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Ikea Tundra Flooring Review

IKEA Tundra Review- our kitchen after installing the flooringGood morning!  Today I’m sharing with you all my IKEA Tundra review.  As I mentioned in my kitchen before and after post, we have been working on our 1980s kitchen ever since we moved into our home two and a half years ago.  The changes that have had the biggest impact have been painting the cabinets, replacing the old counter tops, and changing the flooring.  When we moved in the kitchen looked like this:

the kitchen in progress of rennovationThe flooring in the kitchen was that ugly yellow laminate, the dinning area had a worn tan carpet, and the living room had a different worn tan carpet.  All three of these spaces flow into one another so we decided to install the same flooring throughout.  With an eye on our budget, we decided on the TUNDRA flooring from IKEA in the Chestnut color.

Now for the nitty gritty, the Ikea Tundra review!

Install

My husband installed the flooring while our son and I were out of town visiting family.  Having a toddler around isn’t generally recommended for diy projects, so we got out of the way for the install.

He had never put down laminate flooring before, but read as much about it as he could beforehand, and plunged right in with the help of my father-in-law and a few other helpful family members.

Having never done laminate flooring before, he can’t really compare his experience working with this laminate flooring versus another brand, so sorry we can’t help you there.  He felt that it was a pretty good product.  Not great, but good, particularly considering the low price.  He used an installation kit and underlay padding also purchased from IKEA.

They took two full days to install the floors and then a third to finish up some trim work.  At times install was very easy, but there were times where the install was a bit more difficult because sometimes when they would click in a board, another board on a row previously laid would shift and create a gap between boards.

This made installation in some areas more difficult, but he said that other areas just clicked right into place without a problem.

Overall, he said that installation wasn’t the easiest thing he’s ever done, but it was not the hardest either.  Do be prepared to be sore for a few days afterward!

IKEA Tundra Review- the other side of the room after installing the flooringDurability

We chose laminate for its durability with kids and dogs.  However, we knew that by choosing a cheaper laminate that it might not be so durable.  During install, they accidentally scratched the floor in three places.

Both times it was due to a metal tool being dropped or accidentally dragged.  They were too far along to go back and replace those boards, so they left the scratches.  Thankfully, two of the places are under furniture, and one is a tiny scratch.

We purchased a furniture crayon set that we use to fill in scratches and it fills them in pretty well.  We put furniture pads on everything to prevent future scratches.  After a year and a half our floors are still doing very well.  We would love to have real hardwoods in our next house, but for our first home these still look great and have held up well.

The Take-away

We’re thrilled with our floors.  They are a huge improvement over the ugly, dingy carpet that was there before.  They took some work to install, but we very much like the results, and the price was fantastic.

Disclaimer

We were in no way compensated for our use or review of our floors from IKEA.  I know that before I purchase anything I like to read reviews online and so I want to try to help out others who may be considering buying things that we’ve had experience with before, so I hope this information helps someone else out there!

Ai

Wednesday 8th of April 2015

Great review and very helpful - I'm considering putting Tundra or Praire into a studio I'm building.

Thanks for the review and the pics - looks great!!

Ai

Cat

Thursday 9th of April 2015

No problem! Glad to have helped!

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Mary Martha Mama