Laminate Flooring In A Rental? Help
I have a townhouses that I have been renting for quite some time and am considering installing laminate flooring in when my tenant leaves this month.
What I would like to now from anyone with experience with this type of flooring is how long has it lasted, has it stood up to damage from tenants. Was it worth the money verse carpet, and I am going to install it myself. So any comments maybe helpful, also I allow pets at this rental.
Thanks in advance
I am not sure it will be good in the bathroom or kitchen, if the water spills often, it has tendency to come out. But, other than that I think it is great, even for pets, better than the carpet.
I like linoleum, it's inexpensive and fairly durable, surely cheaper than replacing or trying to clean carpet at every turnover. My rentals are mostly lower end, though, so renters don't expect anything fancy. Carpet is nice, but I figure if they want fabric floors, they can bring their own rugs and dirty them to their heart's content. Worse case is when they move out, they are left behind and I have to throw them.
I've seen laminates being used more and more in my market. I've seen them in very busy places. They seem to be able to taking a beating and keep on shining.
Thanks for all the input, I also think they will show a lot better.
I am worried that a dog will pee and it will seep in between the planks- does anyone know if that is possible.
Also who has experience installing them, I am pretty good with my hands and the instructions I've read of the internet seem easy enough.
I just don't want to start it and then have to pay someone else to finish it and end up costing me more money in the long run. -- This has happened to me on one or two projects in the past.
Thanks
Don't worry, my parents installed it for me when they visited and that was their first time. Make sure the floor is perfectly leveled/ flat, without the bumps.
Good luck!
I have two kittens and they are staying in a designated spot until they are trained.
Not hard to do, but my advise is to take your time when working around door frames!!! The best advice I can give is if you have existing base boards in the rooms you want to floor, is to remove the boards first. Lay your floor down then put the base boards back in place. It looks 100% neater than using quarter round trim, also saves a ton of time having to mitre cut all the trim pieces.
Also, get a good table saw and Mitre saw for the angle cuts. Another good tool is the saw to cut under the door frame trim, this will allow you to slide your boards under the frames for a neat look. All you'll need then is some trim caulk and it will look clean!!!
I spent an entire weekend having to finish up trim work that I had my renters do when they installed the floor themselves. The did a good job on laying the floor but the detail work was done poorly.
Any questions let me know, I'm no expert but I am getting there!!
Ravi :-D
Thanks everyone -- I appreciate the info.
Does anyone have any advice as to whether the "snap n lock" or glue kind is better, also any preferences or suggestions as far as brands..
Ravi, thanks for the saw info, but I have a question - it a seems to me it would be more trouble to remove and replace the baseboards then using the quarter round -- It seems hard to remove the baseboards without messing up the paint even if I razor blade the whole thing, as it stands I only have a little caulk and paint to do where pictures where and I don't want to create more work for myself.. I am interested in your opinion here.
Also whats your experience with laminate in bathrooms.
Thanks again
I put laminate in two houses.......since then I have not touched the stuff for the following reasons.
1. It's just as expensive as real wood or tile and does not have the life of such.
2. It is not that much different then hard pressed particle board......if it get wet then its shot.
3. its not easy to repair......and yes it will dent and in some cases delaminate.
4. Its nothing more then a poor imitation of the real thing........it is nothing more then a "picture" of the real thing with a dull finish.
The other thing you need to figure out......and do the math........are you going to get your money back.? How long do you keep these investments?
I personally would use tile or real wood.........tile can easily be replaced and wood can be sanded hundreds of times.........usually putting linseed oil etc is all that is needed.
Either way you go.....I would not put laminate or real wood for that matter into a bathroom.......you will be tearing it back up one day.............bathrooms are so small 35 - 50 square feet on average.....go with real tile.
NC
I just remodeled a 14 unit apt bldg we own and put in laminate flooring ineach unit, looks great, cost was reasonable. Extremely durable, we did a test in one of the units and left water in one spot for six days before it laminate started peeling up.
great product go w/ the cheaper laminate for the rentals though.
We had laminate flooring installed in our 2nd home. We got them for 89 cents/sq foot for 1200 sqr feet and 49 cents/sqr foot for 450 sqr feet basement. Installation was $1.30/sqr foot that includes installing baseboard and molding. Altough I prefer hardwood, the laminate looks pretty good. If you can get good price on laminate, it is a lot cheaper than hardwood floor. I don't think you can have hardwood floor installed for less than $4.00/sqr foot.
Thanks again for the great posts..
I will be keeping the propertys for at least 5 years and am hoping this stuff is in good enough shape to sell it then.
Last question -- I have seen some pretty good warrantys on this stuff-- so lets say 5 years from know there is some water damage or scratches will they come out and replace it.
thanks
I agree. Laminate is way less expensive than real wood. If I had the choice for my home, real wood is the best. But for rental go with the laminate, I used Quick Step that had a natural texture that was really nice.
Go with the click "snap" type!!!
Don't know if I would do the bathroom. Too much water and chance are you'll need to fix.
I think it will be ok. Just make sure you get flooring that will resist spills to some degree, since you have no control over your tenants day-to-day activities. Most of the stuff is pretty hard, and will resist denting, etc. That's nice.
I've started a forum on laminate flooring which might be of interest. Check out the poll to see what sorts of flooring people will use.
Blogtim, That's a great website, thanks for running it! I love to find helpful, specialized sites like yours, they can be real helpful when I need info!