Bamboo or laminate? maybe hardwood?

[djheater]

There's an ifloor.com store location pretty close to me, so I'll stop by some weekend and check stuff out.

I live in a small home with no upgrades, and am looking to replace the old carpet on the first floor, with a solid surface. I have three young kids, with lots of friends and a dog so it takes a beating and unless I steam it every two weeks looks like a murder scene.

I have very little money, but would squeeze this in, (no x-mas for mom and dad this year)so I'm looking for something that I can install myself, that's attractive and will still look nice when we're ready to move in ten years.

I have my little heart set on bamboo, because it's attractive, renewable and cheaper, but some of the laminates look pretty nice, at least the picture do.

Any body have thoughts, or experiences they could share that will stear me in the right direction.

I'd end up looking to cover about 500 sq ft

Thx!

 

[FoBoT]

if you want it to last ten years, i would go with solid, not laminate

i like wood floors, my wife hates them

 

[Lonyo]

Definitely not laminate.

 

[Vette73]

Yea I am not a big fan of the laminate junk, or even engineered. If they get damaged its not like you can refinish them.

Do it right the first time and go REAL hardwood if you want it.

Also check out www.lumberliquidators.com They have some local places and the prices seem pretty good with lots of choice.

 

[djheater]

Why not laminate?

Keep in mind this is going into a starter home with no upgrades. Laminate is better than carpet and wouldn't be too bad if it's an attractive one. I've seen some not so bad ones recently. I'm not talking old style pergo, with repetitive patterns...

Take a look at some of the ifloor pics...
(though, I might be turned off if I saw them irl)

link

 

[K1052]

Laminate floors suck, as does carpet.
Engineered are kinda meh IMO. They will shift over time and really dislike any water.

Hardwood or tile + rugs FTW.


Edit: I now see you are on a tight budget. Laminate is definately better than carpet so find something you can live with and go with it.

 

[BAMAVOO]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Yea I am not a big fan of the laminate junk, or even engineered. If they get damaged its not like you can refinish them.

Do it right the first time and go REAL hardwood if you want it.

Also check out www.lumberliquidators.com They have some local places and the prices seem pretty good with lots of choice.

You can't refinish laminate, but you can cut the damaged piece out and replace it.

I have both floor types in my house, laminate and hardwood. Without a doubt the hardwood looks and feels better. The installer hooked us up with a local wholesaler and we paid 30 cents more a square foot for the hardwood than we did the laminate. If we had known we could have gotten such a great deal on the hardwood there would have been zero laminate installed.

The difference I see is we let the kids treat the laminate like crap, but make them walk on eggshells on the hardwood.

We got both flooring types installed for $1.50 a square foot! Everyone else wanted $4 - 6 a square.

 

[djheater]

So nobody has seen any good laminates

That's fine...

What about bamboo.. anybody actually seen or used it?

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: djheater
Why not laminate?

you said you had kids and want it to still be ok when you sell in ten years != laminate

if you were putting this in to put your starter home on the market to sell, then i would suggest the cheapest laminate you could get

but if you want this to be the floor you sell the place with in ten years and you have kids, then i suggest solid flooring

 

[zixxer]

Arg.. laminate has a worse rep than it should due to some of the crap that initially came out.

Laminate is sturdy - consumerreports did a test on laminate vs bamboo vs solid. Laminate is more durable than the solids/engineered, but if it gets messed up then it has to be replaced. If you get laminate, but sure to buy extra in case you need to replace some of it.

That being said, I prefer bamboo. It looks good, is durable, can be refinished, and is easily replaced if it gets damaged. Costco has it for $1.80 sq/ft

 

[djheater]

Originally posted by: FoBoT

Originally posted by: djheater
Why not laminate?

you said you had kids and want it to still be ok when you sell in ten years != laminate

if you were putting this in to put your starter home on the market to sell, then i would suggest the cheapest laminate you could get

but if you want this to be the floor you sell the place with in ten years and you have kids, then i suggest solid flooring

Got it.
Thanks for a solid reason...

Anybody done the install themselves?

 

[Krazy4Real]

I have bamboo floors on the first level of my house, and I love them.

 

[Superwormy]

We installed a bamboo floor last year for a client (construction) and I gotta say, it was a *GORGEOUS* freakin' floor. It's supposedly very tough stuff, but it's only been in a year so I can't tell you from experience yet. It looks *very* nice though, easy to install too.

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

Originally posted by: djheater

Originally posted by: FoBoT

Originally posted by: djheater
Why not laminate?

you said you had kids and want it to still be ok when you sell in ten years != laminate

if you were putting this in to put your starter home on the market to sell, then i would suggest the cheapest laminate you could get

but if you want this to be the floor you sell the place with in ten years and you have kids, then i suggest solid flooring

Got it.
Thanks for a solid reason...

Anybody done the install themselves?

Hardwood:
Don't even try it unless you're already a pro. There's a real science to laying hardwood floors and getting it done right. The gaps have to be carefully calculated for humidity expansion and there's a special process for nailing the wood slats together plus there is a special backing/adhesive that has to go down first if your're built on a concrete slab. However if you're built up (with a crawlspace) then the slats can be nailed straight to the subfloor.

Laminate:
A well trained monkey can do this... Seriously! It's a floating floor that doesn't really attach to anything other than its self. There a kind of cloth-type material that goes underneath the laminate that you have to be careful to lay without wrinkles, but other than that the laminate just clicks together with a locking toung & groove type setup. Just set and click it in. Just pay special attention to your edge cuts so that your baseboards cover the gap properly.

Hope this helps with your decision making process.

Also, solid hardwood floors disguise scarring MUCH better than laminate or engineered flooring.

Cheers!
JR..

 

[Gulzakar]

Hardwood.

We have Oak Hardwood floors in our house, circa 1950's. It's not the same as the new wood, but the concept is.

The fake stuff looks to perfect, doesn't feel organic or warm, and really makes a house look cheap. If I were you, I'd just go the extra mile and save up for real wood.

 

[psydancerqt]

we installed a pergo laminate floor in our son's room. it was very simple as JollyRoger said. it has a 25 year warranty... we'll be gone by then.

 

[aircooled]

I've heard good things about bamboo, but have yet to see it in real life.

 

[Vette73]

Bump for night crew.

Any other online sites or good places to get good true hardwood floors.

Like www.lumberliquidators.com

 

[Babbles]

I don't have bamboo (yippee for apartment life) but I love how they look. Whenever I get the fundage to a house (hopefully in another a few years) I am totally set on getting bamboo flooring.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Babbles
I don't have bamboo (yippee for apartment life) but I love how they look. Whenever I get the fundage to a house (hopefully in another a few years) I am totally set on getting bamboo flooring.

Agreed.

I also like this bit of info:

As a grass plant, bamboo grows at rate much higher than trees, bamboo reaches maturity in just 5-6 years. It is therefore considered eco-friendly highly renewable source of material. Bamboo flooring has gained popularity with the green building council and others. Typically each plant or tree can reach maturity in five to six years whereas other more common hardwoods used for flooring can take upwards of 50 years and more.

 

[Vette73]

I am curious about bamboo flooring. The only experience I have with bamboo is a cutting board but it really sucked and the grain started to come apart after just one use. Then it also said there is supposed to be a oil you have to use on bamboo.

 

[JulesMaximus]

We have an expensive laminate in our home and if I were to do it again I'd probably go with hardwood or bamboo. The laminate looks very nice but it's still not wood...even though it cost as much. I'd prefer hardwood quite frankly. When we redo our master bedroom it will be hardwood for sure.

 

[uberman]

I redid a kitchen and dining room and had to choose wood flooring. They had carpeted it. Please let me recommend the following regarding wood flooring. Do not resurface with Pergo. I thought about this a lot. If I use Pergo or Pergo knock off it is a thin laminate on particleboard. Any water spills I end up with mush. So I redid a lot of my house with Mannington Gold Vinyl Flooring that looks exactly like hardwood flooring. My maid asked, "What do you use on the hardwood floors?" It's that convincing. I sold that house. My new one has Pergo. There was some water spillage; it has turned to mush. What a mess.
I tried to find a pic of the flooring. This is the best I could do. The vinyl flooring is underneath my pets.
[http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/9974/thekidsmu0.jpg]

 

[thehstrybean]

I've got a pergo laminate in my room...it's pretty nice...I love the look of bamboo, though...

 

[Rage187]

I installed and finished hardwoods for many years (red/white oak, cherry, heart pine, etc.)

I did hardwood in my kitchen but have installed laminate the last 2 times. 90% of my 1st floor is laminate.

Will cost you about $1.12 a sqft. Plus whatever a roll of 15 tar paper costs and a chop saw blade or two.


I'm betting you could knock out the 500sqft in a weekend. I could knock it out in a day

Hmmm, maybe I'll post pics for you of my new home so you can see the floors in action.