OK, We landed a deal on laminate flooring now we need oppinions

[eagle19952]

center diamond with a herring bone to front and rear..

[JackConrad]

We laid our wood floor on a 45 degree. Eliminates the "long narrow" look and the "short fat" look. I have to thank Ace for the suggestion before we did ours. Only way I would ever lay flooring in our coach.    Jack

[jjrbus]

I did mine length wise, when I saw Jack's I wish I had done it 45!  If you have the skill's to do it length wise, you can do it 45, just takes a little longer!

[chev49]

thanks for the hot glue thing... i have yet to install the boxes of pergo flooring i bought from habitat for humanity store... will try putting a bit on them like that and see.

[Lin]

If you put the planks crosswise or 45 degree, you will have a hard time avoiding stepping on the cracks!

[JackConrad]

If you put the planks crosswise or 45 degree, you will have a hard time avoiding stepping on the cracks!

My wood flooring is 3 1/2" wide X random lengths. Pretty hard to not step on a crack no matter which way we laid it.  Since my flooring is solid wood, we bought the boards that have the microbevel on the ends as well as the sides. the grooves give a little traction, especially in socking feet.  Jack

[RnMAdventures]

What's up with three cracks?

I did 22" *65" at a 45. There was a lot of waste. Used 1/4 inch underlayment... which helped.

[travelingfools]

I vote for the 45...I did a 45 degree pattern on a wall with t and g pine and it was not that difficult.. looks really nice.

[RnMAdventures]

Dave,

The 45 wasn't as bad as i originally thought and it turned out pretty good. The narrow path made it more of a challenge, but overall it wasn't bad. I am not very good at this stuff. Attached is how mine turned out.

[JackConrad]

What's up with three cracks?

Oops I should have said seams not cracks.   Jack

[robertglines1]

Looks pro to me!  nice job

[RnMAdventures]

Thanks Bob! 

[NEO/Russ]

Today I stopped at exit 328 on I-75 in Dalton, GA where there have to be 30-50 floor covering stores. I don't care if you want marble, granite, laminate, carpet, real wood, fake wood, or whatever you have heard of - it probably is here. I spent a couple hours visiting 5-6 stores that had "Laminate" advertised, but there were many, many more. I told them I wanted a floor for a bathroom so they knew I didn't want water resistant, but real water proof. Here were a few things I found:

The traditional laminate floor is a pressed compound that is similar to paper. At that GA location it can be bought from $.99 a square foot to whatever you want to spend for special looks. Because of the material it can absorb water and that is why it needs to have gaps at the ends to allow for expansion and contraction. It can have a coating applied to help improve the water resistance, but water will pass water through and often swells and splits the planks. And as one guy mentioned, dog pee causes it to curl and split. Depending on whether you float or bond the flooring it can be removed, dried and replaced (or if split - new pieces installed). Almost all of what I saw was made in America, which I try to look for.

I also found that for about $60 I could get one piece of vinyl flooring that looks kinda like planks, is supposed to be dog resistant and being one piece it is waterproof. It was thin, doesn't expand or contract enough to bother with and doesn't need any other coating. Now this was "seconds" they get from the major companies located all around the Dalton, GA area(and they had thousands of rolls in just one store), but the say they inspect and salvage the rolls to be able to provide large sheets to customers. Of course when the light shines across it you can see it is a flat sheet, especially when opening the door of my HDT standing and at eye level and I want the plank look because it is cool.

However I also found "LVF" in a few stores and a couple other stores that told me this is the newest flooring and what nearby stores to visit, while they themselves recognize that they have to add it to their inventory. That flooring is known as Luxury Vinyl Flooring. It is strips that are 3" to 6" wide. Most are about 3mm thick. Made of 100% vinyl so no shrinkage or expansion and you would swear it is real wood. One place mentioned this is the same wood look flooring recently installed in "every Walmart store in the U.S.". However he said Walmart messed up and didn't coat with something called "Dem Glow". This he said that means they waxed it and now have to strip and buff to look good. But with the Dem Glow nothing would ever need to be done, just mopped. [my hunch Dem Glow is a moisture cure urethane] There were only a few of these stores that carried it since it is quite new. I found some at $1.69, some at $2.79 and some at $4.79 a sq ft. As usual the most expensive is the really cool stuff. Every edge is beveled so it really looks like planks. It can float or be bonded down and use a heat gun to remove if damaged. (pressure sensitive adhesive - whatever that is). The flat edged stuff really looked good too, and sold under the Mannington and Armstrong brands. Mannington called theirs Adure and it looks like wood, not vinly with a film on it like the traditional laminate (Adurehttp://www.mannington.com/Residential/Adura.aspx) . The one I liked is branded da vinci and the sample has a brand Karndean International with a website www.karndean.com. It can even use a grout between if you want to inlay stuff like real wood craftsmen use. The only other negative I saw was that all these new LVF boxes, whether Armstrong, Mannington or Karndean were all labeled "made in China" ....darn.

[Hi yo silver]

HERRINGBONE is my personal favorite pattern....I'm just sayin', if you're gonna go for style...
Dennis