Pergo Flooring

I am considering installation Pergo Flooring myself. Besides ensuring the sub-floor must be flat and leaving 1/4" gap between the floor and the wall, what are the other known problems and the cause of them?

 

Acclimation of the flooring product to the job site is important. The product should be in the room for several days prior to installation with HVAC (heating/air conditioning) unit running to maintain temperature/humidity levels at occupancy levels and to assure that your flooring product adjusts to temperature and humdity levels prior to installation.
This is very important. Following manufacturer's installation instructions is very important to maintaining product warranties. You can do a Search on this site for installation tips that you will find very useful. It is important that you follow manufacturer's instructions re: care and maintenance.

 

HDF of the type used in laminate flooring has the potential to expand 1/32" per running foot. If you have an area that is 20 feet long, your floor has the potential to expand 20/32 or 5/8". Granted, that is total but it can also be 5/16" on any side or 1/16" more than you would allow with a 1/4" gap. Acclimation and enough gap are two of the greatest reasons for failure. The third is improper glue application when installing a laminate floor that requires a glued assembly.

 

Pergo, Wilson Art and Formica to name a few are laminates. These floors are fabulous in terms of little to no care, but the down side of these if that they are laminates.

ALL floor covering develops a wear pattern. Think of your carpet by the front door or the traffic pattern from the dining room to the kitchen. The problem with laminates is that once the traffic pattern becomes apparent, there is nothing you can do to correct it. When the finish is dulled or scratched, you can't screen and recoat it like engineered or solid hardwood flooring.

If you are going to have heavy traffic, like little people who forget to wipe their feet, or dogs who drag in sand and grit, I'd do some more research before installing the laminates. Talk to some folks who've had it installed in their home for a while. Look at the floor carefully in the high traffic areas, like under the dining table, by the front foor, in front of the kitchen sink.

Take a ook at some engineered, prefinished products. There are lots of those out there for not much more than the laminates. (I see what the laminates go for in the home centers and know there are engineered products out there with the qualities I list below for about .50 more p/ square foot.) Shop at some hardwood floor stores, not the big box retailers/home centers for some ideas about what else is out there. Look in the phone book for some hardwood flooring contractors. Ask to see samples. Look at the piece of wood from the side. Pay close attention to the wear layer. You want at least an 1/8" wear layer. Make sure it has one guaranteed sanding. You don't want to ever have to sand it, but if you have an Oh My Gosh , you do have the option.

The good thing about the engineered products is that they can be screened and coated. This is considered normal maintenance and depending upon your traffic is done somewhere between three and five years, maybe longer. Here in Central Florida, the going price is .90 per SF. This is done by taking what looks like a pizza screen to the floor, abrading the finish and then putting a new layer of urethane on the floor. TA DA, brand new floor.

HTH

Leighsah

 

hey i have laminate flooring in 3 rooms, my kitchen, and two bedrooms, and i think its great easy to install and it looks great. and my kitchen has alot of trafic and i have a dog and nothing has happened to it it looks the same as when i just installed it.

 

There is a 50/50 satisfaction rate with the plastic laminate products. Some of the high quality products perform better. The plastic laminate is "fake wood," a coated picture of wood on a core product that is usually a fiber board. Forum posts tend to reveal that water is the Achilles heel to plastic laminate. Spills and pet accidents are frequently reported on the forums as the sources of the problem. There are however die hard plastic laminate fans. Wood laminate products (engineered wood) are frequently referred to as hardwood floors. They are however a veneer of real wood over layers of plywood. Dimensional stability (no problems with expansion/contraction) and the ability to glue down on concrete on below grade installations makes it a popular flooring choice. It is not however "real" wood. As indicated, if you go with this type of flooring product, make sure you have at least 1/8" veneer and a very good finish warranty. Solid hardwood flooring tends to be 3/4" thick and is a nail down product. As with other floor covering products, there is a range of quality in manufacturing and price points. If I had to choose between plastic laminate and engineered wood, I would go with the engineered wood with the best finish warranty so I would have the look of real not fake wood.

I, personally, prefer solid hardwood floors. Solid hardwood floors have been around since man figured out how to saw boards and use wood for floors. This was long before the plastic laminates came over on the boat from Europe or manufacturers began to market engineered wood products. Solid hardwood adds value to your home. Historic homes are evidence that solid hardwood will last over 200 years. Today's prefinished solid hardwood with a 25-year finish warranty is hard to beat.

Whether you shop for plastic laminate, engineered wood, or solid hardwood, you will find that there are many manufacturers, quality levels, and price points. A single manufacturer tends to offer different quality levels and price points, so be cautious if you shop for a brand name, thinking that name means the best quality. Most offer a Good, Better, Best product line. Some also have a less than Good line. Make sure you know what you are buying. Buy the best quality your budget will allow.

Whatever floor covering product you decide to purchase, acclimation is a key issue. You will always find help here on the DIY forum. You can also research the archives and forum posts for helpful installation tips.

Keep us posted on what you decide to do. Best regards.

http://www.twelvepole.com

 

Leesir, A "welcome mat" or area rug will take care of the shoe grit on entry and if it does not... and if a wear pattern does develope in the next 15 or 20 years the manufacturer will most likely replace the laminate flooring. Laminate floors sold by the major manufacturers carry a warrantee of 15 years to lifetime terms and warrantee against fade, wear, stains, topical water and assembly joint integrity unless specifically excluded. Hardwood flooring is not so warranted. And while on the subject, The satisfaction rate is substancially greater than 50% as indicated here by 12-pole. Laminates do have limitations, but then doesn't everything. Water is the achilles of all wood products and laminate flooring has a core that is a wood product. Laminate is also non allergic and that cannot be claimed by a hardwood flooring product. The warmth of wood is a wonderful thing but there are times such as a house full of children and/or pets where a laminate floor is very hard to beat.

 

Read that warranty carefully. It says wear through, NOT wear.Pergo isn't going to replace that product when the finish dulls.

Pergo isn't a bad product, it's just that you can get an engineered hardwood for slightly more. Pergo isn't considered a lifetime product, more like an expensive carpet.

There isn't a single engineered product manufactured in North American that doesn't have that warranty. And since the introduction of the aluminum oxide finishes, you'd be hard pressed to find one without at least a five year wear warranty.

I'm not criticizing your choice, it's just not the product I would have chosen.

Leighsah

 

Since there seems to be much opinion of manufactured vs. laminate vs. true hardwood, I just wanted to drop a quick line to say that my husband and I purchased the most beautiful Brazilian cherry hardwood flooring at auction. We decided to install all 1500 sq. feet of it ourselves (which was REALLY brave/crazy since neither of us had ever worked with hardwood). We had threatened divorce about 6 times by the time it was all laid (the wood was extremely thick and very hard). This was definitely the most exhausting undertaking I'd ever been involved with. And, I'd probably never do it again without professionals! We rented a floor sander and tried to sand it ourselves, but quickly realized that the job was going to take professionals! We had to vacate our home for a week....a good excuse to go to South Florida for a vacation! They sanded the floors, sealed and placed three coats of polyeurethane. When we came home, I must say that I was extremely pleased! They are absolutely the most beautiful floors I've ever seen! Best of all, since we bought the flooring at auction, we only paid $1575.00 for all 1500 sq. feet AND it only cost us about $2500.00 to have it finished- which included materials. I would definitely search for flooring auctions. $4,075.00 was the TOTAL cost for our beautiful floors that added great value to our home and was $8,000 less than what we were quoted to have Pergo floors installed in the same area!! Good luck with your floors!

 

This is definitely the best forum, I posted a question and gotten many good replies. I have posted on other forum, and no one reply. Thank you for all your answers. I have decided to go with professional installation.