Pergo. UGH

[jeffg]

When did the world decide that cheap veneer is a suitable replacement for hardwood floors? It looks terrible (there's nothing like almost natural to clash horribly with natural), it sounds like you're tap dancing on hard plastic when you walk on it, and when it eventually gets gouged (like all floors do), you can forget about trying to refinish it.

Although we're getting kind of fond of telling home sellers who bring up their Pergo floors as some kind of feature that the floors would be ripped out immediately on purchase.

 

[danemodsandy]

Yeah:

A lot of home-owners would be horrified to hear what Realtors and appraisers call some of their "features."

I am hearing laminate floors referred to as "Contact-paper floors." And ceilings that are full of can lights?

"Swiss cheese ceilings."

 

[kenmore71]

Sandy, wait until you see the "swiss cheese ceiling" house i will inherit! The upside is that it has real hardwood floors and is on 10 acres of land!

 

[jeffg]

Sandy, I honestly would rather have vinyl tile on a floor than Pergo. At least it's quiet when you walk on it.

Our last house had old-style linoleum in the kitchen, it was my first experience with it since my grandparent's house back East, 40+ years ago. Just magical stuff. Nothing ever phased it. I think I'd still prefer it in kitchens/bathrooms over tile floors.

 

[volvoguy87]

Wood.

My house is historic (mid 1880s) and it has wood floors. I'm in the process of refinishing them. I'm using de-waxed shellac instead of polyurethane. It loos BEAUTIFUL and the application really is quite easy. If it gets dinged or scratched in the future, I can re-set the finish with denatured alcohol. I'm looking into real linoleum for the kitchen too. One of my friends has it and it looks great, it's durable, it's much softer than tile so it won't hurt your feet if you stand all day, and it's historically accurate.

Dave

 

[danemodsandy]

Jeff:

Actually, I have nothing against honest VCT floors, or sheet vinyl either, so long as said sheet vinyl is not imitating something else.

My favorite sheet vinyl is Armstrong's Corlon, which used to be marketed for residential and commercial use, but which is now marketed only for commercial installations. No matter - you can still get it. Corlon is chips of vinyl in a translucent vinyl binder. Extremely durable - I know of one installation that was put down in 1966 and was still in use, undamaged, when the owner entered assisted living two years ago. She was not a housekeeper, and had five kids and any number of basset hounds over the years. Didn't faze the Corlon!

My preference in hardwood floors is flooring stained almost black. I do not like banana-yellow strip oak at all.

Carpet is also fine, so long as it is not off-white or the paler beiges. Too bloody much upkeep. In Atlanta, I had around 3000 square feet of that stuff, and to this day, I resent every damn minute I spent on taking care of it.

One pet peeve: Twelve-inch-square tiles in small spaces like bathrooms and powder rooms. They're overscale in small spaces, without enough grid to give the floor interest. They just look bland and blah used this way. If you're using large-scale tile in your house, cutting the scale in small spaces really does look better.

This isn't about floors, but I am also no fan of the spread of marble countertops. There are large, elaborate houses - as well as many historic houses - in which they look good and are appropriate. But to see them in so-called "starter homes" is ridiculous. If that's your "starter," what the hell are you aspiring to? And Formica is way kinder to dropped dishes, as well as much cheaper to change when fashions do, which they will. Some day, people will say "bronzite marble" in the same sneering tone they're using for '70s wall paneling today.

[this post was last edited: 2/21/2013-19:53]

 

[whirlcool]

Some of our friends who live in a nice home in an upscale neighborhood just finished ripping out the floor tile in their kitchen (they hate cleaning grout)and put in a product called "Pergo Pets". It's supposed to be durable and not scratch from having dogs and cats play on it.

We sometimes take all four of our dogs (large dogs) with us when we visit to play with their large dogs. It used to be ok with the tile floors, now on the Pergo the noise and echo in the room is so loud with 6 dogs in the room that nobody can hear each other let alone themselves.

I never knew that Pergo was loud like that. And their kitchen has a 24 foot tall cathedral ceiling that acts like an echo chamber. When you are over there you feel like you are in a drum.

 

[mattl]

Sandy, I'll second the Corlon comments.  I've got about 1200 sq.ft in my basement circa 1970 that has withstood any number of floods, parties and what have you.  I used to strip it yearly, but it's been many years since I have and a quick wash and it still looks good.  Have some in my kitchen too, has not fared as well.  It was put in in the late 80's and is off white.  For many years we had an asphalt drive and over many discussions with Armstrong about the yellowing they put the blame there.  Had the driveway ripped out years ago and replaced with washed concrete, but the yellowed floor remains. It's not too bad, but a bit annoying.  Thinking of going with an off white cork product as a replacement, but that's  a way's off.

 

[fido]

When I was self employed I did house wiring work as well as appliance repairs and laminate flooring made the job a nightmare at times. It was OK on the ground floor of newer houses, which tended to have concrete floors but the older properties usually had floorboards with wiring underneath. There was usually sockets wiring under the floorboards but no access to it once the laminate was in place.

 

[gusherb]

We've had amazingly good luck with laminate flooring. My mom decided to use it in her shop 10 years ago when she opened it. We all can't believe how well it's held up to 10 years of wear & tear and outright abuse! It has been through so many unimaginable things that you guys probably wouldn't even believe (Would you believe me if I told you someone walked in off the street and just started urinating on the floor?)
It was very cheap flooring on closeout at Menards.

Two of the 4 bedrooms upstairs including the hallway have some cheap laminate from Ikea that was 99 cents a sqft and has also held up amazingly well, after 7 years of spills, and big dogs literally doing everything in their power to try and gouge the floor with their nails, there isn't a single scratch or blemish! I'm not exaggerating either. It's a pretty good looking floor too, people never know it's laminate til I tell them.

Now I do believe there is very bad laminate out there too! A family friend of ours put some expensive stuff down in their kitchen and the dog peed on it one day and by the time they came home and found it the floor was buckled. I was shocked considering how well ours has held up. and our good luck was with the cheapest stuff too.

I don't really notice it being particularly noisy, though I've heard some very noisy laminate floors. I might just be used to it after so many years as well.

As good of luck as we've had with the laminate I still would never put the stuff in my own place! I love good old hardwood. Not hardwood veneer, not pre finished hardwood but just hardwood that you actually lay down then stain. (My parents had bad luck with pre-finished hardwood... )

Also not a big fan of carpet with pets. Our dogs would literally do everything in their power to wreck the carpets we used to have! It was absolutely disgusting. Dogs prefer going on the carpet cuz it resembles grass I guess. (we had a poodle where if you left for too long he'd get spiteful and just pick up his leg anywhere, preferably in the worst places possible)

 

[tomturbomatic]

I still remember Armstrong ads, usually on the Armstrong Theater productions for Montina Corlon. I am glad to know that it is still available. I last checked it in the late 80s.

 

[danemodsandy]

Corlon:

Tom:

The Corlon that is sold today is the same as Montina Corlon. Unfortunately, the other pattern, Tessera Corlon (which had smaller chips), is no longer available.

 

[retropia]

We've had good luck with laminate flooring in our kitchen. It is warmer underfoot than ceramic or porcelain tile and easier to clean than tile with grout. It doesn't tear like sheet vinyl can when moving heavy appliances, like the refrigerator or stove. (I've seen that happen twice with newly installed sheet vinyl floors and inexperienced movers.)

It is true that laminate flooring can't be refinished like a quality, solid hardwood floor can. However, it is also considerably less expensive.

 

[pulltostart]

Sandy,

I've owned one house that came with a Corlon floor (Teressa) and it was durable as all get-out.  I stripped years of old wax off it and put down a fresh finish and it looked like new.  My parents also purchased a home with the same floor previously, and their's even had the flash-cove base and base cabinets that were suspended off the floor.  I thought that kitchen/cabinets/floor was just fabulous!  I've looked at the current Armstrong sample chains and am not as fond of the current pattern as the Teressa, so when I re-did my kitchen a couple of years ago I had a Forbo Marmoleum (linoleum) floor with heat-welded seams installed.  I love it.

 

lawrence

 

[tomturbomatic]

Is Forbo Marmoleum and relation to Ruben Mamoulian?

Lawrence, thanks for the resource tip.

 

[danemodsandy]

Lawrence:

Just a heads-up:

It's "Tessera" Corlon, not "Teressa." The name is Latin for a certain type of small mosaic tile; the plural was tesserae.

The name "Montina" had no prior meaning that related to flooring, though it is a place name and a proper name. It just sounds all space-age and sophisticated.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Armstrong used to have beautiful ads for these floors in shelter mags in the early 60s.

 

[tomturbomatic]

They have new colors in Corlon. The new fiberglass backing is said to make it more flexible for easier installation. That was the thing about Corlon; it was so stiff it was hard to install in smaller places.

http://www.armstrong.com/commflooringna/products/sheet/connection-corlon/_/N-67sZ1z141y8

 

[ptcruiser51]

Rip it up and throw it out!

My hairdresser had her salon updated and put in pergo. Two months later she had the whole works torn-up and thrown out. Replaced with standard linoleum. After having >six< patrons take a header on wet or hair-clipping-covered pergo. Foo.
She's lucky they weren't sue-happy.