The whole second floor (approximately 800 sq. Ft) will have the laminate floors, with exception of the bathrooms.
What's wrong with or your concerns with using transitions? The house will look weird if it looks like one continuous room, especially if you have doorways with doors. Plus if anything goes wrong it will be easier to fix with the breaks in the flooring.
Yes you must for a couple of reasons. One is to make a clean transition to another surface or area. It allows the floor to expand and contract normally. Another is with that much laminate it will expand/contract a lot and they are needed every 20/25 ft as per your particular laminate calls for. If you don t , the whole floor can expand enough and actually lift off the floor. Also not putting in the proper transition strips may very well void warranties on the product. Any questions you can e mail me through my avatar, I ve attended several installation seminars as well as installed a couple 100,000 s/f. GL
