<p>Hi y’all! The kids out of college and now it’s time to do some remodeling! We are tearing out the yucky upstairs floor and putting in some laminate flooring upstairs. I like both the style that looks like individual planks and the style that looks like one uniform piece. I have a question for those of you with the individual planks with the bevel or grooves in the planks. Is it hard to clean them? Does junk get stuck in them? I am looking at a laminate made by Bruce floors, one made by Quick Step, and one made by Shaw. They are all about the same in price and have AC3 or AC4 wear/toughness ratings.
How do you like your floors? Are the ones with grooves hard to clean? Would you have chosen differently if you were to do it again??? Thanks for the input!</p>
<p>We tore up all our carpets and put down hardwood floors on our main level (Bellawood through Lumberliquidators) and decided to put laminate upstairs in all the bedrooms and hallway. Our good friend who is realtor told us not to do so if we could avoid it-- 1) lowers resale value and 2) it makes an awful clicking sound. I had no idea what she meant regarding # 2 until the floor was done. Whether you’re bare foot, in sandals, slippers or high heals – winter, spring, summer or fall- -same sound-- clicks. It’s a horrible sound. I regret putting it down.</p>
<p>On the bright side,it’s durable, easy to clean and it doesn’t scratch when you drag furniture across it to clean. I can move all our heavy pieces with little effort and there’s no marks left. Try that on hard wood!
Looks just like wood.</p>
<p>The clicking is awful.</p>
<p>I am so happy I had the old tiles and carpet ripped out and replaced with wood. Mine are 5" planks, pretty uniform in color, with French bleed. They are hand rubbed, so don’t show every scratch. I don’t find them hard to clean; I ue Bona.</p>
<p>Well, I have laminate downstairs - no clicks!!! It’s all in the quality of the underlayment or pad that you put underneath it… but that’s the old style pergo presto stuff. Now we are upgrading upstairs and need some feedback on the microbevel or groove issue… ;)</p>
<p>I had prefinished hardwood put in upstairs 11 years ago. It isn’t a laminate (I don’t think) but it does have the bevels. I was concerned about “stuff” collecting there but it hasn’t happened. I do have central vac and vac at least once a week, maybe that helped?</p>
<p>I shopped around and chose prefinished hardwood (bamboo) rather than the Pergo I had planned.</p>
<p>I am extremely happy with it so far. It’s easy to clean, it has shown no stains or water marks even though it faces regular spills and drips in the kitchen, and I know I can refinish it if anything truly destructive happens. If your budget can take it, I say choose real hardwood.</p>
<p>We like our hardwood floors in the kitchen, and they are still going strong after 17 years. (We have had some refinishing jobs). But my husband tells me he has heard that for families with dogs, laminate is the better choice.</p>
<p>We have Pergo in our basement, and no clicking at all. We were careful to get the underlayment that was correct for putting on cement floors.</p>
<p>Anyway, it has been fine, and is a big improvement over the carpet that had a clear path on it since the room is essentially a corridor. It seems much less subject to damage than the real hardwoods we have upstairs.</p>
<p>@arabrab - Interesting about Pergo in basement. I am wondering how Pergo would hold up if it were to get wet and how prone to warping would it be. I have a dry walk- out basement, but remain humble in the face of the potential for the unexpected. I have carpet now (not commercial or indoor/outdoor), but will want to replace it eventually. Obviously, this type of carpet has risks in this setting also.</p>
<p>When I pulled up the carpet in the den, I found wood floors with a bevel, I hate those grooves. But they are fairly wide for a floor) and the den/great room gets a LOT of foot traffic, kids, craft projects, dog etc etc in our home. They aren’t hard to clean, but stuff does get in them. </p>
<p>Still like the wood better than the mauve carpet that was there, and they didn’t cost me anything other than time to rehab them, so I can’t really complain.</p>
<p>Don’t get bevels unless you vaccuum on a regular basis. Stuff collects in them–lot easier to sweep or dust mop a totally flat surface.</p>
<p>We have hardwood floors everywhere EXCEPT kitchen & bathrooms & my sister got laminate, in her kitchen & dining room. She had already had to replace her flooring once when there was a leak & it is showing spots where water has splattered over the years. Our hardwood floor was put in long before hers and is still going strong. It can be refinished several times but we haven’t even been inclined to resurface or refinish it once. It is very easy to care for–just a damp dustmop every week or lesss frequently, or our preferred method, the Roomba electronic vacuum.</p>
<p>In HI, laminate floors tend to delaminate as well, so are generally not recommended, tho they are cheaper. For folks that are anal and can keep water from touching their wood floors, perhaps laminate COULD work, but we love our solid oak wooden floors and would highly recommend them. They are very durable. I have known others who have used other surfaces, including bamboo and have only heard good things. Don’t know anything about “clicking,” as we have solid hardwood and only one story.</p>
<p>Our & sister’s floors have no bevels & because I dislike housekeeping, I would NEVER get anything with a bevel or groove, as a single solid surface is so much easier to maintain.</p>
<p>Our S just rented a condo that also has wood floors–bamboo. The owner/landlady was SO happy when she heard that was all he had ever lived with and grown up with (she had been nervous as to how well/poorly he would maintain the place). That floor also has no bevel–in fact, I can’t recall seeing a wood floor with a bevel; those I’ve seen all appear to be one solid surface pieced together, like a butcher block table.</p>
<p>HINT for wood floors (and probably laminate too)… put an small area area rug in front of your refrigerator and sink. We’ve done so for 17 years, based on the excellent advise from a neighbor. Every few years I buy a new set of rugs, and it gives the kitchen a “new look”.</p>
<p>I’m told the water from water/ice dispensers can eventually cause floor damage. The rug is actually nice to soften the blow of the the occasional items that spew out of the fridge and freezer.</p>
<p>We have Bruce Makore Park Ave (you can see it here: [Laminate</a> Flooring by Bruce: Makore](<a href=“http://www.bruce.com/resflram/na/brucelaminate/en/us/prod_detail.asp?itemId=104125.0]Laminate”>http://www.bruce.com/resflram/na/brucelaminate/en/us/prod_detail.asp?itemId=104125.0) )
in our kitchen and back hallway. This floor gets daily traffic by 6 people. We have had it for 2 years and it has held up incredibly well. Most people think it is hardwood and some don’t believe us when we say it is a laminate.</p>
<p>It is very easy to clean - just use a solution of water, vinegar and alcohol with a microfiber mop. I have not had a problem with dirt getting in the grooves of the microbevels. I do sweep, but not always everyday. I am in the northeast where moisture is not a big problem like it probably is in Hawaii.</p>
<p>We have been extremely pleased with this floor. Since you are already looking at a Bruce floor, you may want to take a look at this one also.</p>
<p>Our floor is about 19-20 years old; see #12, it is hardwood oak rather than laminate. We’re very please with it and many ask us about it.</p>
<p>We have the individual plank-look laminate in our finished basement. I do not find it difficult to clean at all with the grooves…use a dust mop regularly and also a swiffer with a spray cleaner.</p>
<p>We put this down to replace existing carpet after our basement flooded a couple of years ago. My husband actually submerged a piece of it in water for a time to see what would happen…nothing did!</p>
<p>Good to know, Churchmusicmom! We are looking at new flooring for the basement right now - we had a small flood last year and had to rip out the carpet. I dislike tile and vinyl in the basement, and DH is hesitant to replace the carpeting.</p>
<p>Did you find the individual plank-look to be more “natural” looking?</p>
<p>We have individual plank laminate flooring and it looks very much like real hardwood.
You can see my post on page one to read about the kind of laminate floor I have.</p>
<p>Thanks, bookreader!</p>