Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering 1 Nov 22, 2010 11:21 am Hi Unfortunately real wood floors are out of the question for us financially at this stage. We are loooking at both bamboo flooring and 'good quality' timber look laminate floors. Can anyone give me an idea of decent brands of laminate flooring and if anyone has laminate or bamboo floors and how they go with wear and tear in a house with two young kids. I've been told that laminate probably won't scratch as much but once it's scratched that's it. On the other hand bamboo can be sanded and resurfaced, but how often would this need to be done. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks Re: Timber Look Laminate Floors or Bamboo 2Nov 22, 2010 12:11 pm Hi cherryb, Two very different floors. In terms of cost, your laminate could be as low as $20 - $30 m2 and up to $50 for the top end stuff. The Bamboo, if you want to be sure to not get bad quality, formaldehyde filled junk, will cost $75 - $85. Don't waste your money on a cheap bamboo floor!!! The bamboo is a better floor in almost all ways, but it is more expensive obvioulsy. Because of laying costs etc, why don't you consider using Interest Free Terms to get the floor you want and pay it off over a long period ? Harvey Norman has 1000 days Interest Free running at the moment. Thats like 33 months to pay off your floor...and you'll be happy and add value to your house rather than "I wish I had put the right floor down to start with" thing that people say... Lets say you had 100 m2 of area to do, you'd be looking at about $10,000. Thats fully installed by a tradie. Thats $304 a month over 33 months. (Plus the normal application fee of $25 payable to GE). If you do go laminate. Your laminate is about 12 - 15 times more durable than a kitchen bench top - so its pretty good. You'd need to decide if you wanted to go a matt finish with a texture, in an 8mm board, which will cost you between $20 and $40, depending in the brand, and a 12mm high gloss, which will cost between $40 and $60, depending on the brand. High gloss looks cool, but shows up the dirt and marks and scratches the most...(like a shiny new car does). Best of luck. If you are in Melbourne (or surrounds), call my team at Chadstone and I can help you. Re: Timber Look Laminate Floors or Bamboo 3Nov 23, 2010 7:20 pm Thanks for the advice Anthony. Unfortunately I'm not in Melbourne or I would definitely give you a call. They are two different options. We started off looking at bamboo but ended up looking at laminate due to cost. We are looking at what we think are decent laminates but it's so hard to tell. I'm sure I will be posting more as I have more questions Re: Timber Look Laminate Floors or Bamboo 4Nov 23, 2010 8:16 pm No worries. If I can help, I will!! Cheers. Re: Timber Look Laminate Floors or Bamboo 5Nov 29, 2010 5:53 pm cherryb, In regards to your question about sanding and resurfacing bamboo, it all depends on the quality but more importantly how well you look after the bamboo flooring. If looked after well, you may not need to sand and resurface for 10, 15 maybe even 20 years. But if poorly looked after it maybe only a few years. Generally though, its about every 10 years. Wear and tear wise, the compressed style of bamboo flooring is much more resistant to young children, pets, etc. The only downfall is that this style of bamboo is generally more expensive than other types. Good luck Interested in getting either the Polytec Boston Oak or Palace Peak for kitchen cabinets. Looking at the Boston Oak ones, it appears that the colour varies significantly… 0 1791 Engineering timber is certainly a less fuss option, times cheaper to supply and install and better withstands humidity. 1 11486 2 3311 |