Had a look in Floors 2 go for laminate flooring, they had some real oak flooring that looked better, but the sales guy initially said it was not as hardwearing as the laminate. When we said we prefered to look of the real wood, had told us it would last longer than laminate 😉

It’s to go in a hall, about 10m2, we have 2kids and another on the way, so it’s got to be tough, whats better, real or laminate?

Carpet.

Laminate takes hits better, real wood more repairable (ie, sand and patch). Get engineered, not solid. Got mine from real oak floors in Leeds, completely unfinished and coated it myself with osmo hardwax so I can patch and match any marks.

And real wood ages better – those scratches and marks add to character over time…

Real it is then!

Personally prefer solid to engineered, have had engineered fail, solid lasts for ever. Although I think I am quite snobby about these things so it depends on what floats your boat.

Solid more likely to warp. Engineered has all the installation ease of laminate and you can sand it as well if you ever need to.
laminate just looks cheap.
Everyone comments how nice our engineered oak flour looks.

If you’re going for laminate, you might as well have lino.

Engineered; repairable, stable, cheaper.

all th laminate i have had is cheap for a reason. If it scratches, and it will, it is really obvious.
What about that tiling effect laminate stuff for a hall? That seems good and is easy to fit

I’ve been very impressed with my engineered bamboo. In our hall and lounge for coming up 3 years now and it’s taken everything that 2 small children and a muddy mountain biker can throw at it, even all that snow and slush from last year.

we used http://www.simplybamboo.co.uk/products.php?category_id=53 with their click together stuff, over a dampproof backed insulating foam on top of concrete. I’d recommend.

Weve got Karndean + 2 small kids and its strong stuff. Gauranteed for 20 years or summit

Engineered and don’t buy it from floors to go!

What’s worng with floors 2 go? And where should i buy?

Another vote for Karndean. And that was after going through the same laminate vs engineered vs solid debate.

We looked at Karndean, but the fitters who came out were horrible 🙁

Floors 2 go is the equivalent of DFS.
I get mine through magnet trade or local places

We’ve had success with B&Q laminate, not the cheap stuff the slightly more expensive mid range stuff.

Re fake tile laminate, we’ve got that in our hallway, does the job. Hides marks better as the surface is more textured that wood effect laminate.

We have Pergo laminate in our lounge and dining room and it guranteed for 50 years according to the website.

The tile lock type laminate is very very hard wearing and can look really good too

I’ve got real, it looks lovely. But it’s a nightmare – marks quite easily, it’s really noisy to walk around on, hoovering it is a pain (even with a nice dyson you tend to just push the dust about rather than pick it up). I’d go with carpets if I were going to do it again.

Scotch and Sam have it – engineered far more usable than solid. If you are in Leeds area I would recommend real oak floors as they have a showroom, but they do also do Internet. Get the widest single strips budget allows – looks more classy than thin strips (IMO)

I’m looking at engineered bamboo to replace the cheap laminate in my new flat. Looks nice and apparently greener than real wood

Coffeking – why are you vacuuming it???? Use a wide brush like school janitors have and buff with floor wipes as needed.

Because that’s a pain too and means I have to stoop down and brush up all the little bits in various rooms, however I have resorted to that.

We have one of those Vyleda ones on a pole – dust sticks to it and it’s dead easy to whizz around with it

Just spoke to the wife and she said our hall is Marmoleum.

It is hard wearing, but will scratch if abused. Looks cool though 8)

Is that a jam/Lino hybrid?

^^^^

A quick google says “Made from linseed oil, wood flour, rosin, jute and limestone”

As they come in squares my wife designed the pattern and then we had it fitted.

Because that’s a pain too and means I have to stoop down and brush up all the little bits in various rooms

Cheeze, how lazy have people become, eh?

surly easier / no harder than getting the hoover out unwinding chord etc?

Amtico or Kardean.

Much warmer than laminate and as others have said comes with a silly guarantee. And if you do **** a strip or two up over time, its easy to remove and replace the offending items.

IT’S NOT A HOOVER IT’S A DYSON!!!!!!

IT IS A VACUUM CLEANER.

ARRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I feel better now, thanks.

Look for a small sawmill. They tend to deal in more interesting stuff to order. The guy who mills our stuff keeps a certain amount of stock air-dried and can kiln dry to the required state and can get it re-profiled (own machine coming soon hopefully). Always got oak, know he still has one of our chestnuts, we have some elm due to be milled and a cherry stem if I can remember where I left it. All sorts can be found, even some baked alder which has gone like mahogany.

In summary, find a mobile/small saw miller, you may be surprised by what they have and the price, can have boards cut at whatever size you fancy to fit the hall best (did 9″ boards in a barn recently, lot less nailing).

Had solid Beach flooring fitted in my kitchen and failed to re-oil it every year and now there are damp stains in the wood by the back door. With hindsight, I’d rather have gone for a harder wearing laminate floor.

we’ve got F2g solid oak flooring it was mega cheap on an offer and is great we’ve got 2 young kids and dogs – sure it gets scraped/bashed but it still looks great.

I would use it again for sure.

For the record in other areas I have engineered wood and laminate but would go for solid from now on. only carpet in 2 rooms out of 12 in the house – so much easier to keep clean with a sweeper thingy

All of our downstairs is some kind of flooring now rather than carpeting. Our eldest daughter would rarely make it to the toilet on time when she was sick and we ended up with sick stains all over the lounge carpet.

On reflection I wish we had put flooring down straight away when we moved in, but that was 7 years ago and we have learned a lot about children and their habits since then!

Valley – why do you recommend solid over engineered?

Depends on what’s meant by “engineered”. Full structural thickness engineered, bonded to the subfloor (be that by gluing or nailing) is the way forward in my limited 🙂 experience.

I have real wood throughout my flat, but I bought it that way and is in character with the Art Deco features etc.

It seems reasonably hardwearing as to the best of my knowledge it has been down for 70 or so years now. If it get lightly scratched I just rub it out with some oil.

I love the warm feel it has underfoot.

I have never seen a laminate floor in my life where I thought it looked good rather than just cheap and nasty. Some friends of mine had all their ground floor done with engineered as they have underfloor heating. Not really sure why but 10 years on and theirs is looking very worn and tired in the heavy use places.

GJP – that probably has more to do with lower quality modern stuff against high quality old stuff.

Just look at fireplaces etc – even cheap terraces had beautiful fireplaces 100 years ago, now you get nuthink.