And naive to think it will cost less?

[NomsQualityStreets]

I've been thinking about having laminate flooring on our staircase and upstairs in our house. The old carpets are nearly 10yo and are looking rather worn now. I think it will be easier with LOs as well.

I don't know the first thing about fitting etc but I'll explain roughly what we need it to cover

• a master bedroom about 4mx4m
• a room about 2.5m X 3.5m
• a standard staircase
• hallway about 1m x 2m

The laminate I like is £10 psqm

DP thinks it's not worth it as the whole thing with fitting will be at least £2500 to me it seems like an overestimation but I'm really inexperienced in this sort of thing.

Anyone have a rough idea if he's right or how much I should expect it to cost?

Cheap laminate is a waste of money. It chips and warps. If you are going to do it go for good stuff.

I would be more wary of slipping on laminate floor on stairs. I wouldn’t entertain having it for that reason.

How on earth do you have laminate flooring on stairs?

(Goes to Google ...)

No to laminate on the stairs. There are other floorings that would be suitable for upstairs that would be less noisy.

Think also of noise if you have neighbors or sleeping babies. Footfall is very loud on hard flooring especially if you’re used to carpet.

I don't know any fitters who would fit laminate on stairs without the big sucking-air-through-the-teeth estimate. It is fiddly and VERY time consuming, and you have to fit anti-slip and be a good cutter to get a good look.

I’d say no to laminate on stairs. It’s slippery and amplifies the sound.

I really wouldnt get laminate for the upstairs again. Yes it's much easier to keep clean but underestimated the noise with kids. Herd of elephants came to mind more than once.

I definitely wouldn't have it on stairs, for slips and fall purposes.

But if it's what you want then definitely go for the good stuff.

We have laminate in the kids rooms, it is incredibly noisy. I cannot imagine how loud it would make stairs.

No to laminate full stop

Have never seen laminate stairs, can't imagine it being very good although I can see the cleaning being easier. I'd just go for a darker harder wearing carpet.

My neighbours have laminate upstairs and I can constantly hear banging and scraping furniture. It’s bloody awful. Plus I can imagine it’d be cold on winter mornings.

Posted that too soon, it quite easy to fit yourselves though probably not on stairs. DH did ours and he is not very handy at all.

I’ve fallen ‘up’ the stairs recently. If it had been on laminate I would have been quite hurt.

Loud, slippery and you need to lay out for decent quality for it to last well and look good. Plus it's fiddly to fit so fitting will cost, especially on a tricky area like stairs.
I'd avoid.

Have you checked if there's wood under the carpet you can clean up (sand and polish /varnish...

Deffo remember re sound insulation /slipperiness

There is a way to fit it on stairs but not on the step bit. More like on the back of each stair. You could stub your toe but it looks pretty nice IMO.

We got a lovely grey carpet on our stairs and landing, quite a heavy traffic area obviously and it doesn't show up a thing. Our stairs go round on a bend so a lot of wastage and it was still very reasonable.

I wouldn't get laminate on stairs ever. Accident waiting to happen.

Don’t laminate the stairs, for Pete’s sake!

Laminate on stairs is not a good idea. Cheap laminate chips and warps, it will be slippy and noisy, plus it will be fiddly and therefore expensive to fit.

I wouldn't go for just painted stairs either, although it is what I have. A centre runner can look smart.

I've never laminated stairs, that sounds crazy - just sand or put a runner on them - but I've used it in 5 properties I or my family have lived in and this:

Cheap laminate is a waste of money. It chips and warps. If you are going to do it go for good stuff

Simply isn't true. My first place, I couldn't afford anything but the cheapest B&Q - 15 years later, it's still fine.

My brothers and sisters the same - taking the Homer route of 'second least expensive'

Then I bought some middle of the road stuff for my latest place, and it is similarly excellent 4 years later (and I can't recommend the rubbery stuff for bathrooms and kitchens enough - it's fantastic)

I've always laid it myself (if you do this, buy a guillotine cutter from amazon for about 50 quid - it will save you so much time). It's a bit frustrating until you get the hang of it, but we laid my 9x3 living room in half a day at my old house, and it looks lovely.

Laminate on stairs will be loud and look awful - you'll have to have coverings on the end of each step to cover the join as the laminate can't bend round it. Carpet is much better for stairs - better grip and noise absorption too.
Laminate upstairs can be fine - you'll need a good quality underlay though with acoustic properties to reduce noise.

Re the price, we did ours a few months ago:
We have "Krono original vintage classic" laminate in our master bedroom, with "Wood Plus 5mm TimberTech2 Acoustic Plus Wood & Laminate Flooring Underlay", it looks great and isn't noisy. The room is 14 x 11 feet, we laid it ourselves, it came to about £360 in total for the flooring, underlay, scotia beading and door bar.

Only downside is you really see the dustbunnies if you haven't hoovered for a few days - obviously they'd still be there with carpet but they just seem much more visible with laminate, I think as they tend to collect together in the corners instead of sticking to the carpet fibres.

Go to a local floor fitter. We have just had a quote for living room with laminate flooring £20 per meter, and the stairs, landing and three double bedrooms carpeted for £1400. We don’t need underlay, but that includes fitting.

Carpetrught quoted us £3100 for the same job, same laminate and same carpet.