[jwemt81]

We are getting ready to install new laminate flooring in our kitchen/dining area, hallway, and our 2 main floor bedrooms. We currently have hardwood, but it scratches WAY too easily with our 2 large dogs and 4 cats, so we want laminate. In fact, my husband accidentally dropped his cell phone the other day and it left a dime-sized gouge in the floor.

We know that we want a cherry colored laminate and we were looking at 2, which are both scratch resistant. One is a 6-mm American Cherry with a 10-year warranty and the other is a 7-mm Mt. Vernon Cherry with either a 20 or 25-year warranty; I can't remember which. Is there really a huge difference between the 6-mm and 7-mm laminate other than a very meniscule difference in the thickness of the planks and the price? The price of the 6-mm is 78 cents per square foot and the 7-mm is $1.39 per square foot. I have to admit that I actually like the color of the 6-mm a bit better than the 7-mm. We are going to be ordering our floors in less than a week, so I am trying to figure out if we should go with the 6-mm or 7-mm floor. We would use a really good underlayment with whatever we get. I really, really love the color and the price of the 6-mm, but the 7-mm has a better warranty. Both of these floors are from lumber liquidators and they both got great reviews. Help! I don't know which way to go!

 

[ccarlisle]

It's always cheaper to go with the higher quality...:yes:

 

[Chemist1961]

I`m going to play devil`s advocate. Get your pet`s nails cut, at least the dog`s and get a quote on sanding and resealing the hardwood with a tougher topcoat. A good refinisher can fix that phone mark. This will aslo allow you to tweak the color.
I put down Pergo Vintage Cherry plank which I found as a clearout 450 ft at .70 ft.
I love the look and mine came with a built in underpad, but it adds no value to my home and you can still chip a corner. Although I am very pleased now, having replaced 12 year old green carpet I can`t imagine all the time and effort wasting good hardwood to install laminate...It`s a downgrade for convenience. Sorry

 

[DUDE!]

I'll admit to being hardwood-floor challanged, but I'd rather have hardwood over laminate any day. I'll assume the dogs are scatching the finish on the floors, not the actual wood, I have 2 dogs, 3 cats, I see what they do to the finish. As for the laminate, in my inexperience, I just don't see them being as good or better then hardwood. Its not easy to replace a peice of damaged laminate, which is what you'll have to do when the dog scratches it, 25yr warranty just means they keep handing you a new peice of laminate, you figure out how your going to install it. Hope I'm not out of line with my opinion.

 

[jaros bros.]

6 or 7mm. That's a very cheap product. If you have dogs I wouldn't go with anything less than a 9 or 10mm. I like the previous posters. Refinish the floor and put down a good finish. It looks like you are buying a very subgrade product that your dogs are going to rip up in a couple of years.

 

[jwemt81]

Our cats and dogs have their nails cut weekly and are always kept as short as possible, so that's not the entire issue. We don't want to keep the hardwood. We want it gone. Everything scratches it, not just the pets. If you drop something with any weight on it, it will leave a mark. We have had it refinished back in the fall with a tougher coat put on it, but it just got all scuffed and scratched up again, so it's not worth it. We had laminate in our kitchen and dining room in our old house that we lived in for over 7 years and we LOVED it. There wasn't a single scratch on it, even with all of the traffic that it took. We even have a red oak laminate in our finished basement and it still looks great. We will probably go with the 7-mm with the 25-year warranty. Sorry if you all think that we're being cheap, but we're not. We actually hate the hardwood and we have experience with laminate and love it.

 

[DUDE!]

The word cheap never gets a nice emotion flowing from it. I think the key here is we are sharing opinions. It all comes down to what you, the buyer, are happy with. You have experience with the laminate and are happy with it, that is all that matters, others, my self included were sharing our thoughts, on something you asked us to do. Please keep updating on how your project is going, its all about sharing.

 

[poppameth]

8mm is the standard thickness for most laminate. There are plenty of 7mm products that are decent. I don't like to go less than that. You run into problems with the edges snapping during installation if it's too thin. How does thickness effect how it will wear? It doesn't. They all have about the same grade of wear layer unless you are getting a commercially rated piece. I would look some place other than Lumber Liquidators myself. You can get similar products from local stores at about the same price. We sell one from Shaw called Natural Values at about $1.45 all the time. It comes in a wide selection of colors, 7mm, 15 year warranty, and a proven track record. The thing with LL is you don't know exactly what you are buying.

 

[HABSFAN2006]

jwemt81, I am curious, what kind of hard wood floors do you have? Some woods are softer than others, I just want to make sure you don't have pine floors.... Wood floors will dent/scratch, and shrink /expand, this only adds to the beauty of a home, and i agree is the ultimate upgrade / investment on resale value. It doesn't have to stay mirror perfect... Nothing will. I also have one dog, and two cats, and find that the cats scratch the finish on my hard wood three times more than the dog, since their nails are much sharper, and cats seem to use their back nails more when running... now, as for clipping their nails every week, that is an over statement, way too often. Maybe once a month... make sure they don't get too sensitive if you clip to often... I agree with the posts above, what matters most, is that you are happy with whatever you buy.. Stay away from the 6mm stuff if you actually want it to last longer than 4-5 years.
good luck with this project.