wood/laminate flooring...where to start?

Tommy Vercetti

I will be moving to a new house sometime in the next six weeks or so, and I've decided to lay wooden flooring in the sitting room and hall area (tiles for kitchen/dining). I have been looking around in various shops for the last few months to help me decide what type to go for, but I'm a little confused by it all. The range of prices is huge...anything from around €7 sq/m to beyond €50 sq/m. Anyway, I reckon we will go for laminate flooring, since it's cheaper than solid or semi-solid, and mainly because since it's a new house, we will probably want to change it anyway sometime in the next 3 to 5 years. It's also more resistant to scratches and dents as far as I know.

I will be laying it myself, I helped out a friend of mine with his last year, so he'll be giving me a hand there, I just need some advice on what I should choose, since I don't really have a clue myself, and shops inevitably point me towards more expensive stuff and also try to get me to pay them to fit it.

yop

If you are intending on the flooring not been there long term then you are right to go with the laminate.
The laminate will not look as good as the real deal but still looks well regardless.
There are different standards of laminates available, if you are putting laminate down in the hall, sitting room or kitchen where it is open to getting wet then there is a higher grade available.
If you look at the package on the laminate it will tell you which areas it is suitable for.

Semi solid is as far as I can see roughly about twice the price of laminated, but correct me if I am wrong but all it is is that there is 1/4" MDF glued onto the back of it?? So if you were keen enough then you could almost do it yourself.

I think maple solid wood starts at about 27 Euro per sq yard

Lex Luthor

B&Q have a really cheap deal at the moment on glueless laminate click floor for about €7 square meter. I put it down recently and although it was really cheap, you would know it. I'm only looking at about getting 5-7 yrs out of it so for €100, it was not that bad. It was 7mm thick.

From what I saw with the prices of laminate, it gets more expensive the thinker you go and also the waterproof stuff is more expensive.

If it's going in your main area like your hall and living room, I would advise to stay away from the laminate. You will be walking on it every day and it will start to annoy you with the plasticy sounds, laminate has. Why would you want to change in 3-5 yrs anyway. I'm not sure if you have done this before but unless your very skilled, this is not as easy as it says on the box. Obviously, moving into a new house is expensive, but I wouldn't go putting down cheap stuff for it to be ripped up in a few years time. I made that mistake 7 yrs ago and if you can afford it, go now at least for a semi solid, or wait till you can. Semi solids also vary in price greatly, but I would suggest getting boards at least 14mm thick. If you look closely at the composites of layers that make up the semi solids, you should be able to see the difference in quality between them. Take your time and look around at various shops/brands. The good quality ones are well glued together between the layers. Mate of mine paid €29/sq yd recently for semi solid but could have gone as low as 20 and as high as 45. Also, try and choose hardwoods like oak and stay away from ash.

Have you laid these floors before? If not, I suggest starting in the living room and run from window to double doors and take the line from your fireplace hearth. That is the focal point of the room and if its out of line there, it'll annoy the hell out of ya.

Zentoad

Your floor may be down by now...I put mine down a few months ago. In doing so I made 2 mistakes...
1/ The floor in the hall was not level and as a result the boards have seperated slightly. Since it's the hall, it's a little unsightly but given the gost and the grief it'll do.

2/ I selected 2 kinds of laminate. The first had a chipboard backing and as a result was very easily damaged. In addition it was more difficult to lay. The second batch had an MDF backing and was a breeze by comparison. It also did not get damaged nearly as much.


//JOC

davros

I looked at laminate all over Dublin last year and eventually chose the packs in Carpetright (whatever their most expensive kind was - let's say €18/sqm). The quality of the board manufacture was very good - the interlocking parts were very strong and did not chip. Underneath was a smooth plastic coating. The wood-simulation (it's a photographic reproduction) was pin-sharp and looked as realistic as you can get in a laminate. And it had a texturing on the surface that adds to the wood effect and is particularly nice when light is shining along the floor.

I put it all down myself without difficulty, though it was the first time I had attempted anything of the sort. Having the right tools is important. A jigsaw will make short work of the cutting. You will also need plastic spacers, a pull bar, a tapping block and a rubber hammer (all available in B&Q and elsewhere).

Instructions came in the pack and they were easy to follow.

I didn't lay them under the skirting but covered the gap with scotia from some solid flooring shop on the Long Mile Road.

Tommy Vercetti

Sorry I didn't reply for a while...been off work for a couple of weeks, thanks for all the advice though.

Anyway....I've still got at least 3 weeks before I move into the house, and I haven't decided what I'm gonna do yet. The downstairs will be concrete so we have to get it done as soon as we are ready to move in, although there isn't any real hurry, but obviously the sooner then better. The house is approx. 1100 sqft / 100sqm, and we have budgeted about €3000 to cover the cost of all the flooring/tiling/carpeting (we can go another few hundred if we have to though) We're sticking with carpet upstairs (apart from bathrooms which will be tiled) and we hope that won't cost more than €1000, which leaves us with at least €2k for the whole downstairs.

The layout of the house is quite unusual, it's a side entrance house. So you go in the front door, the sitting room is to the right, kitchen/dining on the left, and the stairs is in front of you (there's the downstairs bathroom too, getting that tiled). The kitchen/dining is annoying me too, because it's in an L-shape, the extended bit being the kitchen, if you follow me, which I want tiled. I would prefer to have the dining table on a wooden floor, but because of the layout of the kitchen, I can't put a straight boundary between wood/tile....it's hard to explain!!! My better half thinks it would be best to get someone in, tell them what we want, hand them a load of money and come back in a couple of days and it'll all be done for us. I'll definitely be getting someone in to do the tiling anyway, I haven't a clue how to do that.

I helped someone lay a laminate floor before, he's gonna help me with mine, that's why I'm fairly confident that I can handle it, although that was just the click-type flooring so not sure about glue.

Anyway, I'm gonna spend the weekend getting it sorted out one way or the other, I'll update you if I ever make my mind up! Thanks again for the advice.

BrownBoy

I am looking for laminated flooring (7mm/8mm). Are there any cheap buys right now ?

Is semi-solid/solid flooring as easy to lay as Laminated floors ?

Tks