Laminate? will it work with "leaky" old cats?

[Teellbee]

My senior cats have pretty much ruined my upstairs carpeting (intermittent vomiting, occasional litterbox "misses", etc.). I keep all the litter boxes and feeding areas confined to the upstairs.

I just can't see replacing with more carpet given the current challenges. My preference would be for a hardwood floor, but I doubt it would be suitable.

So, I'm considering a high quality laminate - AC4 rated. As I work during the day, sometimes a cat has an accident that ends up sitting for hours until I come home and find it. Will that cause swelling in a high quality, high density laminate?

Alternatively, are any of the wood-look vinyls truly wood like? With nice wood grain surface textures? Some of the laminate surface textures are amazing, so I wondered if any vinyl products are in that same realm.

[hookknife]

There are a few vinyls that really resemble wood as best a vinyl can, they have wood grain with textured wear layer. Best of all some can be heat welded at the seams making them as sanitary as they can get, easily cleaned etc. IMO I would not use a laminate in this instance.

Look at Forbos Novilux Natura Forbo flooring systems | Novilux Natura

Teknoflor is another Teknoflor Commercial Sheet Vinyl Flooring

Toli is another Country

[kwfloors]

Laminate wouldn't work very good for your situation. I would suggest going with linoleum as has been said.

[Jim McClain]

I'd like to mention another vinyl product that looks a lot like real wood - so much so that I have convinced (I think, anyway) the manufacturer to donate enough to me to do my bedroom - I knew being the owner of this site would come in handy some day . It's this: Karndean International - Select your region 'Course, if the person in charge of working with me doesn't get to actually working with me, I'll be editing this to brag about another manufacturer. But the truth is, I think the Karndean products look very good and I know they hold up well, since they install them in commercial spaces all the time.

Jim

[Teellbee]

Do you know of any dealers in the Bay Area (preferably the South Bay, around San Jose)?

Neither of the 2 businesses I've been working so far with seem able to get the Karndean.

I'm not yet having luck finding local business that carry Technoflor or Novilux either.

I wrote to all 3 corporate sites to request brochures or local referrals, so I'll see if that pans out. (The Karndean website has an unfortunate circular loop - clicking 'choose your region' just took me to another page with the option to 'click your region'... clicking that took me back to the first page! But, I wrote to the corporate addy in Europe, so I may hear something.)

?? Any opinions out there about Adura? One saleswoman tells me it is much like Karndean, but I don't know her well enough to know if she knows the products that well.

*Jim, I noticed you're in "the REAL Northern California", so I assume that means well north of San Francisco? I plan to visit the Big Trees area near Garborville next month, which is a real treat for me. I've been looking forward to it for months.

[Jim McClain]

I have to return a phone call to a Karndean exec tomorrow, so I will ask her if there is a dealer in the San Jose area and let you know.

Jim

[Jim McClain]

There is a Karndean dealer at 5031 Almaden Expressway. Here's their website: Bay Area Carpet Showrooms | MMM Carpets Tell 'em I sentcha.

[stullis]

I wouldn't recommend any plank style vinyl such as Karndean for this use, too many seams.

Sheet goods only.

[Teellbee]

Jim McClain said There is a Karndean dealer at 5031 Almaden Expressway. Here's their website: Bay Area Carpet Showrooms | MMM Carpets Tell 'em I sentcha.

I checked out MMM Carpet, but the San Jose store doesn't have that product. Luckily, the Santa Clara store does. I'm dying to see this stuff, but I may not be able to work it in until the weekend.

And, while I was at MMM, I looked at the sheet vinyl wood look a likes. Not nearly as realistic as as a laminate, but the "rustic" styles had some neat looking textures, although the sheen was all off.... not completely ruling it out, though.

One of a flooring dealer who cannot get Karndean is steering me to the Adura luxury vinyl plank. While they don't look horrible, they feel like fine sandpaper for some reason.

And, then one store I stopped by (GPS miss-directed me enroute to MMM), was flogging the Dura Ceramic vinyl-limestone planks. Again, not horrible, but they lack the nice surface details in the better laminates.

[Teellbee]

stullis said I wouldn't recommend any plank style vinyl such as Karndean for this use, too many seams. Sheet goods only.

Could you recommend a quality brand I should look into? The Tarkett ones were not quite okay looking.

[stullis]

hookknife gave you some.

Any decent flooring store should be able to show you some. Armstrong, Mannington, Congoleum are 3 brands.

Here's a link to Armstrong

Traditional Wood Vinyl Sheet Flooring from Armstrong

Where to buy? Enter zip code
http://www.armstrong.com/flooring/buying-floors.html

[panaman]

Jim McClain said I'd like to mention another vinyl product that looks a lot like real wood - so much so that I have convinced (I think, anyway) the manufacturer to donate enough to me to do my bedroom - I knew being the owner of this site would come in handy some day . It's this: Karndean International - Select your region 'Course, if the person in charge of working with me doesn't get to actually working with me, I'll be editing this to brag about another manufacturer. But the truth is, I think the Karndean products look very good and I know they hold up well, since they install them in commercial spaces all the time. Jim

friends of mine have something like that... I thought it was a real wood or engineered wood floor but they were just like linoleum strips you stick to the floor.... the only way i could tell it wasn't wood was when i touched it... it kinda had that rubber feel to it

[Teellbee]

Karndean scratches?

I was quite impressed with how it looked in the sample boards - especially the 7" rustic style boards look very life-like. I prefer the 3" to 4" boards, but they don't have as much realism built into the surface layer.

However, when I was looking at the product sample books, I saw surface scratches due to the swatches being fanned out over each other. The salesman said he thought they would buff out easily.

After reading some reports of consumers with scratched floors, I took one of the sample boards (Da Vinci line) and lifted a corner of the plastic stick-on label. Under the label, I ran the round end (painted with enamel) of my tweezers over the tile and it did make light scratches even though I wasn't bearing down. I did a quick buff with my thumb, but it didn't get rid of the scratches. So, I pressed the label back down to cover it.

There is a Karndean solution; strip the floor with their product (every few months?) and mop down a new protective layer (again, their product).

I'm not sure I want to deal with that level of maintenance*, though.

I haven't hear from Technoflor or Novilux, and I know I don't like the Mannington Adura (although, it held up much better to a discrete scratch test).

* Here's a PDF with Karndean's 3-step maintenance instructions: www.cds-dist.com/products/karndean_install.pdf

[hookknife]

Teknoflor has a wood texture also, the plus is you can heat weld the seams for a very sanitary install. We have done quite a bit of it at one of the local hospitals and it is holding up to the abuse quite well.

[kylenelson]

hookknife said Teknoflor has a wood texture also, the plus is you can heat weld the seams for a very sanitary install. We have done quite a bit of it at one of the local hospitals and it is holding up to the abuse quite well.

Yep. Just don't drag anything across it. Scratches the finish quite easily for a commercial vinyl imo.