All of the floor in our house was original to the build date circa 1974. We had A LOT of floors to replace on a very minimal budget. Our long-term plan is to completely gut our kitchen and remove walls. At that time, we will have to replace the flooring again. With that being said, we knew we didn’t want to spend a fortune on the flooring. So, we decided to go with laminate flooring.
The Hunt for New Floor
We went to local flooring stores and walked away with sticker shock. Seriously?! Flooring is expensive!! And when you have a living room, kitchen and dining room that all need to be replaced, it adds up quick! We then backed it up and went to the big box hardware stores thinking surely, we can find something cheaper there. But we still walked away unimpressed for the money we would be paying.
Finding the Solution
So…I turned to the internet. After searching I stumbled on a website called bestlaminate.com. Living on the lake, I knew we would want a pretty durable floor. Our challenge was to find a floor that was budget-friendly but also durable. With bestlaminate.com, I could search based on a durability rating called, Abrasion Rating System also (AC Rating). This rating takes into account abrasion, burn resistance, impact resistance, stain resistance, and swelling under moist conditions. Being able to search by this rating made finding durable floors super easy and fast!
Based on reviews we ended up picking Feather Step Laminate. The color we went with (Manyara) is no longer manufactured by Feather Step but it’s pretty close to the color ‘Aspen’. What was super nice about bestlaminate.com is that they send you five free samples. That made the anxiety of ordering online go way down. Our floor came super-fast was very easy to install. Later we had someone come in and install carpet who has been a flooring installer for many years; he commented on how nice our laminate floor was and what a great price we got. Seriously we paid way less than if we would have bought at Home Depot, etc.
Three years later, our floor is holding up great for laminate flooring. The only thing we have had issues with is our golden doodle dropping his big bones on the floor while he is running around. Those have left a few dings. But otherwise, it has held up to our crazy boy running his trucks around on it constantly.
Our Floor Installed
First off, here is a peek at what our floor looked like when we moved in. You can see the dark color carpet at the bottom of the picture…Not to be overshadowed by Little MK’s wonderful artwork hanging at the end of the hallway.
Here is a picture of the same area with the flooring almost all the way installed. It was an instant upgrade!
Lastly here is a view of a whole room updated with the new flooring. The new floor made such a huge difference!! You can see our full kitchen remodel with the floors completed here.
What do you think?! I would love to hear about your experience with replacing your flooring.
