Pergo or Bruce Laminate??? Any Input???

[DDD]

I can't take the carpet stains anymore... :grrr:...and I can't
get any of the three guys to be careful about their shoes. So, I
am going to have laminate installed in hopes it is going to look
clean with minimal care. The Home Depot guy told me that Pergo
is absolutely totally the best. The other flooring people have
Bruce on sale and describe it as the "most durable".

Any experiences or advice you want to share with me?? I can get
the Bruce installed including underlayment for $3.99 per sq. ft.
The Pergo would be more. I "need" to walk into my house without
wanting to scream and I hope flooring will help...lol. DDD

 

[skeeter]

the ex and I did a whole first floor in Pergo 10 years ago. I wish I had it in this house.

At that time, Pergo was the only choice, the rest out there were obviously very poor materials. I have no idea about the Bruce. I guess just do some internet searches. Also look at new home construction and see what brand they use in their houses.

Could you get a plank of each? Bring it home and drop some dishes on it, have the dog run his toenails on it, have the kids play with Hotwheels on it - you know - whatever is the usual in your household - and see which holds up better.

 

[wakeupcall]

DDD, we had Wilson laminate floors put in when we lived in MO. As far as liminate goes, it was great. I've decided I'm not a laminate fan no matter the quality. It kinda echos when you walk across it and we even had the padded flooring under it. It sounded like horses walking across it whether it was difficult child, me or the dogs (and we have Yorkies!).

 

[Fran]

<span style='font-size: 11pt'>I ripped out the carpeting in the game room for the same reason. Yuck. It was always spotted and dirty looking. I have a laminate but I don't remember the name. Sorry. I have a regular hard wood floor in the dining room and it would be hard to see a difference.
I put porcelin tile that looks like stone in the fixer upper. I love it and it's pretty indestructable.
I am coming to dislike carpeting anywhere but the bedrooms.</span>

 

[Marcie Mac]

I did Pergo in the spare bedroom and hallway - horrible stuff - ya drop something just right and it chips and heaven forbid if you get water on it and don't clean it up immediately - it will swell.

Not to mention it was 79.98 a box plus the moisture barrier stuff. For Dans room, I went to Costco (we install ourselves here) and for 25.99 a box, did his room - 25 year warranty, scratch proof and burn proof. I liked it so much I pulled up the pergo in the hall way, and put it down, and I did my living room as well. Needless to say with three dogs running (or sliding -depending on how fast they were intending to go) and two kids running cars, bikes, trucks, dragging stuff around - it has held up wonderfully -have not seen a chip yet.

And the best part is all you need is a swifter jet to clean it -

I would never have carpets again..

Marcie

 

[everywoman]

I just did laminate in my every room but the bedrooms and bath. So far, so good. I did not do one of the name brands. I used a local small town distributor and paid my foster daughters husband to install.

 

[1905]

DDD,
I had Pergo in my kitchen for a year. It looked sooooo cheap, I couldn't stand it. Last summer we got rid of all the carpets (and that Pergo) in the downstairs and put in Bruce hardwood. FORGET the laminate. It is sooo not worth it. Your house will look a million times better with real hardwood. My kitchen looks great with the hardwood, brand new in fact. I highly recomend it. Go to Home Depot, look at the diference in person. Your home will increase in value by more than the cost of the wood.

 

[WhymeMom?]

Okay, in a former home we had Bruce Hardwood flooring, 3/4 inch oak. We had it sanded and refinished when there was water damage done and it looked pretty good. We went with the natural color of the wood, so scratches were not obvious. In our present home we were told we could not put "real" wood down in our basement since we could not hammer into the concrete (without costing a fortune and taking forever), so we had Luan laminate flooring installed. It looks beautiful and supposedly will last longer than our hardwood oak in the kitchen.... The kitchen wood needs to be refinished now, but I'm waiting until it looks really bad to convince my husband to switch to the laminate...

I used to be a "real" wood snob, but have seen the light. The "luan" brand I believe is manufactured in Canada. It is expensive, but looks beautiful...I picked the Hickory for wonderful shade variation.....would replace every carpeted room with this if I had the $$$$$s....

 

[amstrong]

We did laminate wood in our old hous but got the brand that Sam's Wholesale carrries--much cheaper than Pergo and it was beatiful and held up wonderfully. You will love it. We did.

 

[DDD]

Thanks for the input. husband and I have owned five homes. The lst
three had quarter sawn oak real wood floors which we had the proessional polyurethane expert treat and coat. Geez, I loved
those floors.

The 4th home was far more modest as we had to downsize since it
became apparent that we had a new baby (lol...easy child/difficult child before he
added the difficult child!) to provide for. There was only carpet there
and it was not awe-inspiring, to say the least. on the other hand I thank
God that we found that house which had plenty of square footage,
a 20x40 pool that the three of us enjoyed daily AND (YEAH!) a
guest house where GFGmom lived with an interconnecting intercom
system.

Wow.......I'd almost forgotten those years before GFGmom decided
to reproduce again etc. etc. etc.

Anyway, this home is our last home. It is laid out fine, the
neighborhood is satisfactory, and now I need to do as much updating as I can within limited budget. The laminate seems to
be the way to go. Today, however, the flooring man told me that
they have a new product that "looks like wood" "has builtin cushioning" and yet is actually more like vinyl?????????????
He described it as "soft step"???????? The advantage of this
product, he says, is that you don't have to worry about your
kids spilling water and forgetting to clean up. Evidently that
is a MAJOR problem with laminate???????

I thought laminate was impervious to damage other than catastrophic! He says that it is so long as you clean up any
messes ASAP. Yikes, husband and the boys are not going to jump up
and clean up a mess pronto. Not!

SO......I'm going to decide in the next few days but perhaps
the new "soft step" may have advantages. I am NOT meant to be
a shopper! Period! Zip! Zap! I do NOT like to shop! DDD

 

[Stella Johnson]

I have laminate that is made by Armstrong. I absolutely love it. It is all downstairs. NOOOOO carpet. I don't know about Pergo. The Armstrong had a longer warranty and was thicker.

steph

 

[ScentofCedar]

What an interesting thread. We have slate and carpet at our house. White carpet. (!) And we have been trying to decide whether to go with real wood (it was suggested that we not) or laminate.

It just doesn't seem like we should use a laminate.

But everything I hear about the good ones is that they are better than real wood.

Barbara

 

[WhymeMom?]

I have both laminate and "real" wood. With real wood you can see cracks open up with humidity in the summer. You can also get real gouges and it takes time and makes a big mess if you want to refinish. Laminates have more "give" and they don't seperate. Most have a warranty for a certain time and generally you can't refinish the wood, but then when a machine applies the finish with greater control than hand application the finish will last longer. I used to think only "real" wood would do, but now I am a "laminate" believer.......

 

[DDD]

Thanks, everyone. Barbara...I think maybe the guy was talking about Flexitec that shows on the website that you shared with me.
I'll research more at thome but just had to take a peak this afternoon. LOL. DDD