Laminate flooring! Should you buy it?

Back four years ago, when we thought our house would be finished quickly, we purchased laminate flooring.  It looks like a wood floor, can have either a bright shine or a matte finish and should have been a great product.  The company we bought the flooring from, held onto it for several months as we expected to get it installed before the end of the year.

When that didn’t happen, we had to pick it up.  First, I stored it at our old house, in the living room.  When we got tired of how that looked, I moved it to an air-conditioned storage facility, along with many pieces of furniture and other items that I inherited from my dad when he passed.

I paid for that storage space all the time I waited for our general contractor to finish our house!  I pestered him for months to put garage doors on the garage so I could stop paying for the storage.  We didn’t get the garage doors until after we got the second contractor.

With a secure place to put it, we moved the boxes of flooring and anything else that made sense up to the garage.  Because the old contractor had taken so long to get the roof of the house finished, there were stains in the ceiling and I was concerned about mold.  We got that treated and thought it would be okay.

The biggest problem with laminate flooring is the particle board interior of each plank.  If it gets wet, the plank is warped and ruined!  Additionally, the top surface of most laminates is relatively thin and pretty fragile.

My husband accidentally dropped a light fixture in one room and made a dime-sized hole in the floor not long after the flooring was installed.  The new contractor was able to repair the hole — luckily for my husband — but it made me realize that laminate was not a great investment, despite how good it looks initially.

We found other spots in the house that needed to be repaired.  Some the contractor handled, later ones I took care of with some clear finger nail polish.  (The lacquer in the nail polish seals the hole or broken surface against water.)

When we later had a problem with our refrigerator, one board got a large scrape.  I hope that we can replace that board before we have to replace the flooring.  I kept a few of the planks that were in good shape for just that possibility.

If I do decide to replace the laminate, I will probably use waterproof, wood-look, vinyl planks.  They are inexpensive, look just as nice and are much more durable!  But for the time being, I have laminate floors in my house.

I did find a product called Lamanator Plus that I used before we moved our furniture to the new house.  It cleaned all the dust from construction off the floor and has kept the polished planks shiny and the matte finish ones looking good also.  I have to admit it was a lot of work to apply it and you have to follow the manufacturer’s instructions!  I spent two days, just handling the flooring!

My recommendation would be to get the waterproof vinyl and not the laminate.  If you do decide to get laminate flooring, be prepared to be very careful around it and do what you can to avoid damaging it!