Dream Home - St. James  12mm Golden Acacia Laminate

Put the flooring in my den, dinning room, and kitchen and I have knotted pine walls so it all looks great.

This stuff looks like real wood and has an expensive appearance. Easy to install. We have a Yellow Lab and so far no scratches yet at all. Very, very pleased.

beautiful , stunning…
, cons a contractor put a chip in it , not the flooring installers, so will have to have an epoxy fix, to replace board not possible ,
so why keep an extra box??

Overall this is a great floor for the price, durable so far, easy to clean, and I like the look just wish it came with more patterns but you can't tell unless you are really looking at it. I had this professionally installed in almost my whole house to get rid of our nasty carpet by lumber liquidators so not sure how hard it was but they did in 3 days and looks great!!

Nice and durable so far, looks just like real hardwood floors! Love it

I shopped around for wood flooring for our family room, hallway, and master bedroom, about 525 sq. ft. I asked a lot of questions and did some research and read plenty of reviews, and settled on the Lumber Liquidators St. James Collection 12 mm Golden Acacia laminate flooring.
I wanted to install it myself, but thought better and hired someone. After watching them begin installation, I was thankful I did. I've been in construction all my life, but never did wood/laminate flooring. My suggestion is that if you don't have experience with it, HIRE SOMEONE. It no doubt saved me a great deal of headaches and precious time. Now on to the product itself.
The 12 mm laminate was what my wife and I purchased since we wanted a durable, long-lasting floor in our 4-yr old home. Our laminate has a slight texture to the finish, not completely smooth. So far this has held up and we don't have any scratches on the floor at all, and we really love the look, finish, and fit of all the joints. One item to note regarding durability - the installers had a couple courses of planks that seemed to move a bit and separate end-to-end ever so slightly as they were installing it. The kicked the boards with their foot (wearing steel-toed boots) to keep them tight while they finished the course they were working on. They weren't gentle with them, either. I was impressed by the fact that the surface wasn't permanently marred or damaged in any way. The foot traffic was easily cleaned with the floor cleaner we purchased. We also have 2 cats and a dog, and their claws haven't scratched the flooring at all, even when sliding around the floor as they chase one another.
Overall I am completely satisfied, my wife's allergies to the cat dander has improved dramatically by getting the carpet out and replacing it with the laminate. The color is beautiful, rich and very natural looking. If durability is something important to someone shopping for laminate flooring, the 12 mm with the textured surface is the way to go!

A beautiful and durable floor with high traffic...
Looks like real wood...
See pics below...

* We love the looks, but.....
* We thought the attached pad was a benefit-but not sure now- think it might have made install harder by not letting pieces slide together as easy as others.
* Had to hammer pieces together as the 'click-lock' did not work well- while they start to go together, the board you insert stays raised up until you can bang it in hard enough to seat all the way, then lays flat.
* some edges were pre-deformed by the ultra thin laminate flaked off, others bent easily when using a scrap section to bang them together to seat (see above).
* Separations occur, probably because the composite material is a bit more cardboard like than others we used- and when forced together perhaps it no longer holds pieces together (hard to keep as a 'floating floor' if middle sections start to work there way towards edge- almost need to go right to wall on one end and nail down other to prevent separation)

Final result is that it took at least twice as long as other floors we have installed. It does look great right now but I have serious doubts about the durability (ultra thin laminate top) that only time will tell, but I would not do this floor again (Lumber liquidators has better products/brands than this one I am sure)

Installation without damaging the product or leaving gaps is extremely difficult for even experienced installers. OK as "builder quality" but not for homeowners with discriminating taste. All planks are the same length, making it very hard to avoid repetitive patterns in larger rooms.

The price was very acceptable. The household application was excellent.
A few negatives. The different boxes of boards seemed to have come off of different assembly lines, as some were very hard to connect, and some connected and came apart too easily.
Many of the boards had damage on the corners and edges. One box was 4 boards short.
All in all, the floor is gorgeous, feels really nice under our feet. The 12mm makes a huge difference over our old 8mm floor. I'd buy it again.