HOMEundone

We currently have carpet in DH's home office. I hate it. Hardwood will scratch, yes? Is laminate an option? It's a small space, 12x10 approx so not a huge expenditure.

Thoughts?

I'm thinking maybe cork. Or what about those carpet tiles I posted about on the Trends board??

Laminate is pretty much scratch resistant, and you can put some sort of padding underneath it to get rid of that hollow sound. Wood will get scuffed up if you have an office chair with wheels, but you could put down one of the plastic mat things to prevent that from happening.

Hmmmm... so I guess I'm saying you can use pretty much any kind of flooring you want

Uh, thanks, I think........

If I go with laminate, do I still need that mat thingy? Hardwood might be tough sell to DH.
I want to get away from carpet if at all possible........But worth looking at.


If I get to HD today, I'll have a look

You probably don't need a mat with laminate.

Checked out some laminate options today, good price point but no colors that I liked.
Some of it actually looked pretty good, I'll keep looking and hope the right color pops out at me.........

We have laminate & are really happy with it, but I think you have to spend a bit more to get a better quality product. Ours is 12mm & I believe most is 5 - 8mm. The thicker laminate makes quite a big difference with that hollow sound smoodgie mentioned - I hardly notice it here.

I also find it makes a big difference on the overall look if you choose something that is more single plank look rather than 3 boards glued together which a lot of laminate used to be. We have the single board with the little "v" groove thing-a-ma-doo & it looks more authentic.

I DO have a chair mat, but I don't know if you really need it or not.

I can post a close up of our laminate if you want to see it (or if my description made no sense!)

Thanks Paula,

Do you mean the bevelled edge ones? I kinda figured on the 12mm but hadn't thought about the noise factor. If you don't mind posting a photo, that would be great. Do you mind if I ask where you got your flooring?

I went to HD and King of Floors today........nada......
I really like the darker colors, natural oak isn't me........KOF had a Gunstock Oak but not quite it. Black Walnut is more what I'm looking for.

I've wanted to do this for quite sometime but also including the family room; DH will NOT give in to that. He likes laying on the floor to watch TV ect and just won't budge. I've given up (for now, he he ) and will do the office to start. I would prefer hardwood but if we aren't doing a large space or spaces it really won't matter that much if we redo at a later date.

I love the idea of cork flooring - environmentally friendly too - a little more pricy but hugely attractive and hard wearing. I hate those mat things - I have carpet upstairs in my office - would have preferred hardwood but DH didn't want the noise factor thing.
We have laminate in the basement but unfortunately it is the cheap version ...

Yes, the bevelled edge - I knew there was another word for it!    Ours is walnut, but I can't remember the name off hand.

Another thing to consider to avoid the hollow sound is a good underlay.  I really don't find ours to have a hollow sound at all, or if it does, VERY minimal.  Our flooring guy recommended a better underlay for this reason.  We got ours at Laminate World.  It looks like they're redoing their site, so nothing to look at right now, but here's the address anyhow: http://www.laminateworld.com  There's a few locations in the lower mainland.

I don't think the colour looks quite true to life, but hopefully this will give you an idea.
   

Thanks Paula,

I checked out another vendor after work yesterday but I wasn't sold on anything.
The rep highly recommended the wide plank look.......is yours that type? I did see the difference between the bevelled and not.
She recommended 2, one was a 'wendge', looked a little purple to me? The other was more of a take on country, which while very nice, not me.....The search is still on. She quoted approx $9.00sq ft installed. Seemed a little high for laminate.

Caro!

Love the cork too but this won't be a 'long term' floor. Still trying to get DH to bend on the hardwood issue....... I figure if i have to remove it at later date I won't have spent too many $$.........thus, the laminate.