Laminate floor not allowed

me_eevie

Hi

I own a ground floor flat and the lease prevents me from having laminate flooring except in the kitchen and bathroom.
I need to replace the flooring in my lounge. If I go for carpet then it would be a big upheaval emptying the furniture for carpet layers- there is nowhere else to put it! So I thought of laminate flooring then it can be done "bit by bit" so to speak....However this is forbidden by the lease

I wondered if I went ahead anyhow who would know / complain? I can fully understand the noise issue if I had people living underneath me but as I am on the ground floor this isnt an issue. Besides the noise from creaky floorboards in the (caprpetted) flat above me drives me mad (I really can hear EVERY step)and there isnt a thing I can do about it.

I would welcome any comments please.

never_enough

I had the same lease in one of my flats, I think it's quite a standard clause which few people seem to take much notice of. I was also ground floor so knew it wouldn't disturb anyone & stripped all the floorboards. It was never a problem, including when I sold it. However a friend of mine did the same thing & she had to pay money to her purchasers when she sold her flat. They had gone through the lease & realised she was in breach of it. She said she would put (v cheap) carpet down but they wanted to choose it themselves, so in the end giving them the money was easiest. We did wonder if they ever bought carpet with it though!

me_eevie

Thanks so much for that information - I will certainly go for laminate then.

:beer:

Debt_Free_Chick

Linoleum is supposed to be the new laminate

Forget the stuff your granny had in the 1950s - apparently, the new stuff is more like cushioned flooring, but tougher.

You might also want to consider marmoleum or amtico, but these are more expensive.

However a friend of mine did the same thing & she had to pay money to her purchasers when she sold her flat.

I have a feeling that most solicitors would pick this up, these days - just take a look on the House Buying board :eek:

Doubtless you could sort something out with the buyers, but be sure that you want the hassle if you ever sell.

Volcano

Could try these:

http://www.westcofloors.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37&Itemid=16

Self-adhesive vinyl flooring that looks like laminate, apparently available from Focus and Homebase.

me_eevie

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Linoleum is supposed to be the new laminate

Forget the stuff your granny had in the 1950s - apparently, the new stuff is more like cushioned flooring, but tougher.

You might also want to consider marmoleum or amtico, but these are more expensive.



I have a feeling that most solicitors would pick this up, these days - just take a look on the House Buying board :eek:

Doubtless you could sort something out with the buyers, but be sure that you want the hassle if you ever sell.

Thanks Debt_Free_Chick I will look into these options, however I would have the same problem as with carpet - where to put my furniture whilst this is laid.

I am not planning on moving, but, should that happen, the furniture would be gone anyhow and laying a carpet would be easy.

Counting_Pennies_2

The beauty of marmoleum is that it can be bought in 33cm square tiles, and they will look very similar to a floor tile. So it means you can have one side of the room done on one day, leave it to dry, shift the furniture to the other side of the room and have the other side laid. Which is even better than doing laminate, as laminate can sometimes move if the whole room isn't finished before putting things on it.

I have marmoleum in three of my rooms at present and it looks fab

MrsMW

We had this problem with the furniture, but our carpet fitters just shifted it to one end of the room, laid half the carpet and then shifted the furniture again to do the other half.

Woby_Tide

I can't see how laying laminate is any easier than carpet, at some point you are moving all teh furniture regardless of which method you choose. Get the carpet layers to move all furniture to one end of room, lay other hafl, then switch furniture to that end, lay the other half. If there is so much furniture then I can't see how laminate is going to be easier unless you intend laying it with everything 'in situ' i.e. lay a piece, lift the table leg put it on the newly laid piece

The carpet laying will cost slightly more as they move the furniture but ask at carpetright etc. I'm sure it was something like £30 last time we asked (though didn't use it). The time and effort to lay laminate in multiple stages is surely going to outweigh the cost of someone moving some furniture for you

Edit: gah, took too long typing!

me_eevie

Oh Dear looks like I have been misinformed......the carpet fitter I contacted insisted the room must be EMPTY.

I didnt realise they could "lay in two halves" so to speak.

The reason I though I could laminate it myself easily by moving all the furniture to one end, lay laminate on 3/4 of the room, move the furniture across then lay the remaining 1/4.

Now I know that is is possible for a fitter to lay a carpet without the room being completely empty I will make further enquiries.

Thanks All

tawnyowls

It is possible, but any decent fitter will probably refuse. It's actually very difficult to get a carpet stretched properly if there's furniture in the room. You might get away with a gel,- felt- or foam-backed carpet, but a hessian-backed one will probably end up rucking. Considering how much carpets cost, the hassle in moving the furniture out is worth it to achieve the best finish possible.

As others have said, possible alternatives to laminate are rigid vinyl tiles (Amtico, Karndean) or real linoleum. You might also want to look at ceramic tiles. I wouldn't recommend the self-adhesive tiles - they're OK for a quick fix (say in a bathroom if you're about to sell), but they do tend to start curling after a while.

Personally, if I wanted wood flooring, then I'd lay wood flooring (although I'd probably go for engineered wood rather than laminate). Wjhen you come to sell, just lay a cheap carpet over it - you can always blame the previous owners if it's spotted, and if not, then the new owners have the option of lifting the carpet and using the laminate.