Is wood laminate practical?

[joanneg]

We need new flooring and am not sure whether to have laminate or carpet. It is for a lounge/diner. Was all set for laminate (as was worried ds would drop food and stain carpet!) But one of my friends has said that laminate chips and get scuff marks. Ds is quite ruff with his toys and chucks them about a bit.

Any one have any ideas for or against?

Well i have just brought laminate for my living/dinning room, and hall. My dad said it is a big mistake because the room is to big and it will be to noisy.

We have had laminate before in a house we rented and the only prob i had was with how quickly it got dusty, but it only takes a couple of minutes to wipe it over.

I personally, can't afford to keep replacing carpet, so thats why i had it.

I've just been and peered at my laminate and if you look really closely, there's a few scratches. But for sheer practicality, it would get my vote every time. The joy of clearing up under the table after a meal compared with carpet...

its is noisy and cold Imo, but is practical yes

it depends ont eh quality about scuffs
you xcould try vinyl planks - like karndean, many a thread on this

At least with wooden floors/laminate you can see how dusty it is. Just think how filthy your carpets must be. Don't do anything about it when I see it mind

you have o wash the stuff all the time

at least with carpet you can Hide th e filth!

what is karndean? I did a mumsnetter search on the worl and only found it on this thread!! I take it this Karndeam is vinal - is that practical for a lounge diner?

yes its warmer

www.karndean.co.uk/home.asp

here

I had and have laminate, we had a light coloured one and then changes it to a darker one, I was forever washing the light one, showed up everything

The problem with laminate is that if you drop some liquid and don't clean it up immediatly there is a big chance for the laminate to warp or get bubbles along the edges. If you want something that looks like wood Amtico is great (though a bit expensive as well considering the material). There are also some stick-on laminates that you can mop with water and look very much the same as laminate (ps and are not that noisy either).

Laminate every time!!

We have it in our lounge and kitchen/diner. Shows up all the dirt so you know that when youve cleaned it, really is clean. Just imagine how much filth is in your carpet - Id rather see it and clean it up. Very easy to clean and use wipes to wash. Just very noisy when you drop something.

However - may change my opinion when dd leanrs to crawl - will she be able to in such flooring??

we had laminate in my old house and it was great all through the hall lounge and conservatory to match, it was an industrial flooring which is harder wearing and you can even wear pin heels on it with no scratchees and it has a 15 year guarantee .I fully recommend it, infact I'm buying it for my new house.

we did get laminate in our kicthen whoch looks fab, but
it does chip if you drop sharp things on it. it never seems to mop up shiny clean, as it shows streaks. And it collects and shows the marks like nothing else.
Aside from that we love it and it is great for the under the highchair bits...

and get good foam underlay the noise is not an issue

We got an expensive laminate in a dark colour called light chestnut. It's gorgeous and we've had it down for five years. There's a couple of scratches on it but nothing to really notice. I wouldn't part with my laminate for anything. When our kitchen flooded we replaced lino in there with tilelock which looks like stone tiles but is laminate. Glasses bounce which is always a plus.

cuppy - you'll probably find dd learns to crawl much easier on the laminate than carpet cos can slither along easily - just realised my ds is a slug - slithering along on his belly leaving a wet dribbly streak after him.

I would go for laminate or alything over carpet. we now have no carpet in our house - a variety of hard floors - tiles & laminate & parkett & painted floors. The laminate os pretty hard wearing and should last years. Much longer than carpet.

We recently went on holiday & the apartment's living/dining area had carpet. In the 2 weels we were there our 3 sons between them (ages 7 months, 3 & 4) had
wee'd
vomitted
spilt drinks
ground in semi- chewed/digested food
and goodness knows what else.
The carpets could really have done with professional stream cleaning, after just a fortnight.

I was so glad I had no carpet to worry about. I would never reckommend it.

As other have said, you might be able to see the muck, but at least it's easier to clean, you know it's clean, and who knows what's living in that carpet?

btw, re noise, it shouldn't be an issue - make sure you get good underlay

Laminate is very common, every Tom Dick & Harry have laminate flooring

we have indeed

As, of course, do we...

I was first !

Point proven then

hi, i've just stripped out a quite exp laminate, after only 4-5years, despite 15 yr warranty the edges "blew" where it acceitently got wet- dd2 and the cloth in the wash basin!! floor above, just had karndean knight tile wood plank put down, cost around the same as good laminate, feels less "clanky" on the floor , as glued down , similar appearance, better texture , but would lay laminate again after seeing this ( still have lounge done in lam)

meant to say WOULDNT lay lam again - not drunk, just tired!!