Laminate Flooring

marathonic

I want to put down laminate flooring in two extremely large bedrooms and one medium sized bedrooms.

The total area is 55 square metres and I'm a firm believer in the whole "buy cheap and buy twice" saying. Therefore, I want to put down good quality, hard wearing flooring that'll last 10 years+.

The thing is, I'm clueless when it comes to these things.

I've been looking at this from an online retailer for £1100 or so: http://www.flooringsupplies.co.uk/laminate/5744/quickstep_perspective_natural_varnished_oak_uf896_laminate_flooring

I've also been looking at this from Homebase for £500 or so: http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=110&storeId=10151&partNumber=1832796

Is the first product really worth £600 more than the second? I don't mind paying the extra if it's worth it but don't want to be throwing money down the drain.

Jonesya

If you keep an eye on the sales you can get solid oak flooring at around the £20/m2 mark which I'd say is a lot better than any laminate, I'd think that in a bedroom it would make 10 years easy, you'd hope it would last you a lifetime perhaps with the occasional sand and re-varnish.

mr_vampy

Quickstep is one of the big names in laminate flooring, so therefore is more expensive than other brands or ones from the DIY sheds. It uses the Uniclic locking system which makes fitting very easy. I recommend it all the time to friends and family. I have it throughout my house and it has been down for 12 years and still looks like new

I have fitted some Homebase laminate flooring and from what I can remember it uses a similar system and was good quality unlike the ones from B&Q and Wickes which was a complete pain to put together and was chipping at the edges

Apart from the price in the two examples, the Quickstep Perspective range is a 9.5mm thick board whereas the Homebase one is only 7mm. Have you looked at some of the other Quickstep range which are 7mm or 8mm thick?

joinaman

As above, that Quickstep is a better flooring but much dearer

Have you looked in Costco?
If you want oak laminate flooring then well worth a look
I have bought this to do a few rooms out, 2 at 4m x 4m and 1 at 5.6m x 3.3m and cost less than £800 It;s 14mm thick, 30 year warranty and has rubber underlay fitted to it, so no underlay required. It is so simple to fit, even easier than Quickstep, and beeing 14mm thick, aslo cover uneven floors much better than the thin stuff, which seems to flex badly unless on perfect floors

The other half is so pleaed with it she now wants the hallway doing !!:(

marathonic

Thanks for the responses. I can't do Costco because I'm in Northern Ireland.

I've looked at the thinner Quickstep product here http://www.flooringsupplies.co.uk/laminate/5286/quickstep_eligna_natural_varnished_oak_u896_laminate_flooring

It's about £910 - so £410 more expensive than the Homebase product. Is it worth this in your, more experienced, opinion?

Also, what's the advantage of the thicker product over the thinner product? Again, as I say, I don't mind paying as long as I'm paying for quality as opposed to just paying for a brand name.

martinthebandit

In a bedroom even cheap laminate flooring is going to last a good long while.

Thicker tends to be better as it usually absorbs more sound so, personally I would be looking at the getting some that is cheap and reasonably thick and buy a decent quality underlay for it.

marathonic

Okay, so based on the above comments and the fact that I'm a single person moving into a 4 bedroom house (hence, very low usage of most rooms), I think I'll go for the cheaper Homebase or B&Q products.

McKneff

We bought ours pretty cheap but it is textured so looks a lot more expensive than it was.

shegirl

Has anybody used Factory Direct Flooring?I normally get my laminate from b&q but they're quite limited.Love the prices at this place! (starts from £4 something per sq m) Not sure though.

Op,if it's for bedrooms I wouldn't go too expensive with it,will be minimal traffic.I quite like the homebase one

McKneff

I would suggest, though, that you actually go to B&Q so that you can actually see it and feel it, rather than order it on line.

shegirl

McKneff wrote: »

I would suggest, though, that you actually go to B&Q so that you can actually see it and feel it, rather than order it on line.

I second that.I nearly went for b&q panetella oak last year as it looked gorgeous online.Went instore and the colour difference was huge!That's the biggest downside to online shopping really