Laminate, done with care. The right floor for the right room.

Honest answer — they look pretty similar at a glance, but they're built differently and they behave differently.

Laminate has a fibreboard core. It's a sharper price and the wear surface is genuinely tough — kid-and-pet-friendly for normal use. But the core is sensitive to water, so it's not for wet areas.

Hybrid has a rigid SPC or WPC waterproof core. Higher price, but it handles spills, splashes, and full kitchen-and-laundry life without flinching.

If your floor's going in bedrooms or living areas where water isn't a daily reality, laminate is genuinely a great-value choice. If you need a single floor to run through wet zones too, that's hybrid territory.

Laminate is genuinely the value option in the timber-look category — usually a sharper number than hybrid or engineered timber for a similar look. We'll work out install on-site after a proper measure (every house is different), but the product itself is the most accessible entry point if you want a timber-look floor without timber pricing.

Come into the showroom and have a look. Bring photos. Take samples home. The right floor will jump out at you — and we'll help you get it into your house properly.

Maybe — and we'll be straight with you about it.

Most stores skip this truth, but here it is: a hard floor is only as good as the subfloor it's laid on. If your subfloor's uneven, damaged, or has moisture issues, we'll tell you. Sometimes the fix is small (a quick level, a moisture test). Sometimes it's more involved (sanding, levelling compound, a new sheet). The cost varies, and yes — it can be a real number.

Here's what we won't do: lay a thicker board over a bad subfloor and hope you don't notice. That's the industry shortcut, and it always shows up two or three years later as bubbling, cupping, gaps, or click-lock failures. We won't do it because we're the ones you'll be ringing if it goes wrong — and because that's not how we work.

If your existing flooring is still down, we can offer to lift it first so we can assess the subfloor properly at the measure stage. Otherwise we'll quote based on what we can see and flag anything once we're on site.

Most laminate installs are quicker than hybrid because the boards are typically thinner and the click-lock systems are well-established. A single room is usually a day. Full-house jobs depend on the layout, the subfloor prep, and whether we're working around stairs or pattern lays. We'll give you a realistic timeframe with your written quote — not a sales-pitch number.

Yes — moving your furniture is included in every quote. Our installers shift the lounges, beds, wardrobes and pretty much anything else that needs to come up, and put it back when they're done.

There are a few items we don't move (some need a specialist, some need to stay where they are) — we'll explain anything specific when we come out for your free measure. The only things we ask you to handle yourself are fragile bits and pieces — vases, photo frames, electronics — which are safer in your hands than ours.

Every laminate we sell comes with a manufacturer's product warranty — typically 15 to 25 years for residential use, with some premium ranges going longer. What's covered varies by manufacturer (and water damage is generally not covered, because laminate isn't a waterproof product). The full warranty document comes with your floor and we're happy to walk you through any specifics when you're choosing.

Here's the bit that matters more, though: we warrant the installation for the life of the product. That's the whole reason to buy from us instead of finding an installer direct. Cheaper layers come and go — they're in town one year and gone the next. We've been on Shearwater Drive since 2001. When you pay us for the whole job — the floor, the underlay, the prep, the install, the lot — the whole job is on us. One purchase, one number, one team responsible.

Honest answer: no — not in bathrooms, laundries, or any room where water sits on the floor regularly. Laminate's core is fibreboard, and fibreboard plus standing water means swelling, cupping and eventually failure. That's not a manufacturing flaw; it's just what the material is.

Kitchens are a grey zone. A quick spill that's wiped up immediately is fine. A slow dishwasher leak that runs overnight will damage the floor. If you want a single floor that runs from your living area through to the kitchen and laundry without compromise, that's hybrid or vinyl planks — same look, waterproof core.

We'll talk you through what suits your house at the measure.

The wear layer on modern laminate is genuinely tough — that's one of its strengths. Dog claws, kids' toys, dropped utensils, dragged chairs — laminate handles all of that well. Better in some ways than engineered timber, because the wear surface is a hardened plastic film rather than a softer wood veneer.

The trade-off: if you do scratch right through the wear layer, you'll expose the core underneath, which doesn't look great and isn't a small repair. Felt pads on chair legs, mats at the doors to catch grit, and a sensible vacuum routine will keep it looking new for years.

Modern laminates have decent UV resistance built into the wear layer — far better than older generations of laminate. You won't see noticeable fading on a north-facing room in normal use.

Direct concentrated sunlight through a big window for hours every day is harsher on any floor — laminate, timber, hybrid, anything. If you've got a big sun-exposed area, mention it at the measure. We'll factor in product choice and you might consider rugs or shading to spread the wear evenly.