Happy New Year!

I have a small dining room , about 3mx2.5m, currently carpeted and am
thinking of replacing this with wooden laminate flooring. The actual
floor underneath is concrete.
Happily, I have no skirtings fitted as I've removed these, having just
had the walls replastered.
So, carpet, underlay and grippers are coming up at the weekend.

I don't know much about laminate but I imagine I want some 'underlay/
foam' stuff down on top of the concrete, take the laminate to the
walls with a small (10mm ?) gap all around, then put the skirting
boards on last, allowing the floor to 'float' - is that about right?

Now, laminate flooring is available from Wickes, B&Q, IKEA, etc. Is it
all pretty much the same re. choice of colours and quality? Am I
likely to have trouble fitting it myself?
Are the 'locking' panels equally effective and easy to snap together
without special tools?
Any recommendations for other suppliers?
What should I put underneath it?
Anything else I should bear in mind?

Many thanks,
Jeff

wrote in message
...
Happy New Year!

I have a small dining room , about 3mx2.5m, currently carpeted and am
thinking of replacing this with wooden laminate flooring. The actual
floor underneath is concrete.
Happily, I have no skirtings fitted as I've removed these, having just
had the walls replastered.
So, carpet, underlay and grippers are coming up at the weekend.

I don't know much about laminate but I imagine I want some 'underlay/
foam' stuff down on top of the concrete, take the laminate to the
walls with a small (10mm ?) gap all around, then put the skirting
boards on last, allowing the floor to 'float' - is that about right?

Now, laminate flooring is available from Wickes, B&Q, IKEA, etc. Is it
all pretty much the same re. choice of colours and quality? Am I
likely to have trouble fitting it myself?
Are the 'locking' panels equally effective and easy to snap together
without special tools?
Any recommendations for other suppliers?
What should I put underneath it?
Anything else I should bear in mind?

Many thanks,
Jeff



Laminate is very 90's now like garden decking. I prefer a good quality
underlay and carpet. They look much better, are not "cold" and don't
make everything echo. Why fit a £2.99 cheap looking laminate floor
and ruin the appearance of your home?
I have spent months ripping up laminate flooring and fitting carpets as
people have moved on from a cheap look.

On 1 Jan, 14:13, "James R" wrote:
wrote in message

...



Happy New Year!

I have a small dining room , about 3mx2.5m, currently carpeted and am
thinking of replacing this with wooden laminate flooring. The actual
floor underneath is concrete.
Happily, I have no skirtings fitted as I've removed these, having just
had the walls replastered.
So, carpet, underlay and grippers are coming up at the weekend.

I don't know much about laminate but I imagine I want some 'underlay/
foam' stuff down on top of the concrete, take the laminate to the
walls with a small (10mm ?) gap all around, then put the skirting
boards on last, allowing the floor to 'float' *- is that about right?

Now, laminate flooring is available from Wickes, B&Q, IKEA, etc. Is it
all pretty much the same re. choice of colours and quality? Am I
likely to have trouble fitting it myself?
Are the 'locking' panels equally effective and easy to snap together
without special tools?
Any recommendations for other suppliers?
What should I put underneath it?
Anything else I should bear in mind?

Many thanks,
Jeff

Laminate is very 90's now like garden decking. *I prefer a good quality
underlay and carpet. *They look much better, are not "cold" and don't
make everything echo. *Why fit a £2.99 cheap looking laminate floor
and ruin the appearance of your home?
I have spent months ripping up laminate flooring and fitting carpets as
people have moved on from a cheap look.

I agree with this poster. Its a sod to keep looking good. Scratches
easily and shows every speck of dirt.

On 1 Jan, 14:47, Merryterry wrote:
On 1 Jan, 14:13, "James R" wrote:



wrote in message

....

Happy New Year!

I have a small dining room , about 3mx2.5m, currently carpeted and am
thinking of replacing this with wooden laminate flooring. The actual
floor underneath is concrete.
Happily, I have no skirtings fitted as I've removed these, having just
had the walls replastered.
So, carpet, underlay and grippers are coming up at the weekend.

I don't know much about laminate but I imagine I want some 'underlay/
foam' stuff down on top of the concrete, take the laminate to the
walls with a small (10mm ?) gap all around, then put the skirting
boards on last, allowing the floor to 'float' - is that about right?

Now, laminate flooring is available from Wickes, B&Q, IKEA, etc. Is it
all pretty much the same re. choice of colours and quality? Am I
likely to have trouble fitting it myself?
Are the 'locking' panels equally effective and easy to snap together
without special tools?
Any recommendations for other suppliers?
What should I put underneath it?
Anything else I should bear in mind?

Many thanks,
Jeff

Laminate is very 90's now like garden decking. I prefer a good quality
underlay and carpet. They look much better, are not "cold" and don't
make everything echo. Why fit a £2.99 cheap looking laminate floor
and ruin the appearance of your home?
I have spent months ripping up laminate flooring and fitting carpets as
people have moved on from a cheap look.

I agree with this poster. Its a sod to keep looking good. Scratches
easily and shows every speck of dirt.

You can get pretty good and tough laminate flooring with textured
grain etc.
Note that the darker colours look better. For the cheap look, the
worst is that pine-type
stuff, that looks yellow (thats really the 80s/90s peril !)
Thing is, good stuff costs nearly as much as engineered wood, so you
might as well use
real wood.
Simon.

Sorry - newsreader lost the start of this thread, so I have to reply here...

To attempt to answer the OP's question:

Pergo is very good as far a laminate goes - I've used the Pergo click stuff
(from Allied Carpets) and it's a doddle.

Best laid on either laminate underlay foam or green fibre board (all in the
laminate section of the store).

A vapour barrier sheet of polythene might be an idea too.

Minimal tools:

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/64749/...ng-Fitting-Kit

and a means of cutting. I found a jigsaw with a double-edged worktop blade
very good, with no surface splintering.

HTH

Tim

James R wrote:
wrote in message
...
Happy New Year!

I have a small dining room , about 3mx2.5m, currently carpeted and am
thinking of replacing this with wooden laminate flooring. The actual
floor underneath is concrete.
Happily, I have no skirtings fitted as I've removed these, having
just had the walls replastered.
So, carpet, underlay and grippers are coming up at the weekend.

I don't know much about laminate but I imagine I want some 'underlay/
foam' stuff down on top of the concrete, take the laminate to the
walls with a small (10mm ?) gap all around, then put the skirting
boards on last, allowing the floor to 'float' - is that about right?

Now, laminate flooring is available from Wickes, B&Q, IKEA, etc. Is
it all pretty much the same re. choice of colours and quality? Am I
likely to have trouble fitting it myself?
Are the 'locking' panels equally effective and easy to snap together
without special tools?
Any recommendations for other suppliers?
What should I put underneath it?
Anything else I should bear in mind?

Many thanks,
Jeff



Laminate is very 90's now like garden decking.

Oi!

Decking is still very popular I'm glad to say. I built 9 last year.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

Merryterry wrote:
On 1 Jan, 14:13, "James R" wrote:
wrote in message

...



Happy New Year!

I have a small dining room , about 3mx2.5m, currently carpeted and
am thinking of replacing this with wooden laminate flooring. The
actual floor underneath is concrete.
Happily, I have no skirtings fitted as I've removed these, having
just had the walls replastered.
So, carpet, underlay and grippers are coming up at the weekend.

I don't know much about laminate but I imagine I want some
'underlay/ foam' stuff down on top of the concrete, take the
laminate to the walls with a small (10mm ?) gap all around, then
put the skirting boards on last, allowing the floor to 'float' - is
that about right?

Now, laminate flooring is available from Wickes, B&Q, IKEA, etc. Is
it all pretty much the same re. choice of colours and quality? Am I
likely to have trouble fitting it myself?
Are the 'locking' panels equally effective and easy to snap together
without special tools?
Any recommendations for other suppliers?
What should I put underneath it?
Anything else I should bear in mind?

Many thanks,
Jeff

Laminate is very 90's now like garden decking. I prefer a good
quality underlay and carpet. They look much better, are not "cold"
and don't make everything echo. Why fit a £2.99 cheap looking
laminate floor
and ruin the appearance of your home?
I have spent months ripping up laminate flooring and fitting carpets
as people have moved on from a cheap look.

I agree with this poster. Its a sod to keep looking good. Scratches
easily and shows every speck of dirt.

I'd say it was much easier to maintain. Reasonable quality doesn't scratch
at all. As for 'shows every spec of dirt', hard floors get the same amount
of dirt as carpets do, its just that carpets only look dirty when full.

Quick vacuum or whip round with a flat moist thingy is all you need on
laminate.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

wrote:
Happy New Year!

I have a small dining room , about 3mx2.5m, currently carpeted and am
thinking of replacing this with wooden laminate flooring. The actual
floor underneath is concrete.
Happily, I have no skirtings fitted as I've removed these, having just
had the walls replastered.
So, carpet, underlay and grippers are coming up at the weekend.

I don't know much about laminate but I imagine I want some 'underlay/
foam' stuff down on top of the concrete, take the laminate to the
walls with a small (10mm ?) gap all around, then put the skirting
boards on last, allowing the floor to 'float' - is that about right?

Yup. Get the underlay they reccommend - money well spent.


Now, laminate flooring is available from Wickes, B&Q, IKEA, etc. Is it
all pretty much the same re. choice of colours and quality? Am I
likely to have trouble fitting it myself?

Generally no, if you buy the fixing kit & read the destructions. I have had
very bad experiences with two types of Homobase laminate & wouldn't touch it
with a bargepole TBH. Used Wickes a lot.

Are the 'locking' panels equally effective and easy to snap together
without special tools?

IMO locking panels are the way forward.



--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On 01/01/2009 14:13 James R wrote:

Laminate is very 90's now like garden decking.

Really? Fact or opinion?

Why fit a £2.99 cheap looking laminate floor
and ruin the appearance of your home?

I don't see a reference to £2.99 anywhere in the original posting.

I have spent months ripping up laminate flooring and fitting carpets as
people have moved on from a cheap look.

It's a pity you had 'cheap' down and have had to remove it. We've got
laminate in a couple of locations. It doesn't look cheap.

To the OP, Quickstep Quadra is well worth a look and is easy to lay. Use
their underlay.

--
F

Thanks. I'll get busy researching in a mo'

What size are the individual panels typically?
Is it easier to fit fewer longer (bigger) ones than many short ones?

On 01/01/2009 19:31 wrote:

What size are the individual panels typically?

The Quadra are just short of 400mm square.

Is it easier to fit fewer longer (bigger) ones than many short ones?

Being square you just add them together to get 'planks' the width of the
room. I used the planks I created with an offset on each row to get a
brick bond effect.

I've used other, more traditional, shapes and found it easier to work
with several rows of shorter length rather than fewer rows of longer
length which can become a little tricky to click together.

Having the skirting off makes the whole job much, much easier!

--
F

coughed up some electrons that declared:

Thanks. I'll get busy researching in a mo'

What size are the individual panels typically?
Is it easier to fit fewer longer (bigger) ones than many short ones?

About 5ft by 6" give or take a few.

Cheers

Tim

has brought this to us :
Thanks. I'll get busy researching in a mo'

What size are the individual panels typically?
Is it easier to fit fewer longer (bigger) ones than many short ones?

They are about 4 or 5 feet long and about 9" wide. You lay an entire
series of lengths end to end - all clicked together with the cut to
size piece at one end. Then add a second row all fixed together as one
strip and so on, you cannot just fit one section at a time - it has to
be an entire row in one go. You need to offset the joints just like the
bricks in a wall, between one row and the next one. If the room is
long, it becomes difficult to ease a row into place without it falling
apart - so some help might then be needed.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

James R wrote:

Laminate is very 90's now like garden decking. I prefer a good quality
underlay and carpet. They look much better, are not "cold" and don't
make everything echo.

I have laminate in my living/dining room. It was there when I bought the
place, but I'm very happy with it. I don't find it echoey, but then
again I have two fabric sofas and several square metres of heavy
curtains which must soak up the sound. I also don't find it cold;
admittedly when I occasionally watch TV lying in the floor rather than
sitting on the sofa bare laminate would probably be uncomfortable, but
that's why I have a big wool rug in that corner. The thing about the rug
rather than a carpet is that when I "entertain", like last night, I can
roll it up and put it out of the way. Then if red wine, cheese etc get
spilt on the floor (which they did, a little) I don't need to give a
toss. Likewise we can all go out into the garden to watch the fireworks
and come back in again without mass fumbling with shoes. A quick whizz
round with the mop this afternoon and it all looks great again. I can't
really imagine the room with carpet instead, but I doubt it would look
any better. Of course, I chose the colours and furniture with the
existing floor in mind.

Knowing the previous occupants of the house it's probably a fairly cheap
version, so will no doubt start looking a bit shabby and need replacing
at some point in the future. I'll look at various alternatives then, but
whatever I pick it ain't going to be carpet.

Pete

In message , Harry
Bloomfield writes
has brought this to us :
Thanks. I'll get busy researching in a mo'

What size are the individual panels typically?
Is it easier to fit fewer longer (bigger) ones than many short ones?

They are about 4 or 5 feet long and about 9" wide. You lay an entire
series of lengths end to end - all clicked together with the cut to
size piece at one end. Then add a second row all fixed together as one
strip and so on, you cannot just fit one section at a time - it has to
be an entire row in one go.

I don't remember fitting it like that. IIRC you just put one board in,
the one next to it and so on along the row.

Having done both glued and click together I'd certainly go for the click
together version (isn't most of the decent stuff like that anyway).

not that I'd install it again, I find it very cold (and if you ahev kids
and spend much time sitting on it you end up covering it rugs to make it
more comfortable), it chips pretty easy if stuff dropped on it, and it
just looks rather bland. I'd go for an engineered wood floor at least.



--
Chris French