Re: FLOORING 7May 11, 2009 6:52 pm cmt Some of the questions we have: Do they look like floorboards? Yes Do they have a glossy fininsh? sort of, but not full gloss Do they sound hollow? Yes! How hard wearing are they? They do scratch! So don't be lead astray with that one. You can buy a pen that fills in the scratch in the colour of the floor you choose. Are they warmer underfoot than engineered? I think so, as they are laid onto an underlay, which stops drafts If a board gets damaged I believe they can just be easily replaced? Yes, but its not as easy as they say! Are they easy to keep clean? yes! Ok….after answering your questions, here’s my take on Quickstep. If I was to get a laminated floor, quickstep is the one I would buy. I used to sell it when I worked for Carpet Court, and I never got a complaint about it the whole 2 & ½ years I was there. They are drummy…..hollow, but all of them are. They will swell and split if they get excessive water damage, so you need to watch that if you have a dishwasher. They do scratch…. So don’t get sucked into the sell stories that they don’t! But as I said, you can buy the repair kits I suggest you get one if you buy the flooring. Especially with kids. Flooring is flooring, and no matter what you put down, it will not be resilient to everything. That’s just how it goes. Now just to make this a little harder for you, I would suggest you go look at Knight tile planks from Karndean in the timber grain. I think you may find these very resilient!!!! They are vinyl planks, and very hard to scratch! This would be my pick of flooring http://www.karndean.com.au/site/product ... geNumber=2 Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: FLOORING 8May 12, 2009 6:56 pm Michelle Now just to make this a little harder for you, I would suggest you go look at Knight tile planks from Karndean in the timber grain. I think you may find these very resilient!!!! They are vinyl planks, and very hard to scratch! This would be my pick of flooring http://www.karndean.com.au/site/product ... geNumber=2 We're using the Knight Tile in Sycamore (bottom of the page that Michelle has linked). I've seen a sample of it laid and it looks great. I went for this product for the warmth and durability factors over wood or laminate. Judie Re: FLOORING 9May 12, 2009 9:23 pm Judie We're using the Knight Tile in Sycamore (bottom of the page that Michelle has linked). I've seen a sample of it laid and it looks great. I went for this product for the warmth and durability factors over wood or laminate. Judie Don't really know much about this product, had a bit of a look at the website. Why is this so different to laminate and how is it warmer? Does this also have a hollow sound? Now in the hope I'm not going to confuse myself even more, how does Bamboo flooring compare to the above two products, in regards to wear/scratching and warmth? Thanks Re: FLOORING 10May 13, 2009 6:39 am Bamboo is basically the same as the timber laminates, same structure, same laying method, only Bamboo. Depending on the quality of the product, it wears the same as the laminate flooring, and does scratch. Now the Karndean….. is a heavy duty vinyl flooring. It’s glued onto the slab or particle boards. It’s warmer underfoot than laminates, due to being directly on the slab. It’s NOT drummy like the tongue and grooves, as they have a gap under them which gives the drum sound. This type of flooring is very popular in commercial applications, and stands up to a lot of wear and tear. Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: FLOORING 12May 13, 2009 6:04 pm Cmt, take yourself to a flooring store and compare the 2 products. There’s a couple there that look very good. Honesty, you will not be sorry if you get the Karndean. Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: FLOORING 13May 14, 2009 7:30 pm Michelle Cmt, take yourself to a flooring store and compare the 2 products. There’s a couple there that look very good. Honesty, you will not be sorry if you get the Karndean. Ok, today we went a looking! We had a look at both the quickstep and karndean, and of course they both look good. Had a close look at the Karndean Van Gogh range and the look very much like floorboards! Also discovered that they can be polished to give them a glossy finish, although I'm not sure how this really works, whether it's something that needs to be redone every few years. But then again, I'm thinking that glossy means they show up scratches and dust easily...would this be so? Also forgot to ask them about the cleaning process, got this http://www.karndeantest.com/uploads/docs_general/Consumer_Floor_Care_Guide.pdf didn't read it til later and looks like a bit of hard work! These are the some of the ones we were looking at: http://www.karndean.com.au/site/products.cfm?product_ID=1156 http://www.karndean.com.au/site/products.cfm?product_ID=1067 http://www.karndean.com.au/site/products.cfm?product_ID=1072 Please tell me what you think, and should I go gloss or no gloss? Also does the weight of the furniture leave a dint in the flooring? I know...so many questions...making descisions is not my strong point! Thanks again! Re: FLOORING 14May 14, 2009 7:40 pm I really like the first one, it looks more natural. Van Gough is a good range! Quality there. No, furniture does not leave marks…..it’s too hard a product. Cleaning…..you just need warm water and a mop, nothing to special. As far as the polish goes, can’t help you with that. I THINK…it’s a top coat of some sort that goes on with a roller. You will need to find out more about that product. You wont be disappointed with the Van Gough. A friend of mine put it down in her unit, it looks fantastic! She did a lime wash look one, as she’s out by the beach. Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: FLOORING 15May 16, 2009 11:46 am Thanks for that Michelle! Was also having a look at the Karndean Art Select Oak Royale, it has more of a sheen to it, this is it here: http://www.karndean.com.au/site/products.cfm?product_ID=1571 What are you thoughts on this one? Re: FLOORING 16May 16, 2009 2:55 pm It’s nice, a wide plank, very rustic. Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: FLOORING 17May 17, 2009 3:54 am Hi everyone, I'm new here and this is my first post. Firstly I'd just like to say what a great forum this is, I've had a lot of late nights reading as much as possible this past week. So, I am trying to decide on what vinyl planks to buy for my new house. I visited Andersens & Carpet Call yesterday and I'm still unsure what to do. Funny how you think you have researched enough before you go into a shop and then you walk away completely bamboozled. From reading this forum (and other googling) I went to the stores with Karndean as the main product I wanted to discuss but both stores steered me away from it saying it was overpriced and then showed me other products that they suggested were of equal quality, cheaper and less work to maintain. These other products apparently didn't require initial sealing or any future stripping and polishing. The Andersens store I went to actually didn't sell Karndean which is strange since their website links to Karndean. So anyway, the Andersens salesman said I should go with Armstrong 'Rhino Elements' range and that he had this in his own home. He said it is cheaper, and doesn't need to be sealed or polished etc. just broom / vacuum / mop. He also said that a good wearing layer didn't just depend on thickness (0.3 mm for this product) but also the quality of that 0.3 mm layer. For Rhino he said it was polyurethane (PUR) and that it was superior to others which had polyurethane (PU). Anyway looking past the sales pitch I really liked the patterns and colours of this Rhino product, the one I liked the best was the spotted gum. Here is a link to the website http://www.armstrong-aust.com.au/resflrpac/en-au/rhinofloor-elements.html Then I went to Carpet Call and they had a very similar story offering a cheaper product than Karndean that doesn't require sealing or future polishing etc. It was Kenbrock Floorworks in the 'International Collection' range and the 'Town and Country' range. Here is a link to the website http://www.kenbrockflooring.com.au/store/page.pl?id=27 This product didn't seem to be as nice as the Rhino, they were a bit more rough and grainy looking. The salesman at Carpet Call said most people buy the textured surface products because they look more realistic. I disagreed, the textured surface looked very plastic under certain angles of sun light. I put a sample on the ground in the store under sun light through the window and walked around it and at certain angles it looked awful - that shiny plastic look. I thought the smooth matt finish was much more realistic. Is there any preference in this forum on textured or smooth vinyl finish - i just couldn't see the appeal of the textured. I saw that the Karndean Van Gogh samples also had a textured finish but I didn't get to see them under the sun light. I've read that they are very good quality so I wonder if they look plastic at certain angles under sun light? So, I was hoping some of the experts here could offer me some advice on quality vs price. Are these cheaper "low maintenance products" I mentioned worthwhile or will they need the same care and maintenance as the Karndean range and are they inferior to Karndean? I can afford the Karndean and I definitely don't want to go cheap and end up with something I won't be happy with - but if these other products are of equal quality with less maintenance then I don't want to spend more $$$ just for the Karndean name. All advice will be appreciated. I also have more questions about carpet and underlay but I think I will leave that for another post. This one got very long very quickly! Cheers, Craig. Re: FLOORING 18May 17, 2009 10:54 am The karndean Oak royal - autumn oak colour is lovely. I wish we've given this more of a consideration before we'd ordered our cork. BUT at the time Dh kept insisting he didn't want wood. I'm guessing I might have been able to talk him into this as we are very now very nervous about how our cork will look on mass. Re: FLOORING 19May 18, 2009 5:27 pm Well "CrazyEyes", you sound just as confused as I am!! I second all the questions you have as well, so everyone keep the replies coming and try and help us out! I'm still torn and don't know which way to go Karndean or Quickstep. I'm wondering if the Karndean it too high maintenance, again like your said, one person tells you one thing then another tells you the opposite. Some say a quick vacum/mop and you're done, others say you have to seal them every 6-12mths. Another thing I've been wondering about is the black scuff marks from black soled shoes, I've been told if they are sealed the mark just wipes off...but I'm wondering why do you get them in the first place, would you get them on wood, laminate ect.? I have been told they look great if installed well, but do they resemble timber or do they just look like vinyl trying to look like timber?? Craig maybe with the two of us asking all the hard (or in my case silly) questions we may be able to come up with right answers!! PS. I think I like the look of the first ones on your list. Re: FLOORING 20May 18, 2009 10:39 pm Hi cmt. I have definitely made up my mind to go with vinyl rather than laminate. I like the look of laminate but I hate the beading and expansion joints etc. I especially don't like beading around kitchen benches or how the beading just stops at door ways. Also the stories about moisture damage have put me right off - I haven't seen a case of it myself but I'm playing it cautious and going vinyl since I'm spending so much money for 90 sq.m. Another thing I was told by a sales person is damaged vinyl planks can be replaced a lot easier than the click together laminates. I've almost made up my mind on the Rhino Elements vinyl. I went back to Andersens and looked at all the plank designs more carefully. Luckily there was no other customers so for each style I methodically grabbed every sample off the rack and laid them down to make a decent sized area (this was much more helpful than looking at one plank or those small square boards with the vinyl stuck on). There were three colours that I liked: Antique Oak, Light Oak, Spotted Gum. I've made an appointment on Thursday for the samples to be brought to the house so I can see them in the correct light with the paint, the kitchen and next to the tiled flooring of the wet areas. They are also going to bring samples of extra heavy duty 100% solution dyed nylon carpet to look at for the bedrooms and study (about 50 sq.m area to be done). The underlay offered with the carpet they suggested is Springtred 'Extra', he said Springtred 'Ultimate would be another $3 sq.m - does that seem reasonable around $150 extra? Last minute he said that they can also do the blinds and that he would measure up the windows while I am looking at the vinyl / carpet samples in different areas of the house. But I'm thinking it would be better to go to an actual curtains and blind shop instead of getting blinds from a floor shop Does anyone recommend against getting blinds from a floor covering store? I am quite scared of what the quote is going to be, I think it will be alot! Craig. 1000000% definitely add insulation. I have in my home and it makes a big difference minimising sound transfer. Insulation is pretty cheap and definitely worth it 2 3672 Engineering timber is certainly a less fuss option, times cheaper to supply and install and better withstands humidity. 1 11552 Hi there, I'm a conplete newbie to this, but I'm looking to put a floor down in my 6x9m shed. It's currently sitting on a 100mm thick concrete perimeter (dirt floor… 0 4459 |