Hi happytrails,

No personal experience with pergo, but we had a sheet vinyl floor several years back. Two drawbacks:

1. The seam. It looked fine when installed but we had trouble with it thereafter. What's worse, it was in a high traffic area in the middle of the kitchen. If your area is less than 12' wide you hopefully wouldn't have a seam. Definitely avoid one if you can.

2. The crinkly nature of the flooring. It has all these thousands of dimples, no doubt made to look decorative. Over time many of these would fill with dirt--and it's not as easy to mop out as it should be.

Just my opinion, but I'd definitely look at pergo, ceramic tile or other(?) before I use sheet vinyl again.

i have sheet vinyl in mine,the problem with sheet vinyl most people have never had a good one.one thing to remember a typical laminate costs $3.00 a s.f. & labor ($3.00/5.00 a s.f.) thats $70.00 a s.y. so if you are going to compare,look at a high quality sheet vinyl.
sheet vinly and laminate are very easy to live with ,just a damp mop to clean them. wear should be about the same if you stay at the same price point.
to me the main differance is one copys a ceramic tile floor,the other a hard wood floor....good luck

For once my small kitchen has a positive aspect... It's about 12 X 12 so there would be no seam if we use sheet vinyl. I'm going to do some shopping this Saturday to try and make a decision. I hope choose one that looks good.

all laminates from $2.99 / $3.99 are good ,quick click will cost less to install,look at a sheet vinyl from congoleum called ultima $19.95 s.y. from home depot , it is the best value in sheet vinyl to day ( as good as anybodys $35/40 product) good luck

Thanks for the tips. I briefly checked out Home Depot tonight for Pergo and sheet vinyl. Still can't make up my mind. There is a slight bump in the middle of my floor. I'm guessing that this won't work well with Pergo.??

Hi again happytrails,

I've found sheet vinyl to be very unforgiving regarding any bumps, protruding screws, etc. Even a little scrap of something under vinyl will be felt thereafter forevermore. You really want to be sure of a flat and smooth surface before doing vinyl.

Again, no personal experience with pergo...but I'd bet it's more forgiving.

pergo requires that the floor be level with in 1/8" over 10 feet. but a good installer should be able to fix the floor ,so you can install the product you like.
what causes the bump in your kit?is it water damage to the underlayment? please post a reply.....thanks

The floor is basically "crowned" in the middle of the room. So, since I have been meaning to go in the basement to look at the floor.... when I read your question, I thought its now or never. Go look! Well, its actually kind of interesting. It looks to me as if the heating contractor that installed new duct work in the basement may have shaved off the end of one of the floor joists in order to get some duct work in that spot to go up the wall. That joist isn't supporting the floor at that point. The two joists to the right of it (the beginning of the "crown")have shims above them to close what may have been a gap between the joist and the hardwood boards? Could it be that when this joist stopped supporting the floor that the hardwood boards to the right popped off of the joists? My thoughts are this: sister a joist to the short joist to support the floor in that spot. Remove the shims from the other two joists to bring the "crown" down. Could these boards be permanently warped into this shape? Another interesting thing is that it looks the original nails that were in one of the shimmed joists are next to the joist, not in it. That is the approximately where the floor squeaks too. When the contractor told me about the floor, explaining that its to be expected because its an old house, etc. I noted in the back of my mind that I have to look at the floor joists in the basement to see if there may be a reason for this.(crossing my fingers, really not planning on finding anything...) I didn't mention it to the contractor because he gets a bit sensitive when I go into what I call "male" territory. But, thanks to you, I went downstairs and checked it out right after I read your question! I never seemed to remember to do this when I was at home. Now, maybe I can actually get flooring that I like. Maybe I won't have to do the dreaded sheet vinyl! I may not have actually looked at this until the sheet vinyl was down. I just haven't had the time since all I've been doing is shopping for materials for the kitchen. Thanks again. I'll keep you posted.

sounds like you have the situation well in hand,the only thing i can think to add is have someone confirm your understanding of what has happened.....good luck and rember this " everything fill be fine in the end,if its not fine,its not the end."