Re: P D Flooring Reviews
Alfonzo Liebenstein
Laminate flooring reviews, I have been wanting to write about this for some time now. I have been installing laminate flooring since 2001, and have had a chance to see many brands. I have searched the internet to find honest reviews on laminate flooring, all I seem to find is just very general descriptions basically saying that they are all the same. Well I know better. With laminate flooring there is such a thing as "The Good the Bad and the Ugly".
When I worked for a retail store I realized that at times I was installing lets say, Really Junky Laminate.But what can I say when I'm working for a store. If I said anything Iwould loose my job. But now I work for myself and can say what Ihonestly think.
There are floors I will recommend any chance I get. And then there arethe ones I want to run away from. I love installing a good qualitylaminate floor, it makes me look good. I see first hand how the floorlooks close up. Maybe what I see and my customer sees may be different,even so you still want a floor that is made well so it will continue tolook new 5 years from now.
I can't say that my laminate flooring reviews are the final word on any product. I base myreviews on me as a professional installer. I am a little particularwith my work and I would not recommend a product if I wouldn't put it inmy own home.
These days there are so many variations of laminate flooring being produced. I see different brands popping up all the time. They all have there locking system which may be their own or they use one from another company that has a patent on it.
I have seen laminate floors that were just flat out bad as far as quality goes, but the homeowner thought it was great. Well as an installer and having installed thousands of square feet of numerous brands I would hope that my opinion will count for something.
Some folks may not realize that laminate flooring can vary in quality and price to such a degree. There are a lot of folks that do realize this and do the research necessary, so they can track down the best quality and price on laminate flooring.
So hopefully the laminate flooring reviews I have written here will shed some light on you making a decision that will help you save some money and aggravation.The list of all my reviews are at the bottom of this page.
The laminate flooring reviews I am writing are based on the floors Ihave personally installed. There may be additional products from amanufacturer that may be a different quality (better or worse) from theone I have installed. I haven't installed every brand of laminate flooron the market, so all I can do is report on the ones I have worked with.
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In January 2013 we took on the biggest DIY project that we had ever done! We installed over 1,100 square feet of laminate flooring on the entire first floor of our home. I was new to the world of DIY and had quite a bit of stress over this project. My husband had a busy work schedule at the time and, although he wanted to help, the majority of it would be my responsibility.
Second, I only have experience with the laminate flooring we used. Not all laminate flooring is the same quality or thickness, hence the dramatic price difference between brands. You will want to do your research when making a large financial investment in flooring. We chose a 10 mm thick laminate that was 4 7/8 inches wide by 47 7/8 inches long with the underlayment attached.
I took great care to use the sealant around the entire perimeter of my half bath (especially the toilet) and around the enclosure of my dishwasher, sink and refrigerator. I believe the sealant saved me from headaches down the road. My half bath toilet has overflowed twice. Remember, I have three boys! I immediately and thoroughly dried up the water and the flooring is fine.
In my experience, as long as you dry up the moisture quickly, your flooring will remain nice. Problems arise when you leave liquid on the surface for an extended period of time and it seeps into the cracks or under the base molding and gets to the exposed part of the flooring. So, keep a close watch over moisture areas and be diligent to clean up spills thoroughly.
Areas with constant wear, like under a trash can foot pedal or under an office chair, tend to become worn and dull over time. Once I noticed these potential issues, I purchased a mat for the office chair and installed a piece of soft foam under the foot pedal.
We removed all the old carpeting, padding, and carpet strips. Then we cut the linoleum with a utility knife and pulled it off. Underneath the linoleum was a layer of luan (a very thin plywood) stapled to the sub-floor. We found the edges of the luan and used a pry-bar to separate it from the sub-floor, taking care to remove every staple. When we were done, all that was left was the OSB sub-floor. By the way, we also found a lot of building debris and plaster dust under the luan. I always wondered why there were bumps in my linoleum :).
Fourth, I did put transition moldings around my fireplace hearth instead of scribing the planks to fit. Scribing the planks just made me nervous since I had never practiced it. So, I painted the sub-floor (OSB) black right at the edge of the brick. This made the gap between the brick and metal strip less noticeable. You can see the picture below.
Lastly, I undercut all of my door jambs with an oscillating tool. I used this tool and recommend it. While it was an investment and the blades are pricey, I have used it many times for other projects when working in tight spaces.
That depends. I would use laminate again, but probably would leave the installation to the professionals for a large job. We did save around $8,000 and I think our attention to detail and quality was better than a typical contractor. I did this project mostly by myself and our lives were on hold for about 2-3 months. It was extremely labor intensive and created a low level of constant stress for my family.
We really did our research before starting this project, but still made some mistakes. I focused too much on the details, like worrying about the overall appearance of the base molding. Not wanting to use quarter round to cover the expansion gap, I removed all of my base molding. In hindsight, this was a lot more work for very little return. If I were to do it again, I would leave the baseboards on and add the quarter round. It would have saved me quite a bit of time and effort.
We all have those areas that a vacuum cleaner cannot get to or sometimes just a quick clean up is necessary. For those times I use a hand vac. This is my favorite one. It has great suction and the battery has lasted a long time. In fact, after several years of heavy use, it recently broke and we repurchased the exact same one.
I love how your floor turned out. I know the floor is 8 years old and it may be discontinued. Can you share the manufacturer & color of the floor. I am looking for a color & texture like yours. Thanks!
It got my interest when you discussed that there are laminate flooring options nowadays that are developed for spots exposed to dampness. This convinced me more to pursue installing laminate flooring in my home. I should look now for a supplier that offers laminate flooring that can hold moisture.
I'm looking to install LVP and came across Trucor samples. The samples are beautiful but I'm finding a hard time seeing install photos or even reviews online. Can anyone share any info on these floors?
The pvc channels holding the flooring are interesting, but I can't imagine pulling up the floor in advance of a flood. Do they not expect you to trim after the floor is down? Any drink spills that drip down between planks would be trapped in the PVC snap channels, which sugar ants might find attractive. It is not clear from the quick look I took as to how the ends are joined.
The ends of the flooring pictured in the article appear to be solid wood, not engineered wood - aka ply construction. I would be leery of using wide solid lumber if moisture in the subfloor (like a slab) would fluctuate relative to the room moisture. Cupping is my first thought, but perhaps the wood is stabilized in some manner. The normal behavior of boards is to gain width over length with humidity. Table tops are frequently made with breadboard ends which allow for expansion as well as control cupping. A 12-16 foot wide room might present a lot of collective width changes seasonally. A baseboard with shoe might be able to conceal that much movement. I would check their technical sheets to find out what they anticipate.
I have repaired an engineered wide board floor after a dishwasher disaster. The flooring was floated on a radiantly heated slab, which is a condition some solid wood flooring companies won't warrant. There were a total of four layers including the 3/16 top layer, but it basically was a three ply softwood base structure with the exotic layer on top. The kitchen/dining area covered about 300sf and there was no discernible cupping before the dish washer disaster. Even two weeks of leaking under the floor (to be discovered at the end of a vacation trip) didn't really upset the adjacent boards. The ones directly in front of the dishwasher were toast though as the exotic layer debonded. I am not so sure that solid wood wide boards would behave as well. Ends that swell from water tend not to go back to original size when dried out. Some stay fat, some shrink up. Witness the many table leaves and tops that pull themselves apart when set out in barns or basements.
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