Laminate fucking flooring

[Iguana]

I guess I'm just being a bit thick, I've spent a lot of the time that I was reading this thread inspecting the gaps between the floorboards wondering how a mouse would get through them.

Laminates are preferable to carpets any day tbh. In the rented place I was living in longest I kept trying to convince the landlord to allow me to put laminates in the living room at my expense. My husband has really bad dust allergies and can't really live with carpet, though we didn't appreciate how bad it was until we moved here and he stopped suffering.

The beauty of wood or laminates is that you can see the dirt better than you can on a carpet and it is easier to clean so you don't have to live with the dirt. And my two pups are still being house trained and I feel more confident about getting urine off the wood than I do out of the carpet.

And if you want to change the look of a room it's so much easier and cheaper to replace a rug than a whole carpet.

 

[zenie]

I have laminate and I hate it

The dog follows me round constantly when she's here and she cant get her little claws to grip and goes skidding EVERYWHERE - it also means she must piss the bloke downstairs off with all the noise.

My flat seems to trap dust so it needs sweeping all the time.

I have the retro 60's parquet looking lino in the kitchen though!!

I want carpets

 

[foo]

If I was renting I'd prefer laminate floors to manky carpet.

I think this thread is silly. How obvious is it that expensive option A will look better than cheapo option B? Pretty obvious? I don't think that anyone would choose laminate over proper hardwood floors, but that isn't the choice in most people's budgets, is it?

exactly.

after years of manky carpet, which stinks frankly - i may buy some laminate. i'm not yet decided. if i did, my son's friend would put it down so i'd save on the laying cost (which is apparently as much as the bloody bits). i quite like these wide oaky looking boards i've seen.....oh i dunno.

i s'pose if i do i get common ole laminate, at least milesy won't come round.

i'm sold!

 

[foo]

reading the thread, i don't think Drew's way off the mark. i've overheard some hilariously snobbish conversations about people who choose to have laminate floors over real wood/carpet.

apparently, these days, it's frightfully 'council'

(not saying this is what BA meant though)

 

[Skim]

Seriously, wtf kind of crappy wooden flooring have most people on this thread come across? I have wooden floors throughout my house and you wouldn't get drafts through them. Nevermind lose money or have mice crawl through them.

The wooden floors in my flat are crap. It's a bit of a disappointment, really. When we first moved in we had a look under the manky carpet and considered having them renovated.

Then we had a mouse problem. Once the kitchen holes were sealed up, mice decided to explore other rooms in the flat and see where they could escape. We ripped up the carpet to disocover cracks in the flooring, especially around the radiator pipes. Some of these have been sealed up with wire wool and filler now, and the horrible carpet has been put back in place.

The next-door neighbour has had the same mouse problem and when I had a look around her flat, you could see why – beautiful floor, but cracks and gaps everywhere.

Renovating the floorboards would cost loads and wouldn't retain much heat in winter, so in the new year we're thinking about getting a new carpet in two bedrooms and the hallway. I'm not the biggest fan of carpets, but they are warm and more pleasant to sit on than laminate/wood. And if the mice come back, they'll have no chance

 

[milesy]

i s'pose if i do i get common ole laminate, at least milesy won't come round.

like i need an excuse to stay away!!

 

[girasol]

exactly.

after years of manky carpet, which stinks frankly - i may buy some laminate. i'm not yet decided. if i did, my son's friend would put it down so i'd save on the laying cost (which is apparently as much as the bloody bits). i quite like these wide oaky looking boards i've seen.....oh i dunno.

i s'pose if i do i get common ole laminate, at least milesy won't come round.

i'm sold!

I got the oaky looking ones recently and laid it down myself (with a lot of help from my boyfriend ).

It took us about 8 hours to do it and I couldn't walk properly for a week after and my knees were really sore (get some kneepads if you ever think of doing it yourself and do some stretching at regular intervals, I didn't!).

I really like the way it looks, I can send you a pic, if you need help making your mind up. My old carpet was, well, old and stinky, the air in my flat just feels a lot cleaner now.

 

[milesy]

the darker laminates aren't too bad actually, it's the light beech stuff i really don't like. it never seems to look homely or comfortable or warm to me.

 

[foo]

ooh ta iemanja - show us some pics please

(it's very hard to tell what it'll look like when looking and rows and rows of the stuff in the shop).

 

[foo]

like i need an excuse to stay away!!

aw, i do love you milesy.

 

[FabricLiveBaby!]

Then again, what the hell is dog friendly?

Lino!

 

[Skim]

the darker laminates aren't too bad actually, it's the light beech stuff i really don't like. it never seems to look homely or comfortable or warm to me.

Yeah, the darker ones are much better. We put down an oaky laminate in the last flat and it didn't look that bad, while the new flat already has a light beech laminate in the front room and kitchen. It's got a bit of a sheen, which I don't like. Still – it's clean.

 

[foo]

well, i'd like to say here that iemanja and blokey (can't remember his name)'s floor looks bloody marvellous.

i'm sold (again)

 

[girasol]

Magneze, laminate floor layer extraordinaire!

We worked out that I was good a cutting the boards with the jigsaw cutter and he was good at hammering them into place...

A good team we made, I think we only argued once (or maybe twice)

 

[lyra_k]

reading the thread, i don't think Drew's way off the mark. i've overheard some hilariously snobbish conversations about people who choose to have laminate floors over real wood/carpet.

apparently, these days, it's frightfully 'council'

(not saying this is what BA meant though)

Well you're much more charitable than me, then, cos I thought that was exactly what he meant.

"let's scoff at the ridiculous no-taste tacky people who are stupid enough to think they can aspire to the wood-floors look when they clearly can't afford it. Stick with carpet and know your place, plebs."

 

[gaijingirl]

apparently, these days, it's frightfully 'council'

Oh well... we got it just right then.... what with living on a council estate and everything!!

 

[Skim]

Well you're much more charitable than me, then, cos I thought that was exactly what he meant.

"let's scoff at the ridiculous no-taste tacky people who are stupid enough to think they can aspire to the wood-floors look when they clearly can't afford it. Stick with carpet and know your place, plebs."

Brainaddict's outraged that the hoi polloi may have middle-class aspirations. How very dare they!

Blame interior design magazines, they give everyone high-falutin' ideas for their council hovels

 

[milesy]

i've just re-read the opening post.

what the fuck is wrong with leopard print leotards?!?!?

 

[Skim]

Nothing!

 

[Brainaddict]

You know it genuinely wouldn't have occured to me to connect laminate flooring with the lower classes I visited some ridiculously expensive artists' warehouse flat in north london the other day. It had laminate flooring. A lot of the places I saw in Brixton when looking for a flat were inhabited by economic migrants from Clapham earning twice what I earn. They had laminate flooring. And the first people I saw with it were my parents. Since they are middle class themselves, I can't really connect their activities with 'aspiring' to be middle class

You lot have some weird obsessions.

If I slagged off fake tans, would that be interpreted as a sideswipe at good honest working folk too?

*sigh*

 

[lyra_k]

Get a bloody carpet! It looks better, feels better, and doesn't look like you're aspiring to some well-off-middle-class fantasy you saw in magazines*.

yeah, fair enough I can't even begin to imagine where people got the idea that you were being a fucking snob and sneering at people who dare to aspire to well-off middle-classness (and are therefore presumably neither).

 

[Mation]

Why is this thread still going??

Surely everyone now understands that proper floorboards are best, but if you haven't got them or they're too decrepit then only laminate floors will do.

Honestly.

 

[Jayshat]

Lino!

How, do they not claw into it? Good idea though If only Sammie (RIP) was still alive to get the benefit...

 

[Groucho]

"I want to rhino over your lino, I want to rhino with you"

Has there never been a song about laminate?

 

[Groucho]

What about carpet? Any songs about carpet?

Rugs?

 

[Brainaddict]

yeah, fair enough I can't even begin to imagine where people got the idea that you were being a fucking snob and sneering at people who dare to aspire to well-off middle-classness (and are therefore presumably neither).

S'all a matter of interpretation isn't it? Perhaps what bothered me was more the idea of people aspiring to something they saw in magazines - the middle-classness of it being purely incidental, or only offensive in terms of its inherent lack of originality/creativity.

But hey, if you want to feel sneered at for your class, don't let me stop you.

 

[milesy]

What about carpet? Any songs about carpet?

Rugs?

"ooh carpet,
it's really ace,
it's nice to lie down on,
and rub with your face"

I just made that up

 

[Brainaddict]

"ooh carpet,
it's really ace,
it's nice to lie down on,
and rub with your face"

I just made that up

*round of applause*

Encore!! Encore!!

 

[lyra_k]

But hey, if you want to feel sneered at for your class, don't let me stop you.

Oooo, bravo, that would have been a nice touch if I had, really cutting. I'd probably have been really, really irritated by that. <--- (battle of the insincere smilies)

 

[Skim]

"ooh carpet,
it's really ace,
it's nice to lie down on,
and rub with your face"

I just made that up

You have inspired me, Milesy.

"I've got a floor
That'll rock your core
It ain't real wood but I sure am lovin' it
Come put your dutty booty on my durable laminate."

Thanks