[alanhart]

I'm seriously considering Lakt birch for flooring in my living room, bedroom and kitchen, and I have some questions that I'm hoping an Ikean can answer. First off, the official cleaning advice is the ridiculous "wipe with damp sponge" or something like that. Is it really that sensitive, or would a simple spray-wipe-kind of cleaner work? I plan to use a Scooba, which basically works the same (maybe a tiny bit wetter).

Also, it looks like baseboard molding is required. If so, what happens at places where baseboard molding doesn't go, like right in front of a radiator or at the threshold of a bathroom?

Lastly (for now!), the stores currently sell two kinds of Niva underlayment, one made of fiberboard and the other polyethylene (only the fiberboard one is shown in the catalogue or online). What's the difference? Which do I want? I'm installing over concrete floors, but 21 stories up, so moisture isn't an issue there.

Okay, really lastly for now, any unofficial news of new woods in Lakt for 2007-08?

[alanhart]

Anyone?

Or does anyone have a direct phone contact for a floor specialist at any Ikea in North America?

And bonus question: do Ikea floors use medium-density fiberboard, or high-density?

[C.B]

I'm not an expert, but I will be installing Lakt at my mom's house soon, in the kitchen. I spoke with an Ikean at the Seattle store and they have a display setup there. Try call the Seattle store. The displays list the uses for Niva in text right right on the wall.

Niva: foam is for going over old vinyl / linoleum. I didn't ask about concrete

At doorways, etc, you use a "threshold", which is a special piece of trim they sell to join separate flooring materials. There are all sorts of variations but I didn't look too close.

In front of a radiator... you'll need to cut around it. The online instruction video at Ikea.com shows a situation sort of like this.

The store has Tundra installed, and the Ikean said that is really the most durable stuff, but Lakt is also good (10 year warranty).

Moisture left sitting on an unsealed floor is bad, it doesn't matter if it is laminate or pre-finished hardwood. The seams may absorb moisture which will swell. That's just physics messing with us

[gt1]

I don't know why would you want to choose IKEA flooring- it is of mediocre quality, and, considering the quality, is not very cheap. There is a better laminate around.

[Madelaine]

I have the Lakt birch in my home office. My husband put down most of the floor by himself while I was on a business trip. The Niva fiberboard underlay made me break out in a rash, so I had to wear long sleeves while putting that down. The install went fairly easily, though he chose to start over a couple of times just to get the boards as tightly coupled as possible. We haven't put the last row in due to not having a table saw, but the rest of the cuts were made with a combination of a hand saw with a flooring blade and a roto-zip.

Overall it's held up pretty well to two cats and me rolling around it on my office chair. Haven't noticed any cracks, chips, splintering edges, etc. I would definitely stick to the wet sponge / damp mop for cleaning. I generally just vacuum it, but since the board edges aren't really sealed with anything special, I wouldn't use anything that could leave a puddle. But that's true of pretty much all engineered flooring.

For the price paid, I'd give the flooring 4 out of 5 stars.

[Pungh0Li0]

I'm very disappointed in the Lakt.
Where the ends meet on many joints they curl up slightly.
If you have a window lighting from one end it looks really bad.
Also, causes it to flex and creak where that occurs.

I found the tongue and groove type easier to fit in doors etc
because with Lakt you have to have one edge lifted high then
hinge it down to connect and in some cases that can involve,
eg., a 20 foot row of boards.

I also got rashes on my fingers from the fiber underlay.

Just FYI, Joe