I have the commercial grade, glue together pergo in 1/3 of my house and it has held up fine for 7 years so far with heavy traffic and a couple of large dogs that like to do the "Scooby Do" take offs on it . . . . . The stuff seams to be pretty bullet proof. .

I have also installed several "engineered wood" floors in clients houses over the years and while they look a bit better being "real wood" they have not held up nearly as well (mostly just sctatches from daily use, no catastrophic failures). Some better than others, you do get what you pay for.
Bamboo seems to be one of the most durable.

With Bamboo a 1/4" at the walls might not be enough for movement.

Sort of on the same topic. I re-finished two old wood floors a couple of weekends ago (I had no idea how to do it when I started). One is standard red oak (about 70 years old), the other is 105 year old t&g fir.

Everyone that comes in, is like "Wow these floors are great!". But I was on my hands and knees for about 36 hours and I know where all the defects, gouges, drum sander pockets, and every other screw up is, and I don't like the floors that much. Way too 'rustic' for me.

RR,

You'll like 'em better as time goes by and the memory of those 36 hours fades.

Sg

It took a week for my knees and ankles to forget.

rocket red i thought you were putting in rugs last night

Yep. I know 3-4 guys offhand that used to charge $60/hr doing whatever you ask for $25-30/hr.

Wednesday night I was pulling out all the old nails and staples so the carpet guy could come in Thursday and Friday. I should have new carpet when I get home from work today.

Cool! Nice to hear you are getting your flooring done. How long until you guys move in?

Shwweeeet.

Tentatively, looks like 2nd weekend in March we are going to make the move.

rr the town could be empty the second weekend in march. everyone should be in Yakima for state. wait one weekend and i could haul stuff for you.

Stage one done. Tiled the washer/dryer room in the Front entry and laminate in entry and hallway.

Now stage 2. I have a question--in the kitchen is now linolium (sp) under is a 1/2 subfloor particle board. Can I put the underlayment on top of the linolium then put the laminate on that?? Looking to not pull the sub floor out and replace with same.

Thanks
Coho

I'm assuming the 1/2" subfloor in the kitchen is in good shape. The beauty of laminate is that you can go right over the linoleum.

Remove the baseboards, cut out any bad linoleum and float the bad spots with thin set or floor patch. Lay the laminate flooring over the top of the linoleum and reinstall the baseboards with an 1/8" gap between the laminate flooring and baseboards. I would seal the gap between the baseboard and laminate flooring around the kitchen with clear caulking in case something leaks. Water is not the laminate flooring's friend.

If the linoleum is in good shape you are ready to go. It will be good waterproofing for the old subfloor!



Captain

First, make sure that you are prepared to properly deal with the transitions at doorways, thresholds etc. before you decide to double up the subfloor.
You're talking about a pretty good buildup.

Yeah, I know about that. We were going to head over too, but I would just be miserable knowing that I should be getting something done at home.

Coho: You should get a jamb saw, or something to cut the bottoms of the door trims and jambs so you can fit the built up flooring below it. Also, check the bottoms of your doors to make sure they won't snag on the raised floor, you may need to run them through a saw. I would use a fence and my Mag 77 to cut off the bottoms.

Thank you for the help.

Since the thought was to leave existing 1/2 inch subfloor with the linolium (Very thin cheap [censored]) the height added is minimal. I would add to it the underlayment and then the 1/4 inch laminate. So yes some adjustments.

Assuming your new flooring is a floating system and the existing tile is flush with the existing subfloor, there's no reason why you can't float over the tile, too.
The flatter your prep work is, the better your finished product will be. Check with the flooring mfr. on tolerances allowed and on what leveling products (if needed) they recommend.
There are cement-based and gypsum-based leveling compounds.
Stay away from Fix-All.


Yes, but again, check on allowable tolerances from the flooring mfr.


Without knowing what your new product thickness is, I would say to check with the mfr. to see what reducer profiles he offers.
If you're not good with their reducer offerings, and can't find a substitute elsewhere (fab yourself) then the tile would have to demo out and the subloor built up to the correct height for a nice "no bump" transition.

Chuck

I have installing these transition strips between floors. Laminate to carpet, Lam to Tile. Got them at Great Floors.

If you're using a wood reducer (or any reducer) it has to be anchored solidly. If not it will "rock" with foot traffic and degrade quickly.

Wood reducer:
With a new floating floor system the ideal situation is to anchor on the old side only. Then the new system can still float.
A good fastener for this is called a trim screw. They give you screw-like holding power with a nail-like penetration holes.
Drill pilot holes and use a quality adhesive on the fastener side only.

There is also a stainless steel trim screw available that is outstanding for doing trick, exterior deck and fascia work.
The new Battleground Community Center required 2x12 CVG fir fascia and these screws along with Gorilla waterproof glue made it happen.