laminate wood flooring

[skwerl]

Even though I haven't bought my next home yet, I'm already planning on installing laminate wood flooring immediately. I decided to begin researching and one of the first links I found was the Home Depot reviews page. I figured this was good since I'll most likely buy there and have no idea how to distinguish the crap from the good deals.

http://reviews.homedepot.com/1999/0...b/laminate-wood-flooring-reviews/category.htm

Was looking for feedback on higher quality bargain brands. I started flipping through the items with the highest number of reviews (not skewed by 1-2 reviewers) and found this Brazilian Cherry HL705
http://www.homedepot.com/p/TrafficM...ate-Flooring-24-33-sq-ft-case-HL705/203239477
Not only is is highly rated but it's on sale for 49 cents a foot. Any forum comments on the TrafficMaster brand or any other good suggestions? Looking at about 800 square feet.

 

[Kenaizer]

I can't attest to a specific brand, but I can say that laminate has really closed the gap to real hardwood flooring in recent years. I was in a very nice house the other day (owned by a potato farmer who supplies to Lay's and In & Out Burger). They had laminate, and the only way I would have known was for them to tell me. I think if it has great reviews, go for it.

 

[skwerl]

Been looking some more and it appears all the stores near me are out or almost out of that style. Looking at some similar colors and realized I needed underlayment as well. The underlayment is 55 cents a foot, more than the flooring! That just doubled my cost.

 

[skwerl]

Went ahead and picked up the Brazilian Cherry flooring this morning. Found out today was the last day of the sale pricing at 49 cents per foot. Picked up 32 boxes which left the store inventory at about 12 boxes.

If for some reason I don't buy this new house, I can always use it in my existing house. Been thinking about replacing the carpet with wood flooring for about 7 years now. Just never cared enough to do it.

 

[mikeysgt]

I had the exact same cherry wood flooring in my house for about 3 years. Got mine for .99 a Square foot on sale back then. Definitely worth that, and especially at the price you got it at. We recently replaced it with wood looking tile after our washer overflowed last year and ruined part of the hallways laminate. Definitely changes the look of a home and don't have to worry about scratches on laminate. We had two dogs running around and sliding on the laminate and not a scratch on them.

 

[W3bb3r04]

Looks like some good stuff Brian!

In my current home we used Pergo 10mm Handscraped Hickory. It was about $2.50 a square foot but what made it so easy to put down was that it had underlayment already attached to it. Underlayment is kind of a pain to do otherwise but the pergo made it easy. Another thing I liked is that Pergo had their brand of trim pieces and touch up silicone for an exact match.

The stuff you bought ought to work out good though!

 

[irishpwr46]

i was going to suggest buying one that had an underlayment already included. it makes a world of difference