The carpet has to fucking go...

[Loren Littlejohn]

I moved into my house and where I currently have all my studio stuff is carpeted, and I hate it. Slightly allergic to it, my asshole cat already pissed on it (fucker, use the litter you fat douche haha).

So I'm thinking of putting down some laminate flooring similar to pergo or the like (I'm in a basement, can't put down wood).

What do you think? After doing hardwood upstairs and considering the cost I think I could get it done for under a grand (myself of course, doing some sort of glue down).

OR

Should I just yank that shit up and put down that hard acrylic shit to seal the concrete.

Price is definitely a factor.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

What size is the room? If you don't pick the the priciest laminate, you can easily get away with 200-300€ for a moderate sized room (20-25 square meters) where I live, and I suspect laminate - like pretty much everything else - is cheaper in the US

 

[bogchop]

Piss on the cat.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

What size is the room? If you don't pick the the priciest laminate, you can easily get away with 200-300€ for a moderate sized room (20-25 square meters) where I live, and I suspect laminate - like pretty much everything else - is cheaper in the US

I just googled around and found some for .60 a sq/ft

I'd be doing 2 rooms, one is 23'x13' and the other is 14'x12'

They connect. So a little under 500 for the flooring material, and going off how much shit was for other flooring projects I have done, probably another 150-200 in shit needed to install it (underlayment, glue blah blah blah).

HOWEVER, I interned at a studio that used to be in a basement and they had this cheapo stuff installed by pros and even the pros with all of their nice install gear broke at least a case and half of it (sucks, but I suppose that's what you get for cheap). They had to do a ton more sq footage but still, that kind of sucks!

I don't know what kind of waste you have to factor in with this stuff, but it's a good 10% with wood (really hope it's not that high with laminate). Which sucks when you pay $3 a sq/foot for it (my living room and hallway ran me $1300 with all the wood, underlayment, screws, staples, rentals, brads, and reducers). I can't believe how many boards I had to almost completely toss because the mill work was so shit, and then of course there are the splits etc... SUCKS.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

I just googled around and found some for .60 a sq/ft

I'd be doing 2 rooms, one is 23'x13' and the other is 14'x12'

They connect. So a little under 500 for the flooring material, and going off how much shit was for other flooring projects I have done, probably another 150-200 in shit needed to install it (underlayment, glue blah blah blah).

HOWEVER, I interned at a studio that used to be in a basement and they had this cheapo stuff installed by pros and even the pros with all of their nice install gear broke at least a case and half of it (sucks, but I suppose that's what you get for cheap). They had to do a ton more sq footage but still, that kind of sucks!

I don't know what kind of waste you have to factor in with this stuff, but it's a good 10% with wood (really hope it's not that high with laminate). Which sucks when you pay $3 a sq/foot for it (my living room and hallway ran me $1300 with all the wood, underlayment, screws, staples, rentals, brads, and reducers). I can't believe how many boards I had to almost completely toss because the mill work was so shit, and then of course there are the splits etc... SUCKS.

Yeah, there will inevitably be some waste. I'm not sure how things are over the pond, but I've installed dozens of laminate floors that only require the laminate and the "footstep buffer" under it. No glue, no screws, nothing. You just put the buffer on the floor and assemble the laminate on top. Works like a charm, and you won't be spending any extra on glue etc.

 

[Fbarre]

Piss on the cat.

I can't imagine any better advice...

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Yeah, there will inevitably be some waste. I'm not sure how things are over the pond, but I've installed dozens of laminate floors that only require the laminate and the "footstep buffer" under it. No glue, no screws, nothing. You just put the buffer on the floor and assemble the laminate on top. Works like a charm, and you won't be spending any extra on glue etc.

I can't imagine it being different. Actually, I was assuming that it was glue down and not floated. When floating a floor like that, do you have to leave any sort of gap like you do wood? Does laminate expand at all like wood does?

I've witnessed a handfull of shitty installed laminate on youtube and they were all the same: The floor had essentially bubbled up in the center of the room.

I don't want that.


Oh and as much as I talk about my cat being an asshole, he is just to much of a friendly bastard to do anything negative to him. I was so fucking pissed when he did it though. Nothing more vile than cat piss.

 

[Pex]

Yeah, there will inevitably be some waste. I'm not sure how things are over the pond, but I've installed dozens of laminate floors that only require the laminate and the "footstep buffer" under it. No glue, no screws, nothing. You just put the buffer on the floor and assemble the laminate on top. Works like a charm, and you won't be spending any extra on glue etc.

+1

I never had any troubles installing laminate. I always left out about 1/2 inch at the edges of the room, so the laminate can't bubble up. You can use baseboards (I googled the name for that...) for the gap along the edges.

 

[acappa]

I used laminate in my whole studio! Works and looks great!!

 

[tempe]

Ah I'm in the same position at the moment. I found a new building for my studio but the floors are that shitty tile looking lino stuff. It's really live sounding, I'm contemplating trying to find some rugs (cheap), or laminating over it (expensive / time consuming).

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

I can't imagine it being different. Actually, I was assuming that it was glue down and not floated. When floating a floor like that, do you have to leave any sort of gap like you do wood? Does laminate expand at all like wood does?

I've witnessed a handfull of shitty installed laminate on youtube and they were all the same: The floor had essentially bubbled up in the center of the room.

I don't want that. :

Yeah, you gotta leave a gap between the laminate and walls on every side when installing. Basically, when you're putting the floor together, you keep adding small wedges that keep the floor from touching the walls. Once the laminate is finished, you remove the wedges. The floor is heavy enough that with the underlay beneath it, it won't move around even if it's floated. Lastly you install the trims to hide the gaps.

To my knowledge not one the laminate floors I've installed has bubbled to this day. Just make sure you assemble the laminate correctly: leave the gaps, make a seam and trim it up if the segment is very long, even out the floor before installing the laminate and use proper underlay. The laminate packages usually have pretty good instructions included!

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Cool, so it sounds identical to how hardwood is installed (you leave a 1/2" gap to keep the wood from buckling when it expands) only easier because I don't have to rent a floor nailer.

Well then shit yeah, I hope I can swing that this year.

 

[Sloan]

I followed the advice from Glenn's drum thread and put down plywood just lying on top of the carpet here; I like it much, much better; so I say if you can afford to get the laminate then do it.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Yeah man, the carpet isn't doing me any favors. I want it out by the end of the year.

 

[ChrisTanakaCanwell]

I ended up doing a concrete stain with an epoxy sealer in lieu of pergo flooring in my place... ended up being slightly cheaper and it's supposed to sound pretty much the same

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I'm not ruling out doing the concrete sealer thing (if Sherwin Williams has it, my cousin might even be able to hook me up with some for cheap). But there is no way laminate wouldn't look a fuck ton nicer, so there is that as well.

 

[juarez]

IDK man, Ive seen some pretty awesome looking stained/sealed concrete floors.
They can look like the surface of Jupiter. Pretty classy and modern looking.