How To Avoid Carpet Burns. (Laminate Flooring)

Member Name: Tray0098

Product:	Laminate Flooring
Date:	12/02/03 (8606 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clean, Disease Free, Great for practisingTap

Disadvantages: Noisy

Afew months ago we finally got round to ripping out the nasty old carpet in our lounge, and painted the walls a lovely reddy / orange colour. We'd been saving hard ( Ahem, ok, hubby got his redundancy payout from Parcelforce ) and finally it was time to choose my dream carpet. Hubby then chose to announce his plan...to laminate our living room floor.

Many arguements ( sorry Jimmy, discussions ) later, I caved in. Hubby had done his research. How could I argue against hubby when he was armed with so many reasons that carpet was an unsuitable choice for people with a lifestyle like ours.

Jimmy : " Dustmites live in carpets. They contribute towwards bad respiratory illnesses such as asthma. Do you want our daughter to suffer needlessly? "

Tray : " Oh. "

Jimmy : " We are sociable people, who have alot of visitors. They are mainly my Guiness drinking mates, who wrecked the last carpet with spillages of the black stuff. "

Tray : " Oh. "

Jimmy : " It's very hard wearing, great for kids and pets "

Tray : " For God's sake, are you moonlighting for B&Q???"

He had many more reasons, so I agreed. Laminate was the choice for us.

We shopped around at all of our local DIY stores, and in the end settled for Floormaster Loc laminate flooring, which we got from our local B&Q, at a cost of £11.97 per square metre.
We also bought some Floormaster laminate underlay, £9.98 for 10 square metres. We got the trim, to go around the edges where the floor meets the walls for £3.97 for 2 metres.
We also bought a video...how to install your Floormaster laminate...about a fiver. Hubby had enough tools already ( DIY Freak! ) but suggests you have a jigsaw, rubber hammer / mallet, spacers... or buy the Floormaster installation tool kit.

The flooring that we chose is known as ' a floating floor '. This means that no

nails, screws or glue are required to hold it in place. A big bonus is that it can be taken up and relaid up to 6 times, so if you move house, the floor can move with you. ( Might be wise to tell any potential buyers that you'll be stealing thier floor before they move in lol ) This also means that the flooring can be fitted onto almost any flat surface, including tiles, concrete or wooden floorboards.

It only took Jimmy 5 hours to lay the flooring in our lounge. He admits it was pretty easy, as we have a very large lounge that is a straight rectangle, so no awkward nooks and crannies to accommodate. Basically, once the underlay was down, the laminate was abit like assembling a giant jigsaw. The pieces slotted together like tongue and groove, then afew taps with the rubber mallet and you're there!


****TIPS FOR LAYING YOUR LAMINATE****

* You must remember to allow for the laminate contracting and expanding depending on the room temperature. To do this, you must use fitting wedges ( shaped pieces of plastic that are included in the installation kits ) to fill the 10mm expansion gaps. These are removed after the floor is fitted, and you can then cover up the gap using skirting or laminate edging trim.

* Make sure you choose suitable laminate for the room eg. for a bathroom you will need specific water resistant laminate.

* Remember, you must ' condition ' the flooring before it's laid. All this means is it needs to be kept in it's packaging in the room where it will be laid for at least 48 hours beforehand.

* You must make sure you fit a damp proof membrane ( plastic sheeting lol ) underneath the underlay, as this will prevent moisture damage to the laminate.

* Your floor must be FLAT before you start.

* Make sure your doors will clear the laminate flooring.

* Do any cutting outside if possible, as it makes loads of nasty dust.

Our laminate has no
w bee
n in place for 5 months. I love it! It's so easy to clean...a brush and a damp cloth and it looks like new. It isn't at all cold, but we did use a very good quality underlay. If I wear socks I can practice our new household sport...laminate skating. ( Particularly amusing when those drinkers of The Black Stuff visit after afew pints )

I admit, I did manage to damage it using a very heavy dinner plate and my good throwing arm. Hubby fixed it though, using a repair kit specifically for our floor, at a cost of £6.98.

My only gripe is the noise it makes when my daughter puts on hard shoes and tap dances on it.

Oh, and by the way, carpet burns are a thing of the past in my house now ;)

****Thanks for the crown, whoever you are!****

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