Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering 1 Aug 31, 2010 9:05 pm OK - so its might sound like a naive question - but we sincerely are unsure about this one. We're aware that Quick Step seems to be the leading brand in Australia and have been shown a lovely sample of a new range today (Blue gum colour) ...it's apparently new to the market, but is going to work out to be pretty expensive! Alternately, we've also seen a brush box design from an alternate supplier (Floorshop) who tell us that their product is 'made by the same people as QuickStep' Can anyone enlighten me? I actually quite like the Floorshop product, but my research ( OK, so I've been googling!) into the brands mentioned on their website suggest the product might be made by Innovar - which is Malaysian based. I don't know a lot about this stuff, but have been told by several sources that the Belgian product is better. We've already had a flooring debacle with 50 square metres of cheap chinese tiles now being covered up because of poor judgement in the past - we want to make sure we're not un-doing all of our new work and expense again in the near future. Is Quick Step a far and away winner? Does anyone know about the alternate product stocked by Floorshop? What should we be looking for and what questions should we be asking before we sign on the dotted line? Any guidance would be appreciated! Re: Which laminate flooring salesperson is telling me the tr 2Sep 01, 2010 7:13 am The Brand of the retailer is just as important as the Brand of the product. In Australia, Premium Cork & Timber got into the floating floor business before most, so more peole know them (shops), and because they got in early they picked a good product to import. The world market though has caught up and there are many good products, and some not so good, on the market, besides Quickstep, to choose from. As an ex-producer of laminate flooring, I can tell you that in most cases the extra costs you pay for that brand are because they can charge it (not the shop, or even the importer, probably the factory). In a nutshell - good quality product yes, but can be pricey. Buy your floor from a recognized brand name retailer and you dramatically reduce the risks with "unknown" brands of floors. Also, many Europeans are now running factories in Asia, with the European machines. So the automated process is the same. Raw materials the same. Just that the rent is cheaper and the forklift driver has different colored skin! So don't be totally put off a product by it's country of origin. The scare mungering that used to be kind of true is no longer accurate most of the time. Re: Which laminate flooring salesperson is telling me the tr 3Sep 01, 2010 8:34 am toolittletoolate We've already had a flooring debacle with 50 square metres of cheap chinese tiles now being covered up because of poor judgement in the past - we want to make sure we're not un-doing all of our new work and expense again in the near future. I've been wondering about benefits of buying tiles for 1/3 of the bigger shops' prices. Can you tell me how old were these tiles and what was wrong about them? My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Which laminate flooring salesperson is telling me the tr 4Sep 01, 2010 9:32 pm The tiles we bought have quite a thin surface. When plates and glasses were accidentally dropped, big chunks of tile came away., leaving us with lovely grey holes in the floor! The grout changed clour too, so what started off as a fresh and lovely light coloured floor is now a bunch of difficult to clean beige tiles with grey grout. Yuk! We have learned our lesson and so this time, we're trying to purchase a quality product that will last. We think that the alternate brand we have been shown might be the Inovar brand, but we're not sure because the salesman was a bit evasive when we asked. I had to google the brands mentioned on his website to try to narrow it down. While both stores have offered lovely products, the store promoting the Quickstep sent a layer with many years of experience to do the quote. Although it's more expensive, we know we have a final price with no hidden extras. A friend of mine had her floor laid by another company this week and was hit with a $650 extra cost on the day when the layer decided her floor needed to be leveled before work could start. We just want to know what we are up for and have good quality this time around! Re: Which laminate flooring salesperson is telling me the tr 5Sep 01, 2010 10:25 pm Unless the layer has X-ray vision, or your sub floor is already clean and exposed, he can't give you a fixed price until the day. Floor prep is a variable. The $650 extra thong is common. To avoid surprises you need to rip the floor up 1st then get the layer out to advise. Not many ppl do though. Just about completed a renovation project and hit a small issue that we didn’t see We have laminate floors now where we had tiles before (turned out it was actually 2… 0 4919 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair At a bit of a loss on this one - we're thinking the original owners never removed the protective laminate covers from their kitchen cabinets after installation and in the… 0 6328 We are doing heaps of hybrid at the moment and the cost sits between $60-65/sqm including installation. Stairs are around $90-100 each 1 4306 |