Is laminate flooring even an option?

[Grosey]

Hi, starting to look at flooring for the majority of our open plan area. 

 

Options are -

 

Engineered Real Wood

Bamboo

Laminate?

 

Question is should I be considering putting laminate in at all in an approx 75m2 area, house value likely to be £400k+ in Cornwall.  Has laminate moved on from years ago making it a viable option, or does it all still look cheap an awful and I should just remove it from my list?

[Jeremy Harris]

I've never been a fan of laminate.  I laid some really expensive, water resistant stuff in our old kitchen, and it's frankly rubbish.  On the other hand, I bonded down (cheaper) solid bamboo in the new house and it's absolutely brilliant, very hard and tough, solid-feeling to walk on and most people assume it's hardwood, until they are told it's bamboo.  It's harder than the best hardwood, and very resistant to dents from hard stuff dropping on it (guess how I know that.............).

[Barney12]

The ONLY reason for fitting laminate is cost.

Actually the second reason is if you like tap dancing. Its got a lovely hollow clickity clack noise as you walk across it

[Grosey]

14 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

I've never been a fan of laminate.  I laid some really expensive, water resistant stuff in our old kitchen, and it's frankly rubbish.  On the other hand, I bonded down (cheaper) solid bamboo in the new house and it's absolutely brilliant, very hard and tough, solid-feeling to walk on and most people assume it's hardwood, until they are told it's bamboo.  It's harder than the best hardwood, and very resistant to dents from hard stuff dropping on it (guess how I know that.............).

 

Thanks Jeremy, I had searched the forum previously and read all your extensive posts on your bamboo flooring. The durability is a big factor for us - we are particularly concerned about scratches from the dogs claws as he runs about - don't suppose you have a dog or could borrow one, chase him about and could report back? ?

 

Is it it correct that the strand bamboo can be laid directly over UFH as it is essentially an engineered floor?

 

One of the products I was looking at was a 190mm board and was a typical engineered plank with a stranded bamboo on top of layers of ply - do you think this is due to the width of the board?

 

https://www.bambooflooringcompany.com/all-flooring/underfloor-heating-flooring/engineered-carbonised-strand-woven-190mm-uniclicr-bona-coated-bamboo-flooring.html

[Jeremy Harris]

Not so sure about doing the "dog experiment"!  The surface of the bamboo is lacquered, and so about as scratch-resistant as timber.  I'm sure the lacquer could be touched up if it got scratched, and I doubt that any dog claw scratch would touch the underlying bamboo, as it's really hard.

 

We have solid, strand woven, bamboo, and on the ground floor it's bonded with Sikabond 95 directly to the concrete slab, which has UFH.  In practice, the UFH never gets as hot as an area of floor in front of the French windows, that easily gets 50% hotter on sunny days that the UFH.  Upstairs I bonded the bamboo directly to the OSB flooring.

 

I think our bamboo boards are 140mm wide, T&G, and were dead easy to lay, as they are very accurately sized.  The time consuming bit was spreading the Sikabond.  Not sure about the engineered bamboo, but I'd say it's just not needed.  Strand woven solid bamboo doesn't move like timber, and once bonded down it's not going anywhere.

 

 

[Ferdinand]

Dogs hmmm.

 

I would want a trial for a couple of years.

 

The issue I see with directly bonded bamboo is that if something doesn't work to get it back up again you will need the tenaciousness of someone demolishing an Eqyptian pyramid with hand tools. I could be wrong - have not tried it, but I have the impression @JSHarris thinks it is there to stay.

 

The other alternative for Plan B is to have something ready to go on top if your bamboo fails, or get one that can be sanded back and refinished. Can strand woven bamboo be sanded?

 

This is very much about 10-12 years time and how easy or not it is to bring back to as-new condition after those years of dog-abuse.

 

People I know with umpteen dogs have tended to go for relatively-inexpensive laminate and replace every few years, by which time it is dog-tired ( !). Personally if I were putting something down to stay likely to get dogs galloping around it would be refinishable multiple times or hard tiles such as porcelain or quarry. That will have thicker dogs such as red setters skating around like toddlers on ice, but should outlast them.

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited June 13, 2017 by Ferdinand

[Jeremy Harris]

You can sand strand woven solid bamboo OK, as I've made some bits and pieces from offcuts.  I'm pretty sure that only the lacquer would get scratched, anyway, and so a light rub down and re-finish would probably do the job.  The lacquer is tough and a satin finish and seems to impregnate the whole boards, as it's also on the underside, too.  I think that just waxing light scratches would be enough to make them invisible.

 

I doubt that getting the stuff up would be any harder than getting up tiles or a stone floor, and might be a little easier.  The Sikabond is certainly tough, but can be pulled away from concrete fairly cleanly, albeit with a lot of effort.

[Barney12]

Problem solved: Linky

[Ferdinand]

Thanks for the further detail @JSHarris

 

F

[PeterW]

1 minute ago, Barney12 said:

Problem solved: Linky

 

You've obviously never owned a German Shepherd ....

 

we have bamboo and it's been sanded in one area where a nameless child dropped a soldering iron onto it and "didn't notice the burning smell..." Sanded out with 120 and 360 grit paper and recoated with the Ronseal Diamond Hard satin varnish and you need to look carefully to see the difference in the varnish as the burn isn't visible.