Posted by mcnich on July 29, 19104 at 19:47:20:
In Reply to: Tough question, but here goes posted by Margaret on July 29, 19104 at 19:25:23:
I was a complete novice too, when I started this last fall.
The most useful thing I did was hit the local flooring stores to check out different brands of laminate. That way I was able to look at how the joint fit - THE most important part for me, since I planned on installing in my kitchen and water on the floor was a concern for me. There's a lot of different laminate out there and the more you see, the better able you are to pick the one that's right for you.
The second thing I did was search flooring forums for a couple of months. It doesn't take too long before you start seeing the same brand names showing up on successful install reports.
Now I have beautiful floors that I installed by myself. And I'm no longer nervous around power tools, so it's ALL good ;-)
For what it's worth, I went with Quick-Step 800 Long Plank at $2.26/sq ft. that I ordered from fastfloors.com
Good luck and don't worry. Just do your research and you'll be fine.