Hard floors – “engineered” laminates, LVT, Karndean….?

We need new flooring in our forthcoming open plan living space (day room/kitchen/diner), approx 60 m sq. Whats the general thoughts and experiences on the options? A Wood or wood effect

We were thinking of Karndean floor (Luxury Vinyl Tiles appear to have jumped on that bandwagon too but not really any cost saving) but SWMBO has lost her confidence in them since seeing the damage to her parents Karndean floor under the dining table & chars (which were NOT protected in any way, seems to be an obvious fix there).

“Engineered” modern laminates vary immensely and are probably just as expensive to fit as Karndean. Might be slightly more sympathetic to scuffs as you can sand and repair them?

This is the sort of look we are thinking of.

What’s your experience with them???

I like the idea of Karndean, but it is so expensive.. Managed to buy 30m2 of engineered oak for £5 a sq m at Homebase last week.

Don’t really know much about others but had my Karndean down for a decade or more and still love it. Only issue is the stuff can fade. My parents have had this, but mine is okay. Not sure why as neither get more sun hitting it, or any at all.

Mine has a slight absorption to if it stuff is dropped so little breakage.

Don’t know what “Engineered” modern laminate is. I do know I can’t stand traditional cheap laminate. Noisy cheap sounding stuff to walk on, I’ve seen many start to flex over time and break on the joints. Horrible in living rooms. I’d rather have carpet (and please, if you live in flats, use carpets).

Have amtico (similar to Karndean) covering most of downstairs. Looks good and 2.5 years in it’s  wearing well – the odd dent where we’ve dropped something heavy or a knife but nothing really noticeable unless you look for it. We do have any moving furniture (eg chairs) padded up though to avoid scratching (which I’m fairly sure they advise).

It’s also saved several broken glasses, etc too (about 2/3 save rate ime)

Only negative imo is that where there’s a concrete base it has no give at all. It feels nicer on the wooden based areas.

Thanks for that folks.

Worth adding that our floor is suspended on joists. It’s very bouncy at the moment so will be getting some work to stiffen it up a touch while we have the kitchen out and having walls taken down & put up. So there is a bit of give there but that fact that it is slightly soft to touch is a plus in my view. Nicer to be on barefoot.

By “engineered” wood floor or laminates, (AIUI) they are a 3 mm think wood layer on top of MDF or similar backing material. So cheaper and easier to install than solid wood.

I’d be wary of using any form of real wood in a room where it getting seriously wet is possible (kitchen/bathroom) – it can swell (regardless of engineered vs real), and getting it back to a usable\good looking state is difficult

Got something similar to Karndeen down in the hallway, an alternative brand, slightly cheaper, basically laminate that is glued down…or strips of Lino. No idea why is it so expensive but it is – cost about £800 for what is a pretty small area…wont be using it again. Looks nice when down and very hard wearing so far. Got Laminate in our extension, very cheap, looks fine unless you really study it, then it still looks fine, but obviously not real wood. Got the better stuff that is bevelled and textured. It’s pretty bullet proof and has withstood abuse that would have marked real wood (kids dragging chairs and  tables across the floor, hammering toys into the floor etc. I considered engineered wood originally but about £1500 for laminate vs. about £5k for engineered wood that is not as hard wearing and requires occasional maintenance I decided against it. No point for me…couldn’t see the benefit. But depends what you’re after. If you really want that real wood experience and nothing else will do, then nothing else will do.

I have engineered wood floors and it is a lot better than your description, no MDF in there but it is laminated below the thick top layer of wood, so it is more stable than just a wooden floor.

Mine has a gloss/sheen finish – I wanted the more natural finish but the builder persuaded me not as the more natural surface requires more maintence – oiling.

However I think it might have been better as dents/scratches in the sheened surface are less easy to repair, although my cats might also have damaged the more textured surface.

I like it any I have no rugs or carpets in the house apart from on the stairs. Tiles in the kitchen and bathroom though.

I had engineered wood in the old house. Looked good though it definitely wasn’t as tough as the Amtico we have now

We have karndean looselay so if anything gets damaged you just take a ‘plank’ out and put another one in.

Stick it down with carpet tackifier though. So easy.

Can’t believe we’ve had all these replies and not one Duran Duran joke.

Does dd still frequent these parts? He’s the man who knows his flooring.

We’ve got about 40m2 of Amtico (sun bleached oak) in the kitchen/ family room/ extension. It’s been down about a year now and looks great and am generally pleased with it. My big but is that although we’ve got the floor protector pads on the legs of all the dining chairs, the ones which get used most frequently wear out every couple of months and there are a few scratches where the legs scrape the floor where I’ve not immediately noticed. It’s not as hard wearing as they lead you to believe – my 3yr old daughter proved this when she pushed her little Ikea rocking chair across the floor and scratched it. So, if you are careful, you’ll be ok, if not it could look crap quickly.

We have the whole downstairs done in re-claimed maple from a school gym hall – got it for £10sqm.  Been down for 4 yrs now, no issuess i can think of.  Just make sure yuo wipe up any spills.  Becuase it’s so light , if you get bored just sand of the varnish and use a diferernt shade…

When i laid it, i managed to get the netball circle right in the middle of the kitchen, but Mrs pandhandj insisted we get all the marking sanded off 🙁

We did the whole house, upstairs and down in oak – engineered wide planks, 20mm depth with 5mm wear layer. Brushed and oiled. 2 years on its been great.

Used this company

https://www.directwoodflooring.co.uk

£30-40 m2 – like all online retailers they have 10-20% off from time to time

Don’t discount normal laminate – i.e. MDF with a plastic picture on top.  It’s cheap, hardwearing and modern stuff looks pretty good – even has a texture to it, so the top is not completely flat.

There are different grades of it.  AC3 is the really cheap stuff that looks naff, whereas AC4 is “domestic high traffic” quality and AC5 is commercial quality – intended for shops, etc.

We’ve have Quickstep AC4 down in our kitchen / diner for the past 8 years, and apart from a dint where I dropped a pan, and a few scratches it looks almost like new.  When it’s clean. 🙂

At least go and have a look – you might think it’s super naff. 🙂

We did the whole house, upstairs and down in oak – engineered wide planks, 20mm depth with 5mm wear layer. Brushed and oiled. 2 years on its been great.

Used this company

https://www.directwoodflooring.co.uk

£30-40 m2 – like all online retailers they have 10-20% off from time to time

We had 30m2 from the same lot for our downstairs rooms. Glad I over-ordered by 20% as 15% of the boards were warped pretty badly.

OP should consider what options are available if getting underfloor heating. I think some of the LVT options aren’t great with it.

We use Karndean in all our lodges at work and very few need replacing at 8 years when we do refurbs and they are used consistently throughout the year.

Another Karndean fan here – we had engineered oak at our last place (bought untreated and sealed by myself using Osmo PolyX Oil) and it started to show wear and ingrained dirt in high traffic areas in about two years despite my best efforts at cleaning (ie, including resanding and resealing).

When we did the floor at our new place we opted for Karndean as it exited both to the main front door and bi-folds into the garden. Despite several years of two small children, all their friends and our dog doing their best to destroy it, it looks almost as good as new – just a bit of dirt down the join lines which I could get out of I could be bothered to scrape it out with something pointy.

I’m really surprised at the experience above of Karndean wearing through.  I’ve used it in many hard wearing places without trouble.  I’d suspect that it was sold as Karndean but supplied as something else.  I have the basic Knight Tile on a floor that is half solid and half suspended without a problem.

You can get commercial Karndean (Da Vinci) that has a thicker wear layer.

Get solid wood.  You know you want to.  If using in an area that can get splashed/ dripped on occasionally I would get reclaimed flooring and just give it a sand and oil and just leave any imperfections there.  Solid wood floors that have imperfections throughout ooze character and also you won’t spend time worrying about them in what is a high-usage space.

Thanks everyone for the experiences and anecdotes, all v helpful.

Get solid wood.  You know you want to.

Actually, it’s a definite no for wood. We’re much more likely to save some pennies and get a cheaper vinyl than “upgrade” to any kind of wood. We had wood floors in our last house.