Laminate/Vinyl/Tile ?

[aldriglikvid]

Hi, 

 

I'm about to fully remodel a condo and when it comes to flooring, what would you choose between Tile, Laminate and Vinyl?

 

I'm actually thinking of Vinyl since the floor now is OK and durable, but it's just that I don't like the color. Also, from my novice understanding, Vinyl has gained quite a lot of traction latest years and gotten "better" (?). 

 

On the other hand, since labor (compared to the west) is pretty cheap one could argue that Tiles would be a good investment. 

 

 

I'm all ears! Thanks. 

 

 

[Will B Good]

Tile......end of.

[1FinickyOne]

I like a nice quality ceramic tile... 

[OneMoreFarang]

I like tiles. But they must be installed properly by a professional.

And if they are not installed the way they should be installed then it is a mess to fix this problem.

 

And obviously it's also a question of the budget.

[NanLaew]

Tiles. The bane of many a condo dweller when some new 'investor' buys an existing property and wants to replace the bloody tiles.

 

For the love of the God of peace and quiet, go laminate.

[Adumbration]

Polished concrete with TOA 200 flooring Plus coating.

[Golden Triangle]

 I've seen laminate in the UK, after a few years it looks like c**p, go with tiles.

[Jingthing]

There is luxury vinyl and I like it. Haven't installed in Thailand though but it's available now.

 

What is Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring? Pros and Cons of LVP and EVP. - The Flooring Girl

[Yellowtail]

I have all ceramic tile floors and don't like them them outside the bathroom. When I get the the floors I'll go with wood & carpet. 

 

Do yourself a favor and wait until you see something you really like. 

 

We're I in a condo I would likely go all carpet but for the bathroom and kitchen. 

[sanuk711]

Linoleum---I haven't seen that around for years---you have to maintain the new era Linoleum dont you?--wax etc.

I like those great big tiles....but quite exy..... hows your budget ?

[OneMoreFarang]

34 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

I have all ceramic tile floors and don't like them them outside the bathroom. When I get the the floors I'll go with wood & carpet. 

 

Do yourself a favor and wait until you see something you really like. 

 

We're I in a condo I would likely go all carpet but for the bathroom and kitchen. 

In principle carpet can be nice. But it seems lots of crawling creatures in tropical climate like carpet and that is why it is often avoided.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Yellowtail]

12 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

In principle carpet can be nice. But it seems lots of crawling creatures in tropical climate like carpet and that is why it is often avoided.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

That has not been my experience. My first home here was all carpet and it was great.

 

Most nice hotels all have carpet, yes? 

 

It is a little pricey here. 

[Doctor Tom]

18 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

But they must be installed properly by a professional.

And if they are not installed the way they should be installed then it is a mess to fix this problem.

Yes, Im sufferings that problem right now, popping tiles e everywhere , in a 4 year old house. Seriously thinking about wall to wall carpeting 

[HashBrownHarry]

26 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

That has not been my experience. My first home here was all carpet and it was great.

 

Most nice hotels all have carpet, yes? 

 

It is a little pricey here. 

Most hotel carpets smell in a tropical climate, the air is way too damp.

 

Although the feel is nice, carpet is the last thing i'd put on a floor here.

[HashBrownHarry]

14 hours ago, Jingthing said:

There is luxury vinyl and I like it. Haven't installed in Thailand though but it's available now.

 

What is Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring? Pros and Cons of LVP and EVP. - The Flooring Girl

I've recently put this in my condo, there is a great selecetion at Boonthavorn (sp)

[Yellowtail]

4 hours ago, HashBrownHarry said:

Most hotel carpets smell in a tropical climate, the air is way too damp.

 

Although the feel is nice, carpet is the last thing i'd put on a floor here.

Not the hotels I've stayed in, or the movie theaters I've been in, or to offices I've worked in, or my house or any number of other places I've been. 

 

Biggest concern with carpet here is flooding, which I assume is not a concern in a condo. 

[HashBrownHarry]

2 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Not the hotels I've stayed in, or the movie theaters I've been in, or to offices I've worked in, or my house or any number of other places I've been. 

 

Biggest concern with carpet here is flooding, which I assume is not a concern in a condo. 

Try Baiyoke in Bangkok if you want to smell a rank carpet. Maybe different in a private residence and properly taken care of.

 

To each their own but not for me...

[BritManToo]

22 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Tiles. The bane of many a condo dweller when some new 'investor' buys an existing property and wants to replace the bloody tiles.

 

For the love of the God of peace and quiet, go laminate.

I've got termites eating my laminate flooring.

They can't eat the tiles, but they do eat the grout in between.

[Yellowtail]

3 minutes ago, HashBrownHarry said:

Try Baiyoke in Bangkok if you want to smell a rank carpet. Maybe different in a private residence and properly taken care of.

 

To each their own but not for me...

Why would I want to try a stinking hotel? Too many places that don't stink, in the same "tropical climate".

 

I had carpeting in Florida without any issue as well, and don't most cars have carpeting now? Why do they not all stink? 

 

 

 

 

[HashBrownHarry]

22 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Why would I want to try a stinking hotel? Too many places that don't stink, in the same "tropical climate".

 

I had carpeting in Florida without any issue as well, and don't most cars have carpeting now? Why do they not all stink? 

 

 

 

 

to each their own, you enjoy your carpets. maybe they're better if well maintained in private residences but if i'm looking for a hotel to stay and it has carpets i'll go elsewhere.

 

did you see carpets mentioned by OP as one of his / her options? 

[DaLa]

Don't even contemplate wooden laminate if it's for a ground floor,  and if it's for any other floor make sure the fitter leaves an expansion gap.  I won't mention which company beginning with the letter T managed to fit some of our floors with an accuracy of 1mm. 

 

 

[HashBrownHarry]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I've got termites eating my laminate flooring.

They can't eat the tiles, but they do eat the grout in between.

Termites destoyed a previous property of mine, when you find out you have them it's already too late.

[HashBrownHarry]

57 minutes ago, DaLa said:

Don't even contemplate wooden laminate if it's for a ground floor,  and if it's for any other floor make sure the fitter leaves an expansion gap.  I won't mention which company beginning with the letter T managed to fit some of our floors with an accuracy of 1mm. 

 

 

Are expansion gaps not only required on new builds, surely when the building has 'settled' there's little or very minimal movement?

[topt]

8 hours ago, HashBrownHarry said:

I've recently put this in my condo, there is a great selecetion at Boonthavorn (sp)

The floor layer I used in the UK a month ago was recommending this.

Unfortunately it was at least 50% more expensive than ordinary laminate but he reckoned was worth the extra as you could not scrape the top surface off - which is so easy to do with laminate as my previous tenants showed.........

[aldriglikvid]

I'll probably go with Tiles. I'm not a huge fan of the glossy/shining ones but I was thinking of something similar to this: 

 

https://www.homepro.co.th/p/1112053

 

[Airalee]

If you (or anybody else reading this thread) goes with a glue down (laminate/vinyl/wood) floor, the pictures below will show you the right way and the wrong way to apply the glue.  It’s a lot more expensive to do it the right way but you’ll be glad you did.  Don’t forget the painters tape either to hold the planks in place while the adhesive cures.  And make sure the subfloor is completely flat and use self leveling concrete if not.

 

Don’t let the installers tell you “we don’t do it this way in Thailand”
 

Also, a good article on why you want to glue it down vs float it…

 

https://flooring-experts.com/vinyl-floor-adhesive-laying/

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

23 minutes ago, Airalee said:

And make sure the subfloor is completely flat and use self leveling concrete if not.

I saw this in several (not Thai) videos about tiles. A friend had tiling done in Thailand and it seems all the contractors told him that is not the way they do it (in Thailand).

Do you know if self leveling concrete is used by many, or at least some, contractors in Thailand? 

 

Personally I know only the theory. It seems to me self leveling concrete has the big advantage that it can be seen that the floor is level before anything is installed on top of it. I.e. with tiles if they are not properly installed that does not mean it looks bad right from the start. It may take some time (long after the payment) that tiles get lose... 

[Airalee]

46 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I saw this in several (not Thai) videos about tiles. A friend had tiling done in Thailand and it seems all the contractors told him that is not the way they do it (in Thailand).

Do you know if self leveling concrete is used by many, or at least some, contractors in Thailand? 

 

Personally I know only the theory. It seems to me self leveling concrete has the big advantage that it can be seen that the floor is level before anything is installed on top of it. I.e. with tiles if they are not properly installed that does not mean it looks bad right from the start. It may take some time (long after the payment) that tiles get lose... 

I have watched them do tile work here and I’m not impressed.  They will just throw thicker patches of mortar in the low areas and with the consistency of the mortar, I’m not surprised that I have seen so many tiles pop up in many different condos.  I doubt that they use self leveling cement here even though it’s sold.  I had to use it on my bottom floor in my condo here even though the installers assured me that the floors were perfectly flat before the wood was laid.  They ended having to rip up about 5 square meters in the entry way as the front door wouldn’t open properly as the concrete was too high on one side (needed to angle grind it down) and too low on the other (needed to fill it in).  Thankfully that was all they laid.  I filled in the low spots and then finished the whole downstairs myself with some help from a friend.

 

When I did my kitchen floor back in the US, where the subfloor was plywood, after making sure it was level, I screwed down hardiebacker board (https://www.jameshardie.com/products/hardiebacker-cement-board) and used the ready mixed mortar that came in 5 gallon containers.  I’m not sure if either is sold here but I would certainly look for it if I was going to attempt a tile job here…even if doing it on top of concrete.

 

At first, I was going to hire a “pro” to install it until the girl I was dating laughed at me, told me she did her own tile work in her house and let me borrow her tile saw.  I ended up doing a better job than the “pro-installer” did on my friends house across the street years later.

 

Doing flooring is incredibly simple and easy.  You just have to care. Unfortunately, finding someone who cares here (or even back in the US) isn’t an easy task, and you won’t know until the job is done.

 

There are tons of websites, YouTube videos (read the comments too because the pros will shred the uploader for whatever mistakes they are making), and also flooring forums for any and every type of flooring.  I also took a 1 hour class at the local Home Depot where the basics were explained but it really isn’t necessary.

Edited December 6, 2021 by Airalee

[Airalee]

Furthermore…to go into a little more detail….

 

Even in the picture above that represents the correct way to glue down a floor on concrete, there are two things that the installer there has done wrong.

 

1.  You can see that the coverage does not fully come to the end of the board.  See the red circle.

 

2.  Look at how old the trowel is.  You want a 3/8” bead of adhesive.  The trowel in the photo is old and they wear down quite quickly.  You will need multiple trowels (don’t worry, they are very inexpensive).  If you look at the beads in the photo, you can see that they are quite shallow as the trowel in the picture has worn down.

 

 

[sometimewoodworker]

8 hours ago, HashBrownHarry said:

Are expansion gaps not only required on new builds, surely when the building has 'settled' there's little or very minimal movement?

Expansion gaps are essential on all wood floors, 1mm is too small, as even glued down the wood, even laminate, will expand as the humidity changes. It has nothing to do with the building movement and everything to do with wood movement. Even a plywood will move, though very much less than regular wood.

 

Wood expansion is the reason for skirting boards, though taste governs the hight and moulding detail, they are there to hide the expansion gap. You can substitute a ¼ round for a minimalistic style.

Edited December 7, 2021 by sometimewoodworker