birth pools and laminate wood flooring?

[laksa]

Hi ladies,

Have booked my birth pool, which is a rigid, heated one. However I am a bit worried whether our floor will get damaged as dh is putting engineered wooden flooring (not completely solid wood) down in the room (on ground floor) we intend to use next week. Does anyone know if such a weight would damage that kind of flooring, I am planning on putting a bit of old carpet directly under the birth pool to protect from scratches etc

thanks in advance xx.

Hi we had no problems with our flooring- the only thing I'd suggest is to put the pool in a corner. Good luck!

thanks spirit, why in a corner?

have you got an old duvet you can put underneath? this way you protect the floor whilst giving you some extra support from the hardness. That's what I did with my 2nd water birth in new house.

We had a piano that wasn't a grand, but as heavy as one (so the mover said) and that weight was on 4 small legs (in padded cups) on engineered boards and the floor was fine. Your weight is spread over a much larger area. I'm sure if you use a cheap duvet (ikea do very cheap ones) as suggested or carpet that will be fine. Maybe use those DIY decorator's sheets too to waterproof the floor.

sarah and jenster, thanks for the suggestions of a duvet as padding, I am obviously just obsessing over little things to distract me from the reason we're getting the pool Giving birth seems like such hard work when you are trying to do your house up at the same time.

xx