I am in the process of installing the Honey Oak Trafficmaster floor from Home Depot. I mainly chose this floor based on price, and ease of installation. The hardest part so far has been tearing out the old glued down press board/wood floor, what a mess!

The second hardest part is remembering the golden rule, "measure twice, cut once". If I had followed this on each cut, I would have a lot more flooring left over.

I am currently over half way done on a 395 sq. ft. kitchen, entry, dining area in our house built in 1970. This floor looks excellent, and really does just snap together. Follow the directions, and it all goes together rather easily. I used AutoCAD 2002 to layout my floor design, based on the directions. I had a pretty odd space to cover, so it was essential that I get the first 10-20 sq. ft. in correctly, or the rest of the job would not look right.

I hope this helps anyone thinking of installing Trafficmaster in your home. It has a 25 year warranty, and so far looks and feels great.

I will post more information as time goes by.

Cheers!

How long did your installation take?
Now that you've had it a month or so, what's you opinion of it?
We are thinking of laminate flooring for the family/dining room and open kitchen, as well as maybe the hallways and MBR.

Yes....very easy install.  Presently I am in the process of installing a entire 1700 sq ft. home (minus kitchen and bathrooms) of Avalon in a house we own which my parents occupy.  My 90 year old dad developed severe asthma and other allegies and the allergist said the carpeting and curtains gotta go.

So far I have done the master bedroom and the family room and it looks flawless.  Next is the living room and then on to the rest of the bedrooms.

Three years ago I installed Trafficmaster red oak veneered flooring in our family room, hallway, and 3 bedrooms and we absolutely love it.  My wife is Korean so we do take our shoes off in the house but it so far has been virtually bullet proof.  Manufactured in Germany, it doesn't require a underlayment roll like the laminate.

It is presently on sale at Home Depot and so I bought enough to do the master bedroom.  The bathroom is tiled.  Now we decided we want to rip out the carpeting in the living room and dining room and install it in there.

So my wife told me to go ahead and buy it and get the show on the road.  We absolutely hate carpeting now...I've seen the suffering my father is enduring.  My brother, who lives in Seattle, tore out his carpeting in 1993 because of allergies and noticed an immediate improvement in his health.

We live in Boise, Idaho and one wouldn't think we'd suffer the same type of side effects here but the allergist says mites live in the carpeting here just about as well as anywhere else and it is the fecal material of them that gets us.  The carpeting in my parent's house was installed in 1992 and isn't worn much...but when I pulled it up I felt like I needed a haz material suit...it just felt and smelled "stuffy".

How does it hold up against dogs?  Nails, scratching, running, etc....  Why should I choose Traffic Master instead of something else, like Dupont?

I can tell you, IT DOESN'T!!!  I installed my floor and within 15 minutes the dogs had is completely scratched.  I'm not talking surface scratches, I'm talking big GOUGES!  NOT HAPPY!

I called the company and the guy told me this was normal, and that over time the scratching would diminsh.  Bamboo is suposed to be super hard - that's what I heard and read. He then tried to sell me some "cleaner" which I told him would not help my problem. He said that it takes approximately 2 month for the floor to harden.  I said, why don't you guys (1) TELL ME THAT before I lay the floor and (2) keep the product for 2 months before you sell it so that it is hardened when it gets to the customer.  He didn't have an answer for that - "we like to get it to you as fast as possible blah blah". He said that the coating on the floor is supposed to be super hard, some special stuff that protects it from UV and scratching (which is why I bought this particular brand).  He kept saying that he wanted me to be happy with the floor, but What do you do once it is down???  I am certainly not ripping it out - it was too much work.  My only choice is to keep it and if I ever sell the house I will have to have it refinished.  That is the one benefit, Pergo (and other similar products) you can't refinish.  



It could be the company that makes the floor - maybe a higher quality would not do the same.  However, my dogs have never scratched the oak floor (with DIY poyl coats on top) that I had 4 years prior.  I was skeptical but I have friends with laminate floor (Pergo) and they have dogs with no scratches.  I now have carpet pieces on top of my beautiful bamboo floor to try and protect it from further scratching.  CRAP is right!

Sorry, this is bamboo prefinished floor.... so maybe we are on different pages.

We just installed our flooring 550 sq ft on our main floor.  It took 2 1/2 days to do it.  It was fairly easy.  We do have some sections that we'lll have to fix as some of the boards are coming apart, but the floor looks great!

We have 2 dogs and it scratches.  It's been about 3 weeks since they've been installed and within a few days had some scratches and we keep our dogs nails trimmed.

I am curious to know what you use to clean it?  I've heard of some people using just a damp cloths, some use vinegar and water.  How do you keep the shine in yours?