Dream Home - Nirvana  8mm Chilton Woods Oak Laminate

easy install

The floor looks great! The additional padding that is attached adds extra cushion while you walk, and helps to even out MINOR changes in the under floor (ie, not exactly level subfloor). I prefer this floor over some other, cheaper floors because it doesn't have the weird, fake texture that many other do. The color is a deep brown, with hints of red. Took two days, at six hours each to install 400sq ft. There are a couple joints where it was hammered in a little too much,so there is a raise in the joint, but it is not noticeable. Get a laminate floor installation kit, as clicking into place is not enough. It needs hammered into place to properly click and stay in place.

This flooring was so easy to install that anyone could install it and I am no carpenter either. Looks very high end in appearance and has a beautiful shine. Also appears to be very resistant to scratching as well. Would recommend this product to anyone.

Easy installation - went right over our existing vinyl. Installed a year ago in our kitchen/dining/mudroom area and have had no problem with water spots or lifting. However, it scratches very easily - and with its dark color, the scratches are quite noticeable. Also, due to the dark color, it shows every speck of dust/dirt between cleanings.

We put this laminate in our downstairs den/basement after we had a leak. It looks great. I like the color, size, & subtle look of the lines with the boards. Just FYI, it is temperamental to install (if you want it to look right). So you have to pay attention to your lines and make sure the ENTIRE board is latched in before moving on. But that isn't too difficult for a detail oriented person like myself. One issue we have is that our basement floor is not entirely level (imagine that in TN...) so the floor flexes quiet a bit. But the good thing is, the floor DOES flex and it has yet to start showing the seems (though it might with time). As with all laminate floors it has an 'echo' sound but its not too bad. Lastly, lumber liquidators is pro military and offers a military discount which is always good. They also replace boxes with damaged boards which is good b/c we had two full boxes of defective boards. Bottom line: for the price and look this is a MUST!!!

We installed this floor in my living room & master bedroom... I loved it so much that I decided I couldn't wait so I would go ahead and pull up all of the carpet! It looks amazing in every light & with many kinds of furniture. It was quick & easy to install.

Service and delivery comments:

The manager & staff at our local store were a huge help! They were patient with me while I made my decisions, offered helpful tips... it has been wonderful experience.

Installed into a 11x15 Bedroom to get rid of carpet and reduce allergies. Though this is oak, the color is a very warm reddish mahogany. The grain looks very natural. It comes with a padding built into the back so there isn't need to buy any underlayment.
My installer said this was a top of the line flooring and a pleasure to install.
It is beautiful to look at and walk on. I love my new floor! :)

This is a nice flooring. Easy to install.
It seems very durable, certainly not something that will scratch easily.

Denting could be another issue, I could see a heavy screwdriver or something being dropped and putting a nick into it, however I don't know of any wood flooring that would be impervious to such things.

All the same, I still put felt pads on all the furniture just to be safe. The dog's nails seem to do nothing to this floor.

One note, is it is obviously very slick. The dog has trouble gaining traction to jump onto the couch, and she has stopped going up the stairs because they are too slick. This may not be an issue for you, but just thought it was worth nothing.

I have discovered that while this floor is much easier to clean than carpet (a quick dusting is mostly all that's needed), it shows dirt faster simply because it is shiny/glossy, you can see dust accumulate faster. It is rather nasty to know how long carpet hides the dust in your house!

Just be careful when tapping in place during installation, if the tapping block is not PERFECTLY in place, it will chip the edges of this when tapping it with the hammer.

Noise-level is something else to note, the dog nails and foot traffic is obviously much noisier than carpet.

However, all in all this is fantastic. It looks great, it's easier to clean, and people much prefer it to carpet. It's also cheaper than carpet to put down, to top it all off.

Your biggest singular expenses won't be the flooring but rather trim pieces to match it.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way it looks. But it was quite the project in getting there. The boards did not lock together well until you got the next row in...and even then sometimes the previous row would start to pop out of place. Very frustrating. I recommend having at least 3 people working on it. We've had for a little over a week now and it's doing pretty good with a 6 year old boy and small dog. Ultimately, if you can afford a little more expensive product, it would probably save you a lot of time and headache.

I bought 14 boxes of this stuff, and EVERY box contained at least 2 or 3 planks that had flaws: either the rubber backing was crooked and had to be cut with a carpet knife, the corners were chipped, there was black goo on the surface (a pain to get off), the tongue was broken off, or there were small blotches on the surface. I barely had enough to finish the job.

Putting the floor down was also a pain. Even the slightest tap using a straight edge would cause the tongue to break off. After five or six rows, I finally took a piece and ran it through a table saw to get a clean straight edge, then used the remaining factory edge to tap in the planks.