29 June 2020

Installing laminate flooring - more than just a jigsaw?

| koalathebear
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The house we’ve bought has laminate flooring that is extremely Fugly and we were hoping to have it ripped up and nicer-looking laminate laid down. It’s pretty much going to be the whole house except the kitchen and bathrooms.

We have a dog so we were hoping for the AC3 or more rating of laminate. We went out to one of the flooring places in Mitchell and the quote that they gave us was for at least $19,000 – including materials, installation and presumably ripping up the old floor. The price made us blink but apparently that’s standard 😛

Today we went to Bunnings who were of course pushing the DIY angle and suggesting that we attend one of their home improvement workshops and do the flooring ourselves. If we were good at DIY, we could potentially get the materials and do the whole house for $4,000 or less.

The thing is, we really do not want to do it ourselves. Even though they kept telling us that the snap and lock laminate is easy peasy, they also said be careful of tradies that don’t follow instructions and don’t leave the right spacing etc. The way we see it, we’re likely to worse than a bad tradie … 😛

It seems like the best compromise is for us to buy the materials ourselves and then ask a tradesman to rip up the existing floor and lay the new floor. We know we can look in the yellow pages or the Chronicle but it’s hard to know who’s going to do a good job and who isn’t. Do people have recommendations for tradesmen who can put in laminate flooring and do a good job? Thanks very much in advance!

If you’re also looking for a flooring specialist, check out our recently updated article on the best flooring specialists in Canberra.

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koalathebear9:11 am 19 May 10

sepi: *turns pale* there’s no way we’d do it ourselves. My partner feels up to painting the walls but he really doesn’t want to risk doing a crap job on the floors.

We’re now going to buy the materials from Harvey Norman Flooring and getting a separate quote on the installation – the price looks like it will be MUCH better than the “all in one” massive quote we received above from the place in Mitchell. We’ve received a couple of good recommendations for guys to help us lay the floor down.

can you do one room first or something?

I’d be careful of doing it yourself. We have one room where someone has done an amateur job, and there are several large cracks between lines of boards. We had a huge quote to re-do that room too, and have decided to live with the cracks for now.

koalathebear12:27 pm 18 May 10

deano: it would be the house so it’s probably something along the lines of 100sqm or thereabouts – also a very small set of stairs.

Sorry – I should mention that Ray did a lovely job on our laminate floor boards; but this was two years ago and not sure if he is still in Canberra. A word on laminate floor boards; we have three dogs and we used inexpensive (but better quality) boards from Bunnings; they are fantastic and not a single scratch or gouge mark; two years after having them put down. I actually think these are preferable to wood for owners with indoor pets.

That quote is insane. Give Ray a call; 0408 639 845. He is reliable, lovely, inexpensive and good at a whole range of handy-man type things (he tiles too).

$19,000 for laminate!?! WTF? How big an area are you covering? We had 40sqm of floating solid hardwood put down for less than that.

The DIY laminate flooring is very easy to put down – especially if you are replacing existing laminate as you shouldn’t need to reposition the skirting boards. The better suppliers can provide an instructional video that explains it step by step. Doing a good job just requires a bit of pre-planning so that you start in the right position so as not to end up with fiddly bits and odd angles.

DIY also has the advantage in that you can stagger the installation so as not have to relocate the furniture in every room all at once.

We had laminate flooring done, it looks great! It looks like real timber flooring!
We had the guys at Nu-Lay Carpets (Pirie Street, Fyshwick) install it for us! They are great, cannot recommend them enough.. a great range of laminates, friendly service and affordable!

It really is as easy as Bunnings say it is,with some basic tools and no expierence my brother and I did our 5mx6m lounge room in a weekend for under $1000 and I’m very happy with it.
I don’t think you need a tradesman, any half decent handy man could handle this with you buying the materials.
Good luck

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