laminate floor thickness

[Matt@]

think I'm chancing my arm posting about laminate flooring here but here goes ! (at least its in off topic section )

looking to put down about 16 sq m in our house in hall, cloakroom leading into kitchen. I want to use Quickstep Impressive Ultra ( £22 psqm) which is 12mm but 12mm ends up 2mm above adjoining carpet and I still need underlay allbeit 2mm or so. So my question is, having no experience of laminate flooring, 1) will the 4mm extra height look naff against the carpet 2) If I buy 8mm plus underlay so its level with carpet will the 8mm still give a "nice" feel to the floor. Or do i compromise and go for 10mm floor plus underlay?

any thoughts from those that know

 

[skipdiver]

If you get the appropriate carpet to laminate joining strip it will be fine with whatever thickness you choose. It's not a massive difference between the two differing surfaces. Quickstep is at the better end of laminate flooring, quality wise and is what i tend to use.

 

[Fitzroy]

My 'real wood floor' is a full 15-20mm higher than the carpet in the adjoining room, see gap under door in picture, it has a nice wood cover strip that accounts for the level change. Even this missmatch in height seems totally ok. If this were across the width of a room then perhaps it's a little large, and the cover strip is not that cheap. However i'd say you would need a cover strip of some kind even if they were the same height, the carpet edge and floor edge are not well finished as they are not meant to be seen.

F.

PS. Yes repainting the bottom of the door is on my to do list!

 

[LancsRick]

8mm will feel fine as long as you use decent underlay. I'd suggest sonic gold myself.

 

[MrDavidRoberts]

Decent underlay is the key, at least 5mm! - the sonic isn't really that good, use the xps/fibreboard ones as they are denser and provides much better support and you get no squishy feeling.even the cheapest 6-7mm laminate will feel fine if you got decent underlay.

Would I use laminate myself specially the one I would have to pay £22sqm for? hahah not in a million years!
Once you have tried real oak flooring, you will never ever go back to the laminate junk.

for £22sqm you can already buy real oak floor.
btw at B&Q tradepoint they got I think 11 or 12mm real oak engineered flooring for £16sqm if you are fine with the small wooden blocks. Good wide boards and 18mm+ start at about £25sqm.

Why would someone pay £22sqm for a laminate.. I have no idea...That's just pure scam,I saw wickes sell 12mm stuff for about £10sqm + they got 15% off their flooring right now, but people who buy it for that prices deserves to be scammed like that in my opinion.

 

[Matt@]

people that pay £22sqm deserve to be scammed???? :wink: well some friends have the b and q engineered oak floor down and it looks rubbish imho. Their reviews show many people cannot lay the floor easily and that includes pro floorers. Also wood being varnished does it not mark easier? Would I have 18mm solid oak floor? not a chance! too much scope for movement. I have been advised to only buy click together boards not standard T&G (by someone who does this for a living) . Actually the total area to be done is 16 sqm so the difference in cost between cheap at £15 and scam at £22 is £115 - not a huge amount and worth paying if the product is substantially better. Ultra is waterproof and used in bathrooms apparently. Anyway, good news that I won't notice a small step so may go for it....

 

[skipdiver]

Personally, i would rather have a good quality laminate, as quickstep is, than some shonky cheapo oak from B&Q.

 

[MrDavidRoberts]

I didn't said you have to get their cheapest crap 11mm just comparing that you can already get real wood for less than that..
I wouldnt have that as well, but the guy is paying the same price for basically toilet paper where he could get the real stuff which he is trying to immitate anyway
I have some cheaper wickes 18mm oak which retailed for about £30/m2 before their usual 10-15% discounts and than also some higher-end stuff circa £60/m2 (where you get wider/longer boards) and the quality is the same really once its laid.
Just don't get those super super entry level ones (B&Q £16 m2 stuff) where there's no thickness and the boards consists from several smaller fingers jointed together for each board as they are simply too thin!

Yes Sir In my book you deserve to be ripped off like that if you think paying £22m2 for toilet paper is a good idea, but clearly there is market for suckers since they are being offered for sale.

 

[ColeyS1]

I'd sooner have laminate flooring that looks like tiles, then try and do tiling myself.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[MrDavidRoberts]

Oh cmon guys, isn't this a woodworking forum where people join because they like to make stuff/do things better than others and have a bit more quality in their life?

 

[skipdiver]

If you get something you want at a price you are happy to pay, then you haven't been ripped off. I don't get the "toilet paper for £22" comment. I've fitted flooring from £5 to £60 a sq metre in my time and all have their places and uses. I personally am not fussed for real oak flooring as it takes too much maintenance. I fitted a load for a mate of mine and a few years down the line it looks terrible. My quickstep laminate flooring looks as good as the day i laid it. You pays your money and you takes your choice.

 

[Matt@]

haha love the comments I dont want real wood and if I did I'd rather it engineered than solid. I want it as easy as possible to lay and as hard wearing as possible and for it to look as good as when it was laid for as long as possible and I'm more likely to get that with laminate than wood I think.

Looked at some cheapo today and put edges together and the gap not consistent. I know this is a woodworking forum and I did qualify my first post in saying maybe it wasnt a good idea posting this here but people can get a bit obsessed with having wood! Friends who had the BQ flooring have wooden worktops. Been in 6 mths - lots of black marks etc. Mine (we are doing kitchen as well) will be laminate - wipe clean and thats it, same with the floor - dont have to worry about the lacquer scratching or high heels indenting - just fit and forget and thats what I want.

Quickstep seems like a tried and tested product to me so happy to pay a premium and as said the extra sum £100 odd over 16 sqm is almost irrelevant so why wouldnt I? The one thing that has put me off the Quickstep I looked at is the "planks" are large - 2050 x 240 and I have alot of fiddly and angled walls to fit to.

An advantage with quickstep £22 pqm apparently is that its waterproof and the grooves are finished and repel the water whereas standard does not do this so more chance of blowing with spillages.