I'm Floored!

Every time I walked into my walk-in wardrobe, I always felt a sense of dissatisfaction about the floor tiles. The walk-in wardrobe just didn't seem complete to me. When I had the cupboards built in, I retained the original floor tiles because I wasn't sure then if I wanted to do anything with it.. 

... but the longer I left them, the longer they seemed to me as not the nicest looking tiles up close.

The idea of using laminate flooring tossed back and forth in my mind like a game of ping-pong. I just wasn't sure how much it would cost, whether it would be worth it... I knew that it would look good when it was done but I just didn't have enough information to be able to make a decision. And the main thing was... would I be able to afford it?

That was last year. Then not too long ago, I decided to just look for the Floor Depot shop in The Curve since I'd heard that it was there but I just never bothered to search it out. One day I did. And it just so happened that they were having a promotion! 40% discount and a lot of FOC stuff. 

So after the sales guy explained everything to me, I paid RM500 as a deposit (100% refundable if I paid in cash and changed my mind 14 days later, but if you paid by credit card, they will take a percentage). I filled up a form with my details and was informed that someone will contact me in 3 days. Less than 3 days, Alan called me to make an appointment to measure my room for free. I made the appointment for later that week, he came by and in less than half an hour, had drawn a rough sketch of the room on his notebook with the measurements, and answered all my questions. He also showed me samples of the wood that he always kept in the back of his car...

Now, there are cheaper versions and also more expensive, higher quality ones and because my room was so small (66 sq feet) he already guessed that the cost would be less than RM1000.  Turns out, there is a minimum payment you have to make which is RM1000, even if cost wise, it only comes up up to RM700 or RM800. So he advised me,  "You might as well get the higher quality wood laminate rather than the cheaper one because if the cost is less than RM1k, you're still going to have to pay a lump sum price of RM1k anyway." It made sense so I agreed and chose the Kronoloc Premium Super Series in American Cherry...
 

The next day he e-mailed me a quotation of RM1000 which included to supply and install the flooring, complete with laminated walline skirting. A few days later, I went back to the store to pay the remaining RM500 - and I still had time to change my mind if I wanted to. I didn't.

That weekend, the Floor Depot guys came around with all their equipment. I had already cleared out the room and cleaned the tile floor so all they had to do was install the flooring. First, they laid out a sheet of underlayment on the floor....

Then, after asking me which direction I wanted the planks to be laid in, they started arranging them one by one... 

... and because the planks interlock with each other, instead of the old way of gluing them one by one on the actual floor, installation was very fast, easy and not messy at all - save for a few planks that needed to be cut down to size and even then, they did it outside the apartment. 

Also, they added skirting to give it a more finished and polished look...

So in two and half hours, this was the result...

And they did a very good, clean job of it. Beautiful, ain't it?? I'm so happy with my choice of wooden flooring. It looks great, matches my cupboards, it FEELS great underneath my feet. And it comes with so many other benefits!

Click here for more info on laminate flooring...