I know that some of you would not even consider this Fine home building. I am trying to make a decesion.
I am considering an opportunity to install laminant floors. I am Wondering if anyone can give me any reasons to stay away from it.
I have some flooring experience. Not specifically pergo. It seems very basic. maybe too good to be true. If your willing to except it for what it is.
Has anyone had any Problems ? Is there anything to watch out for? Besides the Obvious?
I don’t want to spend my time doing call backs?
I would Appreciate Any constuctive advice.
“I was born in the country, razed in the city, I’m a natural born shaker from my hips to the ground”
Replies
I've done a couple in Wilex snap-lock with padded backs.
I'm no expert in engineered floors but I liked it and have no qualms about selling it to someone in that income bracket and who can understand that it is what it is.
I have no personal experience with laminate flooring, but was told by a flooring contractor about a couple of drawbacks to laminate flooring. If by some chance something heavy enough and/ or hard enough is dropped or falls on the floor and dents it you have a problem. There is no alternative to sand it out. I would also suspect that as with a lot of paints and stains that you have several lots of one color and there may be a chance in a repair situation that you might get a differnt hue even from the same die lot. I don't trust the whole you can't repair it you have to replace it aspect, but I think Pergo has a 20 year dent, scratch and stain warranty. I am scrapping for drawbacks, but I am just passing on what I was told by a flooring contractor who preferred the look of conventional flooring but loved the ease of the installation of Pergo.
I have heard very good reports about it. If you have a client that likes uniformity, and a clean look Pergo is a great product. I believe it's a floating floor so it can move with moisture changes which almost eliminates buckling and cupping as you see with conventional flooring. It has pros and cons as with any other wood flooring.
I have three kids, however so I don't trust the warranty of anything to withstand the test of my children. If I have wood flooring it will be distressed yellow pine, stained fairly dark so that juice and food spills won't show through too much.
All I have to say is the stuff is <b> very </b> susceptible to moisture regardeless of the precautions taken. Here's a cooment i made in another flooring forum, and one reson why I don't want anything to do with laminate floor installations any longer.
A Perfect example of how sensitive laminate floors are to moisture. Refer to the image below. This was a Mannington laminate install over ceramic tile. A custom made transition piece was necessary for this case, as Mannington doesn't make one.
The diagram in the below area shows we had a metal sliding door track with tile on the face of the concrete slab. A trim carpenter contractor said he would take care of the piece. I had planned for something very similiar to the illustration on the top of the page, where the piece would overlap the laminate floor and fit into area #1.
What happened? The trim guy filled the area with a slow drying cement based patching compound then added a cheap threshold of his own. What he didn't know was the effect the curing of the patch would have on the laminate floor.
Oh Boy!! Moisture found it's way under and into the laminate over a period of two weeks and wrecked 300 square feet. And this wasn't standing water that caused the damage!! The customer insisted on a replacement.
From the following discussion link...Sorry the illustration isn't available but you get the idea.
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/flooring/msg0710095818670.html?12
Ken Fisher
http://www.floridawoodfloors.net
Thanks Fish!"I was born in the country, razed in the city, I'm a natural born shaker from my hips to the ground"
one of the few I've installed is in my Mom's kitchen. No major problems...been about 4 or 5 years......she cleans it constantly..so nothing left down there that might scratch. Installation is straight forward........your glue squeasing hand/arm will get quite the workout.
Only on one end seam.......in the middle of the floor....did any signs of moisture occure. The seam....the end joint between two planks......is slightly swelled. Only noticable when the sun light hits it at certain times of day. If ya know where to look...you can find it on your hands and knees. She can't remember when it appeared. Not bad....but not prefect.
Went over linolium. Just make sure the customer knows it might not lay perfectly flat forever......and it can't be sanded out......otherwise step up to real hardwood. I think for the price...it's just fine....but does have it's limitations. Jeff.......Sometimes on the toll road of life.....a handful of change is good.......
I think, around here anyway, there has been a movement away from the Glue type, to the snap together. I am wodering what happens when you spill something or Mop over it? Won't that Water seep down between the seams, between the planks? It seems Inevitable. "I was born in the country, razed in the city, I'm a natural born shaker from my hips to the ground"
Good question Edgar!
I'm waiting for the message board complaints in the many flooring forums I frequent. Some that I've seen have a wax like "seal" on the edges. But the way I look at it, water will eventually get into that locking mechanism and destroy it because the area is not protected. Due due to the milling, the MDF is exposed and my guess is it will swell when water soaks it.
Ken Fisher
http://www.floridawoodfloors.net
It's not regular MDF, not on the ones I've seen...more like an HDF, and I assume it's similar to the moisture resistant fibreboards anyway. I have Formica brand in my basement office; it's supposed to be more moisture resistant, but a flood got the first one I put down. When I looked at the warranty, it ws all typical weasel lingo, so I put it through the insurance and replaced it with the same stuff. Good in it's place.
Before I put my first one down, I thought this might make a good sideline....got doen, and thought 'I never want to do this stuff again'. It can be hard work. The installer that put my replacement floor down also sells the stuff; i asked him about the snap stuff (which he sells). His opinion was he likes that he doesn't have to clamp the floor, but he wouldn't put one down without gluing it.cabinetmaker/college instructor. Cape Breton, N.S
I've put down 3 of the click (no glue) floors. None of them are acceptable to me. I put Shaw in my own beach house and the humidity (right on the ocean) is swelling the joints already. It's been down 10 months. Who cares about the warranty, I gotta' replace it!
Put a Witek(sp?) in a modular home. Within 2 months the floor buckled severely in front of the dishwasher, 2 ft out in the room, right below the top of the d/w door when open. Repair isn't as hard as many think, so I'm not afraid of dents (see Pergo's installation video). But call-backs seem inevitable.
Just put a Pergo Presto in a condo. It's the worst of the 3. Joints don't make up as well. No moisture history yet, but am not impressed.
No experience on the glued floors, but the click ones are strictly homeowner grade and not up to my quality standards. I won't do anymore.
I would try a glued one but will specifically exclude any water, moisture responsibility and have this discussion with the owner.
Good luck!