At long last I can finally share pix of our cherry floors with you! I have to apologize for not posting pix sooner. For the longest time I didn't have a camera -- then I got a digital one but hadda learn how to use it -- then I hadda figure out downloading and using a photo account so I could finally post our pix here. This first photo is taken on the kitchen side of our island. In the kitchen (as well as our entry and our office) we used the Berry Tourraine slate. I love it! This shows the floor transitioned from kitchen side to great room side. Look close and you can see, on the far side of the island, where we used a transition strip of the Tourraine slate where the great room's Castle Rock cherry planks begin. I don't have a photo of our staircase, but this shot will give you an idea of how we used the stair molding. From our vestibule we have a step-down into our dining room (used to be our living room before we remodeled last year) and then a step up into what's now our (newly added) great room and kitchen. Aren't the cherry planks rich-looking in a room?

Patricia and Sophie are on it. Laminate is NOT a very good idea in kitchens. In fact, the average age for laminate in a kitchen = 3-5 years. Yep. You have to replace that "durable" floor inside of 5 years. But "Oh Wait! I can't find it any more. Now what do I do?" Sigh....happens SOOO often I could spit! I would say work with the electric heating in the bathrooms - and that's IT. If you MUST have it in the kitchen then MAKE SURE you use TILE in the kitchen! Now you can use laminate throughout. And I can "save you" thousands of dollars (in both installation costs AND heating/cooling bills) by suggesting 1/4" cork underlay underneath the laminate. The insulating value in the cork will reduce your heating/cooling costs by 10%-15%. If you upgrade to 1/2" cork you will save as much as 30% on your heating/cooling costs. And yes...it is possible to design the floor height variations INTO your flooring plan. Not a problem. It just takes some fore planning (as in BEFORE the concrete slab is poured). Here's the OTHER way to do this. You can CALCULATE the tile+heating coil floor heights with decent accuracy. Then you work BACKWARDS to find a laminate floor + cork underlay that will FIT the calculations you have already created. I used to do this every day for people. A tile floor will OFTEN sit slightly higher than 1/2" (between 5/8" and 11/16"). If you add in the heating coils you are going to sit a little higher (much closer to the 3/4" height) - possibly even 1" high. Now you take these measurements (stick with 3/4" = 18mm thick = you should be fine) and go shopping for laminate. The 'average' thickness for laminate = 8mm to 10mm thick. If you want a high-end laminate you are looking at 12mm (1/2"). Which means you will need to "make up" roughly 1/4" of height. Great. This is where 1/4" cork comes in. If you do the math it works in both metric and imperial: 1/2" laminate + 1/4" cork = 3/4" thickness; the metric works out to be 12mm laminate + 6mm cork = 18mm thick total floor height. Notice how all of these numbers match up? Right. Now for the tricky part. You are looking at a floating floor system. It MUST HAVE a transition strip between the tile and the laminate. Must have. The good news is a floor that has matching floor heights will allow you to work with low-profile products. These low profile products will reduce the "humps" in your floor. That's as good as you can get with a floating laminate floor - regardless of the underlayment, or the total thickness.

@Tyler G - all cork floating floors have an integrated underlayment. The thickness will vary between price points but they all have them. The issue is the wonky subfloor. That's your biggest issue. To reduce the effects of this problem, you would want to use the 1/4" cork to get rid of *SOME of the issue. You will still have some movement in the floor (a snick of bounce when you walk over a low spot) but not as bad as when laying a floor straight over top. To get the most benefit out of your situation, the cork floating floor + 1/4" underlay will offer the "most for the least". That is to say the most comfort/acoustics/price advantage/longevity for the least amount of work/disturbance to your rented home. You can't do the work on the subfloor that is needed (it really is needed if you want the floor to live 20+ years). So you have to do as much as possible to reduce the effects of the wonky subfloor. And that means investing in a decent, rigid underlayment like cork. Even though the cork sheets are flexible, the cork itself is rather rigid. It doesn't "squish" down very much (it is actually rated for porcelain tile installation). That means it will even out the wonky subfloor - just enough to get you a cork floor that should live 15 years or so. Please remember to use transition strips at all doorways. This is another way to ensure your floor will get you more than a decade worth of life.

A floating floor is a floor that is not anchored to the subfloor (gravity holds it in place). A floating floor must have an expansion gap around the whole room. That means there will be a nice, big fat gap at each and every wall. The ideal expansion gap is the same thickness as the laminate. The laminate you show is 10mm thick. That means you must have 10mm gap at every single wall and a gap of 10mm on EITHER side of the door jam. Because this is a rental AND the existing floor is VERY WELL installed (baseboards appear to have been done properly) I do NOT suggest you install quarter round or shoe moulding. That means you will LEAVE the gap all the way around. This gap will fill up with crud. And then to add insult to injury you MUST use an underlayment product. Your product of choice has an integrated underpad which is most CERTAINLY plastic stuff. Even if it didn't have it, you would need an underpad to protect the existing floor. The underpad MUST NOT be plastic or vinyl or any product that will trap moisture. That means you need to work with 3mm cork underlay or Quietwalk fiber based product. Either of these products will add $$ cost to your project. But this point is moot because you have a laminate with plastic underlay = absolutely not allowed over an existing wood based floor. Ever. But why no 'plastic'? Because it will cause the moisture underneath the existing floor to catch on the bottom of the plastic and DRIP DOWN onto the existing floor. And you will be left with a fantastically moldy mess that you will be required to pay for. And considering the fact the existing floor is THROUGHOUT the house, you might be required to remove/replace the ENTIRE THING. Because a tenant must bring the home back to the ORIGINAL state. And that state includes an entire house covered in the SAME floor. Right. On to the transition strips that you will WANT to use at the doors...but will not be ALLOWED to use. Again a reducer (what the transition strip is called when moving from a 1/2" step down to 0" inch floor (like concrete or the existing flooring level). Why can't you use it? Because the transition must be ANCHORED. That is to say you would have to affix the transition to the EXISTING floor. IN doing so you risk (100% risk) of damaging the existing floor. That brings us back to leaving the house in the way you found it. And back to the issue of a floating floor over another floating floor - this is bad science. An unstable floor on top of an unstable floor. It would be like building with marbles. The warranty on BOTH floors is void (landlords love to hear these things...you might own them another floor if they find out about another floor sitting on top). In short: Don't do it. You will have one heck of an expensive 'project' on your hands when you move out. A white area rug would do MUCH better and would be MUCH cheaper.