Dream Home - Nirvana  8mm Chilton Woods Oak Laminate

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.

We love the look of the floor in our new home and were pleased with how easy it was to install. The only thing that I wish was better was the tool kit that came with the flooring. One of the tools when used on the flooring the correct way damaged the ends of the planks. We chose to use a scap piece to place betweent the boards to keep the planks from damaging. The floor works great and we entertain company often.

We are finishing our basement on a very, very tight budget. We were thrilled to find such beautiful flooring in our budget. It took my husband all of one day to install the flooring and it is absolutely gorgeous. We could not be happier with it!

I put this in my living room off of my kitchen. We were devastated when we pulled up our carpet in our new home and found that there was no hardwood underneath as promised. We were nervous about installing the floor as we had never done it before, but were eased into the idea by the saleswoman at Lumber Liquidators. I was thoroughly impressed with the value we received in comparison to the big home improvement stores! The floor looks great, I couldn't be more pleased.

Looked great in the showroom. However the edges started to pucker up. Can easily see the footprints of people as they walk and makes it seem dirty. I tried all the recommended cleaning products.

We use the product in our living room and down a hallway. The flooring was easy to use after a few rows in.

Installation Tips:
1. Plan your installation before starting!!! Measure the board width and use this to avoid leaving very narrow pieces in high traffic or visibility areas next to edges of the flooring.
2. Removing the base trim in the rooms you are installing the floor makes the job easier (if you have a trim nailer and air compresser to reattach the trim).

Positives:
1. The locking system works well (when the lock tracks are clean)
2. The surface pattern is very realistic looking.
3. The multiple board lengths improves the overall look of the floor.

Negatives:
1. While the lock system works well if the tracks are clean, many boards had to be "cleaned" with a utility knife to cut away imperfections in the track.
2. As many as 50% of the boards in any given box had an unknown material stuck or baked onto the surface of the boards. Some of the material was able to be removed with rubbing alcohol and scrubbing. Several boards were either wasted or sections cut out and those boards used as end pieces to avoid the bad spots.
3. The pad on some of the boards had to be cut and partially removed because it interfered with the locking tracks. While it cuts and removes easily, it adds to the install time to check every board and "repair" 5% of them.

Beautiful flooring, easy to install, customer service was great!