# Getting new flooring for Xmas...need ideas, please!!



## user1007 (Sep 23, 2009)

I spec a lot of quality, not the thin box store crap, bamboo flooring. It is beautiful and comes in colors from white through the whole spectrum, to black. It is a renewable resource. It breathes and has greater durability than hardwood. Depending on what you buy, you can get it to nail down or float as engineered flooring. Check out Duro Design to start for some ideas. A client recently installed a Lumber Liquidator's bamboo product recently because it was cheaper and the right color for her. Installers didn't scream and it was nice material. You might even get a green credit or something for installing it. It will transition perfectly to your new deck. 

http://www.duro-design.com/index.cfm/bamboo-flooring/

Not sure what the rest of your house looks like but there are some great companies out there recycling exotic wood or just plain antique floors. You might go online to see what you find that intrigues you. Cork is a great flooring material for family rooms also and can be especially beautiful if you lay out the pattern for the floor like you would large tiles and so forth.

If you had water damage, do see to your subfloor before doing anything else. And do look at both the structural and surface warranties for whatever flooring you buy. Ask for recs and hire your own installer. Most work as contract, not employee workers, of the flooring places anyhow. 

Think about a cork underlay under whatever you put down if it is wood, cork or bamboo for the final floor. It will quiet things amazingly and will not cost you that much more than alternatives.

Your laminate floor installer should have left you with some replacement pieces? Sure you cannot match it if that is what you want to do?

Merry Christmas! Sounds like a great gift to me!


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## JME (Mar 15, 2009)

Thank you for the helpful information! Unfortunately, our Pergo laminate flooring has been discontinued and our contractor cannot find a close enough match. I'm thinking about replacing everything with bamboo. I like the look of it with our black tables. Pergo has a bamboo look-alike that I'm considering.

Thank you also for the great tip about the cork underlay! Quieter floors is always better!


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## chrisn (Dec 23, 2007)

Just keep in mind that if Pergo gets wet( soaked) it is ruined.


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