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Now, we had intended to go for laminate, and we discovered that B&Q had a new product, "Floormaster Loc laminate flooring" which was REALLY CHEAP. Only £11.99 per pack. Darn good value when everything else was in the £20-£30 league. We got underlay and 8 boxes of the stuff and took it ... Read review
Advantages: Cheap and effective Disadvantages: Poor quality control means lots of visits to B&Q
...laminate, and we discovered that B&Q had a new product, "Floormaster Loc laminate flooring" which was REALLY CHEAP. Only £11.99 per pack. Darn good value when everything else was in the £20-£30 league. We got underlay and 8 boxes of the stuff and took it home.
There was still lots to do, so the laminate sat there acclimatising and being flat until it became time for laying.
-------------------
The process ...tongues.
B&Q were very good about exchanging them, but I had to make far too many visits. On the first visit I returned a single box. On the next visit I returned two more boxes. Out of these boxes there were enough duff planks to make up yet another box. Which was swapped.
In fact, people had clearly been opening packs in the store on my last visit and taking good planks to make up a whole pack of quality floor. more
---------- Update ----------
Well the floor has been down for some time now and I am very pleased with it. It's very easy to clean, even paint spills come off easily as long as you dont get stuff in the interlock.
It seems to be wearing well, and it looks pretty good!!
--------------------------------------------------------------- I bought a flat recently with my finaceé and am presently in the process of turning it into a mini palace.
Having done the ceiling, the coving, the rubbing down, the ripping up, the filling in, the knocking down of walls and building of new ones (with a little help from future pa-in-law) it was time to approach the floor.
Now, we had intended to go for laminate, and we discovered that B&Q had a new product, "Floormaster Loc laminate flooring" which was REALLY CHEAP. Only £11.99 per pack. Darn good value when everything else was in the £20-£30 league. We got underlay and 8 boxes of the stuff and took it home.
There was still lots to do, so the laminate sat there acclimatising and being flat until it became time for laying.
------------------- The process -------------------
Floormaster Loc Laminate is a glueless floating laminate floor. This means that it slots together with a minimum of effort. Apparently.
Now we had already decided on new skirting board and removed the old stuff from the walls so all we had to do was the laying - wall to wall.
An expansion gap of 5-10mm is required around the edge of the laminate. I made it closer to the 5ml mark as I was laying the boards on one of the hottest days of the summer. The expansion gap would be covered by the new skirting board and all would be lovely.
I used fibreboard underlay which was easy to lay, although it doesn't cut brilliantly without leaving lots of green dust everywhere.
Then it came to the laminate. The first row was easy. Put down the spacers and lay the planks end to end. Each plank is joined onto the end of the plank before at an angle of about 45 degrees (it says 30 degrees ha ha ha). Then onto the workmate to chop the last plank in half, remembering to turn it wrong way round to mark the cutting point :-).
The next and subsequent rows became trickier. you join the first plank of the row tot the exisiting planks and lay it down. Then you join the second plank to the end of the fist plank and then lift the two planks in the other direction to slot the second plank in to the planks which have already been laid (still with me?). At this point the first plank which you have just linked to and are now lifting up, tries to detach itself.
This continues as you go down the row, neccessitating lots of running up and down like a demented frog, trying to keep all the boards locked in until the row is complete. Then a bit of pushing and knocking and you have a new row down.
-------------- Problems --------------
Quality --------- The first problem, and indeed main problem, is that of quality control. Out of 8 boxes of planks, I have had to return half of them. Yes 50%. Many planks are not finished properly with white spotting in the veneer. Others are not cut properly with lots of chips down the edge. Others had broken interlocking tongues.
B&Q were very good about exchanging them, but I had to make far too many visits. On the first visit I returned a single box. On the next visit I returned two more boxes. Out of these boxes there were enough duff planks to make up yet another box. Which was swapped.
In fact, people had clearly been opening packs in the store on my last visit and taking good planks to make up a whole pack of quality floor.
Doorways --------------
The second problem is that the planks must be lifted quite high to get them to interlock, and they are quite easy to damage. When I got to the doorway, this presented a problem. The plank must slide under the door frame. It can only slide at an angle of about 30 degrees minimum - which doesn't fit under the frame.
My teeth were gnashed furiously.
In the end the solution was to lay the plank flat and then get a piece of wood the width of the plank and tap it underneath using a hammer. I tried with a piece of wood somewhat short the first time and ended up bashing off the top of the laminate. I swore a bit and cut a new piece.
My father in law had even more difficulty with his living room as he has a stone fireplace with a lip. It proved impossible to lay this flooring under the lip effectively, and in the end improvisation with oak beading was needed.
Bits ------
A third problem was with the interlocking stuff breaking, or bits being stuck in the grooves. The boards do not knit together if anything bigger than a microbe has got in the grooves.
----------- Cutting -----------
This was relatively easy until I got to the end strip. Cutting the length of a plank takes an extremely long time. I bought a saw to do the floor with and it took forever to get through a plank. I have to concede that by the end of the floor, the saw was pretty blunt though. Also, I slipped at the end and wrecked the entire plank. I plan to buy a jigsaw today to finish the job as I cannot face any more sawing! You need a really good saw as the flooring will soon blunt a standard one.
The Jigsaw was effective but did make the edge of the laminate chip a lot more.
------------------ Accessories ------------------
The next problem I had was accessories. Despite the huge amount of the stuff B&Q has, it was very hard to find joining strips. We chose the Beech colour, and while there was a wide variety of wooden strips, there were very few beech. There were only laminate to laminate strips or laminate to tile strips too. No laminate to carpet unless we wanted metal strips (not in Beech anyway)
A solution was found by using a wooden baton carpet gripper and putting a laminate to laminate joining strip over the top.
-------------- Summary --------------
It certainly looks effective once laid, and despite the difficulties, I am pleased with it. There is no excuse for the extreme poor quality however.
As long as you don't mind lots of trips to B&Q and don't have a room with lots of pipes and awkward places to lay floor, this stuff is OK. just remember to try not to swear too loud when you destroy a plank with a teensy tiny mistake.
Oh and check the plank quality before you cut them, and not after, to save your blushes at B&Q :-)
----------- Nutshell -----------
Floormaster Loc Laminate Flooring is available from B&Q warehouse (www.diy.co.uk). It is available in pine, beach, maple and possibly a few other colours. It's £11.99 for about 2.5 square yards. (8 planks)
You need to buy underlay and rip out the skirtingboards or buy natty little filing things that look frankly a bit crap.
Advantages: reasonable price, nice tile styles Disadvantages: poor quality, easily damaged, difficult to install, falls apart in weeks
I recently underwent the misfotune of installing this product in our brand new 3mx7m conservatory. On opening the packs, some lengths were already damaged, the edges are also very easily damaged when installing.
Initially installation seems quite straightforward, however when you start on the second row you realise it isn't all plain sailing when you get to the third length because the installation method requires you to lift the whole row. This ... ...length coming away. To get round this earlier boards have to be weighed down. Installation then becomes very physical because to get the boards to slide and click in place actually requires them to be lifted nearer to 7cm rather than the 3cm quoted in the instructions. I'm a powerlifter and had trouble with it so how people of lesser strength would cope I do not know. There is a nack to it which requires you to lie on the floor and use your whole ...
seanstanley 06.02.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of B&Q Flooring
Advantages: Easy cleaning, Great for skating, Hard wearing Disadvantages: Slippery, noisy
Afew months ago we finally got round to ripping out the nasty old carpet in our lounge, and painted the walls a lovely reddy / orange colour. We'd been saving hard ( Ahem, ok, hubby got his redundancy payout from Parcelforce ) and finally it was time to choose my dream carpet. Hubby then chose to announce his plan...to laminate our living room floor.
Many arguements ( sorry Jimmy, discussions ) later, I caved in. Hubby had done his research. How ... ...so many reasons that carpet was an unsuitable choice for people with a lifestyle like ours.
Jimmy : " Dustmites live in carpets. They contribute towwards bad respiratory illnesses such as asthma. Do you want our daughter to suffer needlessly? "
Tray : " Oh. "
Jimmy : " We are sociable people, who have alot of visitors. They are mainly my Guiness drinking mates, who wrecked the last carpet with spillages of the black stuff. "
Tray : " Oh. "
Jimmy ...
Tray0098 25.02.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of B&Q Flooring
Advantages: Cost effective, loads of choice. Helpful resources to assist the D.I Y-er. Disadvantages: packaging not always effective.
...comparing prices at different outlets B&Q rates highly for choice and price. They know thier markets.!
Because it is a "toilet" and not in constant view I selected a B&Q pack of 11 tiles for just £6.98.each tile being 330x330mm and 98mm thick.(limited colour range.) Two packs covered the area in question. An adhesive and grout mix ( under £20.00 to cover upper to 1.8 metres) and Tile cutter (under £20.00) increased the price, but on the whole B&Q ... ...would not hesitate to recommend B&Q when planning and pricing for flooring products. I would however pass comment on thier packaging! It could do with modifying somewhat , to strengthen and secure such bulky items. They also offer the "price promise" whereby they match or offer discount if you can prove better pricing elsewhere ! This in my experiance is honoured. Also in thier favour is that they accept returns with packaging and receipt available ...
marmiladey 08.09.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of B&Q Flooring
Advantages: easy to clean, looks good, can be cheaper than carpeting, great if you have children or pets running in and out Disadvantages: difficult to put together
We had taken the carpet up in my bedroom- we did it while my younger son had some friends over for the afternoon and we threw the old carpet down the stairs..they thought we were mad. So we were left with bare floorboards. They were not in dreadful condition but it would have taken some sanding to get them in a lovely condition to varnish, and we have asthma so the potential dust would have been a problem. We thought we would get some laminated flooring ... ...We moved all of the furniture out of my room- luckily we have a big house and we could move it out and stand it around in corridors and other rooms, but nevertheless, it did look crowded. My room looked huge! That's something you have to consider if you are going to laminate your floors- what will you do with the furniture while you are doing it? You can't stand it on the stuff you have just done becasue it distorts it - so think about that before ...
ginger59 14.03.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of B&Q Flooring
Advantages: easy to wipe clean, better for asthmatic children and more hygienic than carpet Disadvantages: shows dirt quicker than carpet and can be noisier
My friend has recently installed a new laminate floor. He did all the work himself, it only took him two days and was a third of the cost of a carpet. I thought of many reasons for him not to do it:- 1. The room would seem colder 2. It would scratch easily as they have 3 kids and a dog 3. It would start to lift if anything was spilled 4. It would not be comfortable to sit on. 5. It would be noisy 6. It would be harder to keep looking clean 7. There ... ...weeks later I take it all back. The room doesn't feel colder at all, in fact the rich colour of the wood makes it look warmer. One of his sons is always rolling around on the floor with cars but they don't scratch the surface and neither does the dog. The surface is tougher than I expected. Any spills are easily wiped up but I still wonder what would happen if there was a slow leak or a spill wasn't noticed. It is no colder than a carpet to sit on ...
di-buzz 04.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of B&Q Flooring
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I purchased Ikea's Tundra laminate flooring because it had a 15year guarantee, was cheaper than B&Q's, and I must say I am pretty impressed by it. It was easy to lay, although a bit time consuming, and also easy to cut with the use of a jigsaw, in fact the only drawback I found was moving all my furniture and trying to stay off it for twelve hours after it had been laid.
I must admit I was sceptical about having this product, with two young children and a large German shepherd dog, none of whom are exactly light footed, but it has been laid for three months now and shows no signs of wear, is easy to clean, just wipe over or hoover.
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