Anyone have any experience with Laminate wood floors?

[frugalstafar]

Just make sure its a good brand, we put in a cheaper brand in a home we inherited and needed to spruce up-its alreday scratching and the house is empty-just us in and out cleaning.

[beth119]

We have hard wood floors everywhere except the bedrooms. They suck. Seriously. I hate them.

We too, are thinking about pulling up the carpet in bedrms and putting in pergo. Nothing can be as bad as hardwood. Nothing.

[billig]

10 years ago in my last house I had pergo installed in my kitchen/dining area.
I hated it.
It's noisy...it doesn't absorb any sound (regular hardwood does much better with sound). Laminate is what you put on your countertops, it's the same exact thing on the floor. Not only can you hear the dogs nails go click-click as they walk, but the cat too!
It's a hard surface to stand on. It's like having ceramic tile in your kitchen, very hard on your feet after a while.
I don't know if they do it different now, but since there's an unprotected seam inbetween each board, it's not like you can slop a bunch of water when mopping or anything...it could seep into the seam and damage it. So everything needs to be dried.
My installer advised me to just clean up every spill or spot immediatly to avoid washing the entire floor at once! Yeah, right!
He also told me not to have anyone in high heels walk on it, since the tip of the heel often wears off and the nails underneath will scratch the floor for sure. But that would also apply to regular wood floors.

So doglover, what did you end up doing?

[cintinative]

I think it depends on the brand, I clean for two people that have it & I hate it..you can't just mop it, you have to mop then dry or it streaks.

Yes, yes, yes!! We just moved into a house last summer with pergo and this is my huge complaint. I have tried the "pergo" cleaner--it doesn't work that well. I tried swiffer wet jet--leaves streaks. I tried swiffer wet. Leaves streaks (and doesn't work that well). I have tried murphy's oil soap--leaves streaks. I miss my hardwood floors at the old house.

On the other hand, I have two boys aged 2 and almost 4 and they have not scratched it at all in the year we have lived here.

[Doglover8180]

I haven't ended up doing anything yet.... I sold the Pergo that I had purchased because it was a discontinued color and I didn't have enough to do the living room... I still really want to put laminate in the living room (the carpet is impossible to keep clean in such a high traffic area... but I am also very cheap (shocking, I know) so I have yet to find decent/good quality reduced enough for me to want to buy it... so I am holding out until a good deal comes along... :(

[tinabohio]

We got ours from Sams Club. The price was great and it has the underlayment on it instead of having to do it seperate.
I have been using a microfiber mop thing for hardwood the husband bought at Lowes and some Zep spray hardwood & laminate floor cleaner. No streaks as long as I have followed the grain and pretty easy. They have other spray cleaners out there too. With the microfiber (it's Quikie brand) and the spray it is super easy... even though not all of our Lock N Seal is down yet. If not for issues with cabinets coming wrong, this would all be done!
Pergo is who responded to me when I emailed with a question to the uniboard company who makes the flooring from Sam's. It was Pergo Canada, so the Uniboard must be the whole with Pergo and such as divisions?
I thought I was going to hate it with the dog and crazy kids; but I am liking it more everyday and can't wait until it is finished!

[CouponSAHM]

OP we are all "cheap" on here but this could be something you need to save up for and really do right! I have hardwoods upstairs and laminate downstairs. I love the hardwoods not so much the laminate. We did buy a super cheap no-name kind, but like another poster mentioned they are NOISY and hard on the feet. I finally found that by putting 2-3 coats of Quick Shine on them I can use swiffer wet for my normal cleaning without all the problems others have had. I have a couple of gouges here or there but no scratching from regular use.

[tacatcon]

We put a laminate wood floor in my youngest's room which used to be a pantry and we remodeled it into a bedroom. Her room is small though and she doesn't spend a lot of time in there. We bought it at Home Depot. I'm not sure of the brand anymore, this was 3 years ago. But for the use the room gets, I think it's a great solution. Looks nice and wasn't hard and wasn't that expensive. It still looks great!

[sbp]

My SIL has a laminate flooring that they got from Home Depot. I don't know what brand or anything, but I know it wasn't the top of the line option. It looks great but I know she's constantly swiffering it (but they also have a dog so I'm sure that's part of it) BUT there's a dent along one of the corners of a piece where my niece accidently dropped a piece of wood, when she was carrying it in last winter. It's not a huge dent, but it's there. They just haven't gotten around to replacing that one piece yet. I have no idea how much of a job that will be.

I know they've both said that they wish they went with a better higher quality laminate.