Laminate flooring - Finsa?

Enigma80

Hi all,

I'm looking into getting some laminate flooring for the living room; baby has made a complete mess of the carpet (previous owners had beige carpet). Anyway, we were going to save up and get the whole house done, but the carpet in the living room is getting into a very filthy state, now matter how much I try to clean it.

I've been looking around today and got a couple of quotes. Floors-2-Go seems like pretty good qaulity, but are charging fairly high, even more so for fitting.

I also had a look at another local trader selling Finsa brand laminate. I've heard of Finsa before but I don't know much about them. Does anyone have any experience of the Finsa floors at all? Is there anything between them? I can save about £150 if I go with the independant local trader.

I know it's supposed to be relatively simple to put it together yourself, but I've done it before and it's not as quick if you have an imperfect room. I need this done while the baby is in nusery and the room finished and put back to how it was before I have to go and collect him.

The main thing I wanted to know was what to look out for when choosing laminate floorign and if anyone had used and any positive or negative experiences with either.

Thanks.

leveller2911

Ive fitted a fair few laminates and quality does vary but personally I wouldn't choose a laminate, I would recommend a vinyl floor covering (lino).They make some good quality ones that you would struggle to notice the difference between them and a laminate.The benefit they have over a laminate is that they are slightly spongy , great for the little ones to play on.
My sister has a disabled daughter and has replaced her existing laminate flooring with vinyl and its far better for little ones, less bruised knees for one thing and very hard wearing.

Enigma80

Thanks for the reply, but I've used lino before and to be honest I don't think I'd use it again. It's too soft and ends up tearing or moving around when you have to move furniture and stuff. He'll just have to get used to it. They have wood and hard flooring at the nursery so he should be fine with it.

I'm getting 8mm with a 15yr warrenty (I really don't think we'll be here this long!), it's got water resistant sealing, moisture resistant core and is somehow anti-static, the type I've got quote for is classed as hard wearing. The water resistant stuff from Floors-2-Go was tripple the price!

McKneff

Take the advice of the local tradesman, big companies have salesman who only think they know it all, they wont have any experience of
actually fitting it, they just want to sell it to you.

The local tradesman will think of his reputation and this depends on you recommending him to your friends and family.
If you have 2 local tradesmen, get quotes from them both.

McKneff

Another thought, could you shop around, buy the laminate flooring in the sales and ask the tradesmen for quotes for just laying it.

anotherbaldrick

Both laminate and engineered wood floorings are very noisy . anything dropped on them makes a very loud noise even with an insulating membrane below. A couple of kids running around with hard shoes on will sound like a pair of skeletons copulating on a corrugated iron roof.

Enigma80

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

will sound like a pair of skeletons copulating on a corrugated iron roof.

:rotfl:

It's bare feet in the house, shoes stay in the hall way. I;ve had and laid laminate flooring myself (just takes me longer to do it) and I don't find it a problem.

I have been using the green board underlay previously as this is supposed to be more sound proofing. The place that quoted for Finsa boards only do a basic or damp proof underlay in varying thickness. I've opted for the damp proof as it's also retardant (and well better than basic).