Thread: Floating Timber floors

I'm not a big fan of floaters, but there are some good ones around. You get what you pay for, and some very cheap types are just a print which can't be sanded at all.

Do an 'advanced search' for threads with 'floating floor' in their titles and you'll have a few pages of threads with very useful advice from flooring proffesionals, and experiences of people who have used them. Here's just a few I've picked out, but there's a lot more information here if you're prepared to trawl through all the threads:

Floating Vs Solid Timber floor
Laying floating floor
Hard wearing floating floor

As pawnhead said, they are not as nice as real timber but perfect for normal residential use. I bought some 8mm stuff at harvey norman end of line for about $20/m, installed yourself, it is the cheapest floor covering around.

The real timber floating floors have a real veneer on top which usually can be resanded but may not wear as well as the laminate ones (think laminate benchtop vs timber benchtop in the kitchen). These cost upwards of $50/m and I'd personally prefer real wood for that price.

Things to look for:
1. long warranty period - 15 years if possible
2. Thickness - 8mm is better than the 6 or 7mm boards
3. good underlay - the cheap foam makes them ring when you walk on them, I'm using better stuff next time.

Hints to install:
1. get a mitre saw
2. get a circular saw
3. get a jigsaw
4. remove skirting first and replace after floor is laid
5. leave a 10mm gap all the way around under the skirting
6. make sure the particle board is flat and clean

I also found slowly squeezing boards together (glue ones, not click together ones) is the best way rather than hitting together witha hammer.

good luck

Pulse

One thing you must look for if you want a re-sandable flooring is the finish coating. If its aluminium oxide it will not be re-sandable, they will try and tell you that but it doesn't work all that well.

These days companies have caught on to the you get what you pay for, so they are now charging a lot more when they should be giving it away!

look for known brands, my strong recommendations are Silkwood or Readyflor.

Another difference that you wont see in small samples is that most floating floors are made with left over timbers, the ones i have mentioned above are not, (seen thousands of square metres of them down before.

good luck