Replacing/covering crappy laminate floor

[befuzzled]

We have seen a possible house, built early 2000's. Only thing I don't like is it has that cheap, crappy, B and Q laminate throughout. What could we do to get rid? Could we lay real wood/engineered wood straight on top or would we have to strip it back? Am assuming is concrete floors underneath. What about carpet - can that go on laminate?

Why don't you just take the laminate up and get rid of it? If you're going to the effort of putting real wood down, you may as well get rid of the rubbish stuff. Once you've got the first bit out, I wouldn't imagine it was difficult to lift.

and then lay the good stuff direct on the concrete?

Carpet can definitely go on top of dodgy laminate, so long as you check there's no underlying damp etc to come back & be-devil you. Useful extra layer of insulation/sound proofing in fact. Just tell yourself it's posh underlay .

You'd probably need to start again with engineered wood etc or it'd end up too thick?

You put an underlay down first. Just like you would with carpet. You can put a damp proof membrane under that too, if you want.

But yy to it ending up too thick. What would you do with your skirting boards?

no skirting boards (unfinished new build), just has those cheapy laminate floor edging things - so, rip up the laminate, add underlay, engineered wood (have seen some I like), add skirting boards? I am going to have to get a flooring company to do this right? Gonna be pricey?

At the moment all rooms up and down laminate apart from bathrooms and utility. I quite like this idea - def all eng wood downstairs - would you put carpets upstairs, or something else in kids rooms - rubber etc???