Decent wood effect laminate. If it exists your recommendations, please!

[Sooperswooper]

We moved into our house a few months ago and I need to get on with re-doing my bedroom. It's awful- different coloured (purple- why? WHY?) walls, nasty, stained carpet- like a student doss house room from back in the day.

Painting the walls isn't an issue (on a teeny budget, so I'll be getting on with that this weekend) but need to rip up the carpets as they are just horrible. I quite fancy wooden floors (covered with a largish rug so it's toasty on the toes when hopping out of bed) - but the floorboards seem to be in terrible condition with MDF replacements and all sorts so wouldn't be worth sanding them, staining etc. Thought about engineered wood and then almost passed out at the price. I've had a look at laminate, and i get the general feeling that if it's decent stuff, then it's not too bad. Can anyone tell me what the decent stuff is and where I might find it? I'm looking for a oak colour I think- not too dark and not too light.

Also any tips on the underlay needed and the ease of laying much appreciated. My dh will be doing that part..

Quik Step. We had that in our last house and got many compliments about it. Barely any marks or scratches after 8 years, despite 2 boys and 2 dogs.

Another vote for Quick Step.

Had it down in the kitchen/diner , hall & downstairs loo for about 5 years now & it still looks great.

I would say that we did have it professionally laid. A friend also has it but did a DIY job of it & hers does not look as good as mine - her (D)H didn't get the edging quite right.

It's not the cheapest & I honestly think if you can possibly raise the pennies it really is worth having it done for you.

If you are in Sussex I can highly recommend a firm - PM me if you want.

Ooo thanks- I'll look at that in more details later. In terms of what it looks/feels like, is thicker better? I know you can get laminate with actual grooves, which is what I'm after too.. Would you say the higher the price, the higher the quality or are there some good cheaper types within quick step and others?

Olsen Laminate from Woodpecker bought via local flooring shop.

You could paint the floor - would be cheap and hide many many flaws. We just put down collaris Harlech oak from B and Q and we're impressed with how good it looks. Used fibreboard underlay as it's a cold house and the subfloors are a bit uneven.

www.simplybamboo.co.uk/natural-strand-woven

real wood for cheaper than many laminates

I'd agree with Talkin on bamboo, but if you want an oak type laminate then the upper end of the Pergo range is pretty good. For underlay, probably worth getting an acoustic one to help with noise management, even though you will have a rug too.

our bamboo is laid straight onto concrete and wood : its 11 mm thick so is not loud at all : I luff it - even after 6 years

I've got this in the kitchen and hall, with duck egg blue walls. It looks lush - did get it professionally fitted (due to the large number of doors and corners) but if it was a pretty square room I'm sure it would be fine.

Some of the quickstep stuff is more expensive than engineered wood though, looking at
www.flooringsupplies.co.uk/engineered-oak-flooring

which is where we got our engineered wood from. Have you definitely looked at cheaper sources of engineered wood floors?

Yy to Quick Step. Loved it in the old house.

we've got quickstep

TBH I think the top end laminates look much better than the lower end engineered woods

Thanks for all the recommendations- they're great. Had a hilarious conversation with dh last night who vetoed laminate until I told him our bathroom floor was laminate. He thought it was proper wood. Shame we don't know what type is was, although it seems very similar to the Kronos one which I'm veering towards. Definitely want the 4 grooves in it I think and that is a great colour too, hidingfromdd. Painting just wouldn't work due to the replacement plasterboard (or whatever they are) floorboards unfortunately.

For those of you who love quickstep, can you recommend a "type" which has the 4 bevels/grooves and wood effect?

Budget is max £150 and the room is 3.9m x 3m. If I did get someone professional to lay it, what are the approximate costs of that? Really keen to get on with it all now!

We have Trendtime by Parador in Pecan throughout the house. It's been down 6 years and hardly a scratch. I went into the shop to buy wood but this looked better.

I was really keen on the Kronos stuff, but I did get a couple of samples of the supernatural colonial oak and the monastery oak, and they did not look so great. Actually, going into B and Q and fondling a few helped me make my decision. the one we put in worked out (with a special offer) at about 10 sqm, has the four grooves, and according to my brother looks like real wood, and he's fussy. We took off the skirting boards to lay it and then put them back again afterwards and IMO that looks much much nicer than beading or other trims.

Half tempted to post a pic, but would totally out me as have posted ALL over facebook given I'm all smug about doing it myself.

Ooh mummytomog what did you go for in the end? I know this has no relevance but am going to post a pic of what I found when ripping up th carpet just now. Good thing I had decided that I didn't want to sand and stain plasterboard wood

We went for Collaris Harlech Oak, in narrow. It went really well with our worktops in the end (butcher block Ikea) although I loved some of the darker colours.

Close up picture looks crap, but it really does look like the other picture in the flesh so to speak.

www.diy.com/nav/decor/flooring/laminate-flooring/wood_effect_laminate/Colours-Collaris-Caramel-Harlech-Oak-Effect-Laminate-Flooring-12578654

I've got quickstep perspective, which has the grooves. Been down almost four years now in hall and living/dining room and still looks new. I had my local carpet fitter come and measure and quote for fitting it - he got me to order the materials online as he said I'd get a better price than he could offer.

This was mine: www.quick-step.co.uk/laminate/perspective/natural-varnished-oak-planks?id=Flooring_FloorAggregate/005_400436

Incredibly hard wearing and looked great.

I think that's the same one we had (moved house recently).

We had someone fit it. Done in a day (but the floor was perfectly flat concrete so easy to do) and total cost was about £1000. That was 8 years ago and it was a very big open plan room.

We have the homebase oak effect laminate www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/richmond-oak-laminate-flooring---213-sq-m-per-pack-527147

We had the front sitting room done about 4 years ago and we recently got a different joiner in to fit our kitchen and lay the same laminate in our dining room. He said that he did initially think it was the floorboards that had been sanded.

I have [www.quick-step.co.uk/laminate/perspective/homage-oak-natural-oiled-planks?id=Flooring_FloorAggregate/005_403818[ this]] in my massive kitchen/diner, utility room and loo. It's been down 5 years. Looks ace, has worn really well, is easy to keep clean and gets loads of compliments.

We saw it in a flooring shop, then found it LOADS cheaper online. We paid someone to fit it which makes all the difference I think. It is sort of 'Staggered' on the floor.

www.quick-step.co.uk/laminate/perspective/homage-oak-natural-oiled-planks?id=Flooring_FloorAggregate/005_403818 try again!

If there's a direct flooring shop near you, they sell pergo at hall the price of John Lewis.