Reader’s Question:
Jaime asks:
We are installing laminate throughout our main floor. We have narrowed our favorites down to a MANNINGTON laminate ($4.59/sq ft) with a 25 year warranty (available at our local family run flooring store as well as larger retailers) and PERGO Elite laminate ($3.99/sq ft) with a 30 year warranty and it has the underpad already on it (a savings of $0.75/sq ft we would have to purchase for the MANNINGTON floor).
I can’t find info on the PERGO website about the Elite line carried by Home Depot. Would you recommend one over the other? Is the price difference due to the high volume Home Depot can buy, or does it speak to the quality of the PERGO floor? Home Depot says PERGO is the best flooring available, and our local flooring store says the same about the MANNINGTON line. Any wisdom?
Both are good quality materials and I have installed both. Installation is much easier with the pad pre installed on the back of the flooring. I have learned however that the warranty on most of the flooring is meaningless. If you have a warranty issue 2 years after install there will be no replacing damaged parts, they are discontinued. The manufacturing company will fight like heck to get out of honoring the warranty as it means replacing the entire floor.
A 25 year warranty should indicate that they can produce replacement parts for 25 years… this is just not true.