Installing designer floors yourself - hardware store vinyl or specialty shop?

Hello everyone,

I have now read through the forum and seen that there can be problems laying large areas with certain design floors.

We would like to do the floors ourselves for our single-family house, so we need a material that can be installed by oneself. Preferably the click versions since my husband is very skilled with crafts, and therefore I don't see any problem with the installation. However, we are not sure which manufacturer would be best.

In the hardware store and also in the specialist trade, we have seen some manufacturers that we like, but the salespeople can tell you a lot. Therefore, I hope for your collective knowledge and experiences.

Here are the key data:

- The total area to be laid on the ground floor is about 55 sqm (hallway and entire living/dining area and kitchen).
- It is also important that the floor can be laid under a kitchen (this also doesn't seem so obvious).
- Upstairs it is about 40 sqm.
- Also, the floor must be easy to lay on reinforced concrete stairs.

It would be nice if you could help me. Also gladly PM with manufacturers directly to me, if they are not allowed to be published here. Attached is also the ground plan EG so you can see the area.

Thank you!!!

We have the Neo 2.0 from Classen. Nice appearance, very durable, easy to maintain.

Still, I cannot recommend it... The material is very brittle, in the kitchen the springs of the click system broke on all short sides, causing the boards to shift :-(
From the living room onward, my husband (incidentally quite handy) pushed the complete rows together and then clicked them in – that worked better. But still, we had many boards where parts of the click system chipped off. That was simply nerve-wracking!

We have the same floor, but no problems. Maybe 3 planks were defective before installation. The floor must be 10.% even and the correct impact sound insulation must be installed.

Does the click variant work for you in the kitchen? We will glue it completely. We have watched several videos and it doesn’t look that complicated. Especially not more complicated than click, which we have already laid here. There is no talk of click there either; with our floor it was more hammering than clicking. And the floor was not a cheap floor. Now we are considering gluing at least the bio floor from Wineo in the bedrooms. It has the Blue Angel. On the ground floor and in the basement, we are wondering whether it really has to be Blue Angel there. But we want to glue it because of the underfloor heating.

We have the same floor, but no problems. Maybe 3 planks defective before installation. The floor must be 10.% level and the correct impact sound insulation must be installed.

What kind of impact sound insulation do you have? We got advice at the hardware store, maybe that was the mistake. The impact sound insulation cushions very strongly. However, the material is simply extremely brittle. If you press lightly on the spring, it immediately splinters.

Hello everyone,

I have now read through the forum and seen that there can be problems with laying large areas with certain design floors.

We would like to do the floors ourselves for our single-family house, so we need a material that can be laid by oneself. Preferably the click versions, as my husband is very skilled at handiwork, and therefore I don't see a problem with the installation. However, we are not sure which manufacturer would be best.

In the hardware store and also in the specialist trade, we have seen some manufacturers that we like, but the salespeople can also tell you a lot. That is why I hope for your collective knowledge and experiences.

Here are the key data:

- The total area to be laid on the ground floor is about 55 sqm (hallway and entire living/dining area and kitchen.
!!!

You want to lay over the expansion joints?!
Then check whether that is possible with the material, consult the underfloor heating installer about it, and accordingly prepare the expansion joints.