Floating timber floor vs Vinyl timber floor ?

[AshleyM]

I am after advice from anyone who has installed either system and the pros/cons

[Trav]

flaoting timber looks better than vinyl IMHO. I've never laid vinyl so I can't comment on installation of vinyl.

Floating timber floors are easy to lay - but they do take some time.

Trav

[AshleyM]

Hi Trav
I like the look of the floating floor as well. We were nearly sold on it until we had a look at a display home of the actual house we are building that had a floating floor laid and it was scratched to the sh**house.

I can appreciate that it gets a lot of traffic but it hasn't been down long so I can only imagine that's waht mine will look like in a few years.

Made me think back to the tiles option as I am not a big fan of the vinyl flooring either.

[Trav]

Ashley

I think laminate floors are harder wearing than timber - but you can sand them back and resurface them. Vinyl is probably harder wearing than anything else (except tiles maybe) but it looks terrible, so we ruled it out straight away.

Can you drop into a carpet store? They will ahve a whole stack of different types and should be able to give you some advice on the pros and cons of each.

Trav

[Christopha]

We have a rental house which has floating floor, it was laid by the previous owner who a "Do-it-yourselfer" so while the flooring is doing a great job the way it was laid and the way the idiot finished the trims makes it a dodgy job. Unless you know what you are doing then have it laid by a pro! A good mate of mine is a carpet/vinyl layer and he tells us that good quality vinyl will outlast the floating stuff. He laid some medium quality, floorboard "look" vinyl in a rental shop we have and 12 months down the track it is still looking like new and people still comment on the lovely polished timber floor...... Oh, get your vinyl laid by a pro too.....