooring and a dog. It sounds very hollow since it is floating and the dogs nails on it drove me nuts. I begged my wife to let me put it in and she finally said ok. A week later I was begging her to let me tear it out. She said no! I hated it!!!

[Dbl]

I installed a higher grade laminate from a flooring store six years ago and have constant dog traffic. No scratches. I also used the sound proofing underlayment, more expensive, but no sound issues at all like Mike mentions. Spend a bit more on your materials and you should have no problems.

[bigdog]

I installed a Pergo brand floor in an area that has a patio door so plenty of traffic from two labs. Been in about 10 years and no trouble with scratches. I used the standard foam underneath and do have the "clickity" from the nails.

[Farmboy1]

I put it in my kitchen/dining area. It is alright. The dogs nails do click but it has not scratched yet.

My main problem is the joints are all visible in sunlight. I have seen it on all the floors I have looked at, and very obvious (to a contractors eyes). It bugs the he<< out of me.

Someone mentioned Bella Wood. I personally hate the stuff. The prefinish does look nice, but accents all joints, and has nocks that dirt can get in. My preference is to put in a wood floor right, and sand finish and seal onsite. Much better look IMHO.

[icechipper]

I have Shaw laminate in my kitchen, living room and hallway. Cost is about $2 a sq at the store where you can "save big money". I have no scratches after 3 years and a dog that runs and slides all over the place. It took her a few days to get use to the floor, but now she just walks normal. I dropped a can of beans the other day on it and it didn't even make a dent or scratch, actually dented the can, but not the floor.

Makes for cleaning up the dog hair and other messes very easy compared to the carpet.

When I installed it, by the time I was done the new carbide tip saw blade was toast, this tells me that the surface is very tough.

[GotOne]

Were the planks that are too visible installed with the longer sides running parallel to the dominate light source or were they running perpendicular? Should be running parallel whenever possible!

[Deitz Dittrich]

There are some lams that are ok with water. We just put lam down on our main level. We have a hot tub just off our deck.. we did a lot of research. We found a lam that you put calking down on the edges, We have not had a water problem yet, and thats with wet feet from a hot tub almost nightly.

[SCUMFROG]

I used Dupont real touch from home depot. Everyone thought it was rear stone tile, until I told them it wasn't. It has the pad on it already and locks together. I did it myself and it turned out great..

[tonyf125]

I am considering putting in laminate flooring. I have one problem. Our carpeting is curved, the laminate would run right up to the carpeting. Would a carpet layer be able to retuck the carpeting once the laminate is laid? Or, will I have to angle off the carpet to make straight runs?

[CrazyLabs]

The old man and I have been debating tearing out the carpet in our family room and living room and replacing it with some type of hard surface flooring. Our younger lab loves to drink a gallon and a half of water in the laundry room and then let a gallon of that drool and drip into the family room and soak the carpet. I found a laminate at the big Orange Box that looks pretty close to wood and is very reasonably priced.

I would love to put real wood in the rooms, but with 2 80lb monsters I know that I would regret it in a week. The only bad thing about replacing the flooring is that our kitchen also has laminate (very cheap and installed before we bought the house)...which means we would have to replace that floor too...however, I already have the porcelain tile picked out for that. A much bigger project.

As for the original question...there is a LOT of laminate flooring out there. Most of what is found in the big box retailers is very reasonably priced. I would stray away from the $0.99sf stuff, though. Spending $2-$3 per sf will get you a product that very closely resembles wood (or tile). The wear layer on these floors are very durable and will hold up to dog claws...and the dog hair is easy to clean up.

[chasineyes]

Realtors proclaim that laminate will not really add value to your house like hardwood. My $.02.