I noticed Lumber Liquidators sells a brand called Dream Home for 99 cents a square foot. Has anyone used this in their home and how did it go down, is it wearing well, etc.?

I've seen the cheap laminates HD and Lowes sells and I'm not so sure about the quality. I think at those stores unless you pay top dollar (i.e. Pergo) you're getting crap.

Matt Asks:
> Hello, my name is Matt, I read your post at ths.gardenweb.com. I have just
> purchased the same product from Lumber Liquidators (Nirvana w/
> underlayment). My question is how difficult was it really?? I have never
> attempted to do flooring on my own and in the coming weeks I will be
> installing about 1400sq ft of it. Also is thwere a gap between the walls and
> the flooring? What about transitions? In my mind I guess I see it fairly
> difficult. Do you have any other pointers? Thank you in advance for your
> time!.. -Matt

My Reply:
Hi Matt,

It really wasn't that bad, once we learned the 2 tricks mentioned in my original post (see above) it did start to go quick. This was our first laminate flooring experience, the only other flooring we've done was a 50sqft tile job in our laundry room. Tile in our laundry room was our first home improvement project ever, our guest room w/ the nirvana flooring is the 2nd, and my wife and I are not craftsman (or very handy in general).

Measure accurately and measure often, to make sure your rows are straight/square (same distance from whatever wall you're going to end on) and follow the advice in their instructions and remove the base molding from the rooms you're putting flooring in. That will give you a 1/2inch wiggle room around the perimeter of the room so your cuts don't need to be 100% accurate and that will allow room for expansion (new base molding will cover the gap). Also, we did all of our cutting and rips (lengthwise cut) w/ a cordless 19.2 volt craftsman circular saw. That, a small sledge hammer, tape measure, and a pry-bar to help pop-together the pieces near the walls were about the only tools we needed. As for transitions to different rooms or flooring, go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy your transition (threshold) pieces there.

Your first 3 or 4 rows will probably be a little frustrating, but after that you'll get the hang of it will go quick. My wife and I just bought another 800sf of the Nirvana flooring from lumber liquidators to do the rest of our bedrooms in the coming months. If we can do it, You can too!!!

I am not necessarily recommending that you buy from them, since there have been several posts in the past from homeowners that had problems with product and were not allowed to return it. That said, Steve the owner (at least the last time I looked, which was a few years ago) had done a nice job in putting together a useful and informative site, including the advantages and disadvantages of various flooring choices. We used his information as part of our decision process when re-doing our floors.

FWIW, we would never buy flooring from the big box stores, since they cater to the lower end of the market. (Not saying that everything they sell is cheap, just that the choices are limited and skewed in that direction), nor would be buy from a website for this kind of purchase. I want a real person, a physical location that I can go to, and a place where I can touch and look at all the choices. We use only local vendors from start to finish, so that if there are any issues, we have recourse and not just through the mail. However, that is just me - and given what things cost today, I can completely understand someone shopping on price alone, once they have made their flooring decision. I just caution to be mindful of the risks of long-distance purchasing--that's all.

L

Also, it helps to buy an installation/tapping kit. It has spacers you need, the tapping block with the groove and a pry bar to help tap in the last row or end piece.

I want to point out one thing that people need to watch for. Believe me I am not being critical of your work either. All laminates have "pattern repeats", some more than others depending on the brands.

They don't tell you this in the instructions, but open a few boxes first, and separate the repeats to see how many you will have with that particular brand. Then as you lay you will have to shuffle the repeats so you don't get a long pattern repeat running across a room.

Excellent job :).

I will NEVER puchase another product manufactured by Dream Home AGAIN!!!. This install took me as 3 times longer to install due to foam backing that was poorly attached to the goods, I had to inspect each plank and trim the majority planks from overhanging backing or ripped backing that was taped before packaging. The boards along the edge did't lock or hold into place well making the process of tapping the joints together a nightmare while other joints seemed to split apart in the tapping process. Some of the sheet goods were marred with big black smudges that were not easy to be safely removed, and some of the goods were chipped, scratched, and damaged , but then packaged in the original clean cartons. I'm not blaming LL for the goods, but I have spoken my dissatisfaction to them about Dream Home Goods and suggested to them not to supply this product.
All I can do know is wait and see what this floor looks like next year before I have to rip it out and start all over again.
I will definately pay closer attention to the country of origin on any of next home repairs.

I do have a question for anyone that has this flooring. I have noticed that when I clean the floor it leaves streaks. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions of what type of mop, cloth and cleaner is the best to use to stop the streaking??? It is not horrible, just bothers me!

Thank you!
Nan

600 sq feet of Nirvana V3 Sao Paolo Cherry. Moved all our furniture out onto the porch and in the barn. got my wife and her visiting parents started on the project and then went outside to work on something else. 2 hours later I come back expecting to see the first of 2 rooms done. HA! how about 3 rows and a very frustrated wife and father-in-law. stop for lunch and regroup. They try again and 3 hours later I come back in surely expecting to see a finished room. HA! 5 rows done and they are fighting with the mysterious end joints separating. The cheap tapping bar in the LL installation kit is bent flat and taped up with duct tape becasue it's scratching the floor. By now everyone is frsutrated and on edge. Its 4 pm and we are planning on going out to dinner berfore her parents head home to Europe. I get on the phone with LL main number. No help and they say they will have their installation guru call me back. No call comes. I pull out the moisture barrier (being installed on a suspended slab) to keep the floor from sliding so much. No luck, same thing. Every end joint is taped with duct tape and while installing the 6th row, end joints in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rows open up. F-bomb gets dropped, medium sized pieced sails across the room and everyone is now angry. I call the store where I bought it and explain. He thinks they are defective and will have someone form corporate call me. Meanwhile, friday evening slides in and everyone goes home for the weekend. So at 5:30 we have no floor, no furniture in our 1st floor and everyone is frustrated. Thanks to this completly crap product, we wasted 3 full man hour days of labor and have nothing to show for it except a minor hangover from the margaritas used to calm all the nerves.

I am furious with this product. Some of the pieces are not strait. i.e. the edges that click together have a bow in them so the ends fit but the middle is 1/16th out and won't click in. In the two boxes we opened, about 10% of them were like this. It looks wonderful but has a terrible design apparently - especially with regard to the locking mechanism on the end joints which obviously doesn't hold. On a laminate floor, gaps are death becasue the inner material is not made to withstand dirt and moisture so one little gap will ruin the floor quickly.

More so than not having a floor down, I'm furious it ruined this day and project for my wife and her parents. In 5 hours the whole house should have been done, furniture moved back in and we shoudl ahve been enjoying coctails. 3 people and 600 sq ft could have easily laid any type of flooring in this time frame. Instead I'm on the phone with LL, my wife wants to kill me, I want to kill LL, and my parents-in-law are trying to stay out of it as best they can. I hate to say it but look at where the stuff is manufactured. Add to the tiny magnets in barbie dolls and lead paint on childrens toys, crappy dream home flooring from LL.

I can't wait to see the solution they dream up for their dream home flooring.

OK check this out - I bought this crap too boo made in china whatever its cheap and plentiful. Like all the other posts I spent like 3 days getting the first 3 rows in but then I figured it out...

Are you ready (oh I am so awesome...) Build your first row... Then build your second row on top of it. That's right - right on top of it. Use painters tape to temp weld the seams and working with one or even two people slide it forward and then lock it in - but don't push down yet. Check everything three times - make sure it's ready to seat. Then even hinge it with the painters tape. Then you just move from left to right and it all clicks into place.

We're almost done with my guest room 10X14 and moving to my family room 26X15. If I had know this 3 days ago I would have been so happy - but I am glad to share it because I know it will save a lot of people a lot more time than I wasted.

I do have two gaps from before I figured it out - tapping gaps (maybe 3 of them) better than crow bars I guess I'll buy a ratchet strap from wherever to crank it.

burbankjeannine@hotmail.com

2. I am at this moment installing some Swiss Click I bought at an auction which is tap together. I learned that the first two rows will drive you crazy. What I did was (a) glue the first row together with wood glue to create a stable monolithic strip. These were ripped to half width and the end joints were very short and unstable. (b) don't worry about the second row spreading slightly. By the time you get to the third row the floor will be a more stable mass. And you cen THEN bring the second row back into mating.

On pattern repetition: They do not tell you this but this particular pattern has 8 distinct panels. Each panel is an exact mate for ITSELF. Installed randomly they don't look bad, but if you open and lay out 8 boxes put all the top panels from all boxes in the first row, you will have perfectly matched simulated wood images.

To keep raws from sliding, cut some 3" wide strips of 1/4" plywood (or sacrifice couple of floor planks) and screw them (NOT nail) to the STUDS placing screws about 1.5" above floor to the left wall that perpendicular to the raws you laying, as well as behind 1st raw. (The strips must touch the floor!). This will prevent the laminate from sliding when you tapping it - and no matter what manufacturers say, you will ALWAYS end up tapping it in place. For that reason by planks with beveled edges - it prevents boards from chipping if you tap too hard.

To move single raw left or right without disturbing the rest of the flooring:
1. Brace raws below and above the one you need to move at the wall toward which the movement will occur by attaching spacer strips as described above.
2. Hook the raw you moving with the Bullet pull bar.
3. Put a 6"hx20"l board against the wall directly above pull bar.
4. Connect sliding piece of 3/4" pipe clamp to the pull bar.
5. Brace 2by2 board against the wall (so its end rests on the 6"x12" board and not sheetrock)on one side and against pipe clamp screw head on the other. This way, when you start titening the clamp, it will push against the board and move the pull bar towards opposite wall.
6. Make pencil mark across 2 rows so you can see how much movement occurred by checking frequently how far apart the pencil marks are. Proceed SLOWLY!!! Remember that the floor, the board and the wall would flex a bit, so after every detectable movement release pressure from the clamp and check the actual position of the raw to make sure you didn't move it too far.

If using underlayment for your laminate installation, consider "Quiet Walk" brand, $30 for a 3'x33' roll (100 sq feet). It's a great product that reduces noise, provides moisture barrier, leak protection and insulation from cement floors, while giving you a smooth, durable easy to use surface to lay the floor on.

Hope this was helpfull.

We got samples from other manufacturers and the quality was not there--most cost twice as much with half the warranty, they were thin, didn't look durable, some didn't come with the padding attached, had fakey looking grain patterns, and the wood colors just weren't believable.

I really do have a Dream Home now!

It is really Simple just follow the directions from LL and Dream Home, you can't Go wrong.

By the way, there are alot of "How To" videos on Youtube to check out, they really helped me!

Tedd Herndon
White Water, California

Thank you,
Steve
Riverside, Ca
villa6983@dslextreme.com