what a horrible weekend

[philip_g]

I was planning to install about 800 sq ft of laminate flooring in my house, I had the underlayment and the floor, had been in and acclimated so off we went cutting up the carpet and ripping out the pad, the tack strips and transitions were nailed into the concrete so those were fun too.
get to laying the flooring, the damn flooring didn't fit together worth a damn, and kept chipping on the corners so I ripped it up, reboxed what hadn't been cut and returned 29 boxes of floor planks to lowes

now I have no carpet and bare concrete floors and it'll be 3-4 weeks before I can try again with a better product.


Hey so how'd the project raffle rig work day go? I should have been there instead of doing this crap.

oh and the jeep is halarious with ~1500 pounds of flooring in the back.

 

[ChiXJeff]

Heh....... the title of this thread caught my eye. As I'm sitting at my desk at work, almost 17 hours after I got here. And contemplating at least a couple more before I can even think about leaving. It may end up a 24 hour session.

 

[YELLAHEEP]

I've got a personal boycott of Lowe's. They treated us so badly and got so many things wrong with our $4500 order of remodel items that I'll never go back there for anything special order or substantial in price. That place sucks!

 

[Stang5lgt]

I was planning to install about 800 sq ft of laminate flooring in my house, I had the underlayment and the floor, had been in and acclimated so off we went cutting up the carpet and ripping out the pad, the tack strips and transitions were nailed into the concrete so those were fun too.
get to laying the flooring, the damn flooring didn't fit together worth a damn, and kept chipping on the corners so I ripped it up, reboxed what hadn't been cut and returned 29 boxes of floor planks to lowes

now I have no carpet and bare concrete floors and it'll be 3-4 weeks before I can try again with a better product.


Hey so how'd the project raffle rig work day go? I should have been there instead of doing this crap.

oh and the jeep is halarious with ~1500 pounds of flooring in the back.

Let me guess it is Armstrong Lam? I installed Armstrong in two new homes I built back in Iowa and talk about junk. Both houses had prob. But I installed both houses before I had prob with the first one. Use Shaw, Prego, or Tracfic Master. They are sold at Home Depot. Might pay alittle more but fits together nice and takes a beating. I used Shaw alot and great luck with there floors. For a little more you can always order engineered hard wood from Home Depot and just glue it down. That stuff is pretty nice. I installed natural maple floors in one house it was around $2.50 sq ft couple years ago.

 

[riverfever]

No......sorry to hear about that Phil. I know that is frustrating. Check out the stuff we used. It's called Balterio but I've never found it in stores. Hope things start looking up.

 

[philip_g]

I've got a personal boycott of Lowe's. They treated us so badly and got so many things wrong with our $4500 order of remodel items that I'll never go back there for anything special order or substantial in price. That place sucks!

it's better than home depot

 

[philip_g]

Let me guess it is Armstrong Lam? I installed Armstrong in two new homes I built back in Iowa and talk about junk. Both houses had prob. But I installed both houses before I had prob with the first one. Use Shaw, Prego, or Tracfic Master. They are sold at Home Depot. Might pay alittle more but fits together nice and takes a beating. I used Shaw alot and great luck with there floors. For a little more you can always order engineered hard wood from Home Depot and just glue it down. That stuff is pretty nice. I installed natural maple floors in one house it was around $2.50 sq ft couple years ago.

No, a lowe's brand called 'surface source' which is made by kronotex who makes swiftlock also. I researched it a bit and consumer reports rated kronotex highly, in the top 3 so I thought it would be OK, on the DIY forum I read kronotex doesn't lock together well and is difficult to install, which it is. BIG bonus for the quick-step unilock is that it can be tapped together as well as clicked in, so those end bits can be locked in with a pull bar much easier.

I can't do hardwood because of the dogs, or I'd do bamboo in a flash. I can do supreme bamboo at lumber liquidators for what I spent on this laminate but I got a binch of samples and it dents so easily.

Ended up ordering some quick-step online for about 1.99 a sq ft, wilsonart, quickstep, and shaw are the 3 that come up the most by the pros on diyforum so I feel safe in ordering online, the stuff I got is like 3.57/ft at carpet exchange, yikes.


I've not heard good things about armstrong, but it sure sounds nice on the store displays. Wonder what they back it with to make it sound so solid.


edit: I need to buy or rent a compound miter saw next time, cutting the ends with a circ saw is pure fail.

 

[philip_g]

No......sorry to hear about that Phil. I know that is frustrating. Check out the stuff we used. It's called Balterio but I've never found it in stores. Hope things start looking up.

Oh we'll be fine. Other than it feels like my fat ass has been beat with a baseball bat
I had reservations about such a cheap product and should have known better. The stuff we ordered has a 25 year warranty and is AC4 rated, a lot of the residential stuff is AC3 which is 60% less durable or softer or however they rate them.

 

[Stang5lgt]

I hate consumer reports. Just a bunch of peoples opinion. Never heard of brand you got from Lowes. It has been years since I installed a floor. I don't miss it. My dad just bought a new Hybrid Highlander and told me how consumer reports rated it so high. Well he gets out here and we stop to fill it up and checked the mileage it only got 18mpg . He paid a extra 10k for the Hybrid over the gas. I checked average on his trip computer and it was 21mpg. The gas powered Highlander was rated at 25mpg Hwy and 17 City. Man Toyota is really snowing people I felt bad for my dad so I didn't rub it in by saying I told you so.

 

[Wrench Wench]

We used floating vinyl in our kitchen. It looks like real wood and few people can tell the difference.

 

[Crash_AF]

Hybrids only get better mileage in the city during stop and go driving, steady cruise requires the engine.

 

[philip_g]

coworker of mine bought an escape hybrid, I think he gets about 30/31 when it's warm and a lot worse when it's cold and the batteries aren't working well.