I’d like to replace a lot of the flooring downstairs as the carpets are shagged (young kids, dog, the usual) and am weighing up the pros and cons of either:
– Engineered wood oak flooring
– Karndean flooring

Does anyone have any experience of both?

It’ll be in the hallway, lounge, dining room and study.

The dogs will love the engineered floor when the doorbell rings…

Karndean, however you dress it up is plastic. Wood is so much nicer.

And yes, I have experience of both.

French oak throughout downstairs here. Been down 13 years. Best money we ever spent as having two kids and a dog would have required 3 recarpets in that time I reckon.

Engineered oak Wrighty?

Will wood be warmer?

I plan on having a few rugs as well to level things up for the mutt. He will be like bambi on ice and I’ll be tripping over the rugs 😉

We’ve just put 30m2 of Karndean Looselay in our kitchen, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Just roll some tackifier on the floor and slap it down.
If you need to replace a plank, just peel it up and put a new one in. It’s 4mm thick, not glossy (so looks like wood) and very easy to keep clean.
Send off for some samples and see what you think?
Will try and post a picture of ours later.

I used this stuff in a couple of rooms:

Linky

Cheaper than many of the shed laminates, looks good, but I also ripped off all the skirting to make a decent job of it.

I’ve fitted both. In my own and customers’ houses.

The state of the existing floor is a big determining factor. I’ve just done my kitchen, dining room and hall (all one area) in Karndean. A mix of concrete, quarry tile and suspended floor to start with.

I had to put 9mm ply on top of the floorboards, but was able to tweak the joists to get the surfaces level, taking into account the latex screed needed on the rest.

But I didn’t have to take off the skirtings and bugger about with the door thresholds and architraves to accommodate the extra height that engineered oak would have involved. (I detest scotia beads).

I try to avoid materials that pretend to be something else, but I make an exception for Karndean.

But sometimes the floor is just too uneven to fit either, so carpet is the only (and far cheaper) option.

I would go for real wood. I put it in my old house and will be putting in my new house when I decorate. It currently has karndene which is horrible. It just looks like lino cut up into strips. It’s hard wearing and doesn’t mark but just looks rubbish compared with real wood. A wooden floor looks better with a few marks and a bit of age.

So if I go kardean I won’t need to remove the skirting boards (I hate scotia beads too)

Engineered wood – I’ll need to take the skirting boards off

Is that about right?

It’s a concrete floor (newish build)

Karndean. Especially if it’s areas it’ll get wet.

In our previous house we were regularly complimented on our wood floor.

It was Karndean.

Karndean Looselay. Love it, not scratchy when the dog charges about, massively easy to keep clean, no worries about spills and simple to replace a plank or two if any damage occurs.

Lazy link to some pics… http://anacreinhampshire.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/kitchen-finished.html

With the Engineered flooring at least you can sand it down at least twice before throwing it away

Just butt the Karndean up against the skirting, so no need to remove it. If you do use Looselay I’d recommend just glueing the outside 40mm edge to keep it all together. Mind you, as I’ve said, we used tackifier first onto a concrete floor and there’s no way any movement will occur.
It’s horses for courses really. Get samples and see which you prefer?

Will get some samples

Looks good siwhite

Thanks all