Laminate Installation in Chesapeake, VA

Chesapeake was created in 1963 by consolidating the independent city of South Norfolk with Norfolk County, a county that dated to 1691. South Norfolk itself had become a town in 1919 and an independent city in 1922. Today the city is organized into six boroughs (South Norfolk, Butts Road, Deep Creek, Pleasant Grove, Western Branch and Washington) and covers 338.51 square miles of land, which ranks it 17th among U.S. cities by land area.

Water is never far away here. A substantial portion of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge lies within the city. The Dismal Swamp Canal, described as the oldest continuously used man-made canal in the United States, runs through it, and the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway passes through on its way to North Carolina.

History runs deep here too. The Battle of Great Bridge was fought on December 9, 1775, at a river crossing in what's now Chesapeake, and the Patriot victory helped end British rule in colonial Virginia. Yet Great Bridge stayed a small crossroads until the late 1980s and 1990s, when it filled in with homes, shopping centers and the city's municipal buildings. The city as a whole tells the same story: largely a suburban and rural bedroom community until the late 1980s, followed by significant growth.

That growth shapes most of the flooring conversations in Chesapeake. A home built in the 1990s or 2000s has often reached the age where the original builder-grade carpet is worn through on the stairs and down the hallway, and the vinyl or laminate in the kitchen is lifting at the seams. The usual brief is to replace that carpet with something that will last, and to run one durable hard floor through the main living area. Luxury vinyl plank with a waterproof core is our most common recommendation for that main floor, with carpet over an 8-lb pad, included at no extra charge, for the bedrooms.

Homes near wetlands, waterways and low ground deserve a closer look at moisture before any floor goes in. Whether a house sits on a slab or over a crawlspace, we check the subfloor during the in-home estimate. If it needs work, it goes into one upfront price along with furniture moving, tear-out, installation and disposal, so there's no surprise once the old floor comes up.