[Michel Roberts]

I thought some of you might be interested in a couple of articles I have just read.

 I found them in the april edition of my contract flooring journal which I have only just got round to reading.

The CFJ is a monthly magazine distributed free to people in the commercial flooring bizz i.e carpet, resilient wood floors ect.

The first report is of B&Q posting a drop of 1.2% across the board in like for like sales in the 13weeks to jan 29. Much of this is put down to declining sales of laminate.  Laminate sales themselves must have dropped by quite a lot more than this  in order to have depressed the overall figue by 1.2%

The second report concerns a co I personally have never heard of called laminate flooring direct. The co has 27 stores throughout the UK with 116 staff.

The co has been placed into administration due to falling sales!

Michel

[eco freindly. peoples champion ron .sherlock]

you are right.carpets without doubt are on the way back. ive seen the change in kent

[Dave_Lee]

Or could also be that the laminate market is getting close to Maxing out. After all are customers going to replace tired looking laminate with another laminate? Also it may be that a lot have learnt the lesson with one room or hall of laminate and wont be laying it anywhere else. What is a fact, ask any carpet fitter, there is and has been for over a year now, a lot of carpet being fitted on top of laminate.
Dave.

[eco freindly. peoples champion ron .sherlock]

dave i put laminate down in my lounge and hall, i found it very cold.presume others did now ripped up

[Fintan_Coll]

Something is defenitely happening, in my locality I see a lot of cut throat pricing ,some laminates at crazily low prices, obviously sales are slipping. I have also noticed a move back to carpets in a lot of houses, ok there are still plenty laminates around but the tide seems to be turning.

[eco freindly. peoples champion ron .sherlock]

fintan you are right the prices are very low.if you look around new houses being built by the big developments its gone, back to carpets

[Ian Hare]

The general public have cottoned on to the fact that these 'trendy floors' are cold, noisey, dusty and look naff once down!

Most are getting the message that carpet is healthier too!

We all need to keep up the pressure and get the message across to everyone.

[john rees]

me and the other half went for a chinese meal last night and the restaurant had laminate fitted, it was so noisy in there you couldn't hear each other speak! the owner told me that he's having a carpet fitted next week due mainly to the fact that they had a leak from the kitchen and it's started to buckle and raise on one side of the restaurant(not to mention the damp smell) and he's afraid to use that side in case someone trips on it!!!and even better news is he wants me to clean the floor before the carpet gets fitted!

[therapist]

Unfortunately we depend on the " luvvies " on TV to bring carpets back into fashion.

Just hope they don't go for Coir or these very light pastel colours beng fitted to many " new builds"

r m

[DanielWelford]

Ive noticed that everyone seems to have beige, or a shade of brown....very vogue at the mo.

Good for us as light coloured carpets show up all sorts, and thus need cleaning more often.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Perhaps laminates are lasting so long that replacement of them with new laminates OR carpets will not happen for a long time!

Shaun

[Dave_Lee]

You might be right there shaun. A good mate of mine put laminate throughout the entire down stairs area of his house years before they came into fashion. Four years ago he sold that house and built another one himself (with help) he reverted back to carpet everywhere except the hall and kitchen.
Dave.

[Gavin Reardon]

Hi All

This was in the Local South Wales paper a few days ago


                                 WOOD FLAWS

                         PERIL OF TRENDY FLOORING

Thousands of people are ending up in hospital after slipping on trendy wood floors, says a survey.
Latest figures show the DIY craze for laminate boarding has seen accidents soar from 2,900 in 2000 to 12,300 in 2004 by slips in the home.

It goes on etc etc

Good news for the Carpet Cleaner 

Regards Gavin

[Mark Roberts]

Gavin

I think most of us have been caught out stepping from a damp carpet onto laminate. The stuff is lethal, and would not be in my house just for that reason. That would be a bitter pill to swallow if you could not work for a while because of laminate!

Mark

[Ian Hare]

Excellent info Gavin!

[Dave_Lee]

I did a job for a client yesterday. She had laminate installed throughout downstairs 2 years ago. She is having a carpet fitted in her lounge on top of the laminate next week. She has a large family. with several sisters, an adult son and daughter with their own homes. They all have laminate
, BUT are ALL going back to carpet, including her daughter whose only had her laminate down 12 months.
Dave.

[Ian Hare]

Great news Dave! 

Did they say the exact reason they were doing so............
(e.g.) noise, cold, slippery, dusty, looks, or realisation of the health issues?
 Perhaps a mix of all of the above?