Laminate Flooring Good Alternative to Vinyl

Tired of looking at an old vinyl floor? Laminate floors come in many styles and are durable, easy to install, alternative.

LESLIE: Mike in Pennsylvania is on the line with a flooring question. How can we help you today?

MIKE: My kitchen floor is vinyl – a vinyl floor with a couple of dings. And there were things have been dropped over years. So it’s broken the outer seal and the black is showing through the underlayment or whatever.

So, a couple of options – and I’ve had experience with sticky-back tiles on a – on the laundry-room concrete floor. I’ve also put ceramic tile down in a foyer with the cement board and so forth. And what I’m thinking – in my kitchen, if I went with the ceramic, then I’ve got a problem with putting the cement board down plus the ceramic tile. And I’d have to cut some doors. My question is: say I take the easy way out, would sticky-back tiles work over a vinyl floor?

TOM: I think probably not too well. I’ve got another option for you. Have you considered laminate flooring? Are you familiar with it?

MIKE: Yeah, yeah.

TOM: So, laminate flooring is perfect for this situation because you can lay it down right over the old vinyl or you could pull the vinyl up if you choose to. It doesn’t have to be glued down. The boards simply lock together. The tongue and the groove joint of the laminate boards, whether they’re strips or whether they’re square planks, will lock together.

And then, essentially, it will just sit on top of that floor. You’ll leave about a ¼-inch space between the edge of the laminate and the floor. You can use a piece of shoe molding to cover that between the baseboard molding and the laminate itself. And it doesn’t take up a lot of room. Not as much room as putting down – you mentioned the backer board and the tile and so on. It’s only going to take up about a ¼-inch or so.

Now, I’ve had laminate floor in my kitchen for almost 20 years and you could hardly see any wear or tear on it at all. You’d be hard-pressed to find any worn areas. It’s really incredibly durable stuff.

MIKE: So there’s no grout or anything? They just interlock, basically, like a tongue and groove, right?

TOM: No. And the thing is you could find laminates that look like stone tile. You can find them that look like ceramic tile or marble and you could find them that look like hardwood floor. They’re absolutely beautiful and they’re super durable, so I think that’s the best solution for your situation.

Mike, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.