About to order the new flooring for our open plan kitchen/living area. Any experience or opinions on solid or engineered oak?

Sub floor is timber with a well ventilated 1m void.

Cheers

never in a kitchen or bathroom IMO.
But it’s just an opinion.

deadlydarcy to the thread!

never in a kitchen or bathroom IMO.
But it’s just an opinion.

I fitted solid oak flooring in our kitchen around 2 years ago and not had any issues with it at all. Its a big kitchen though so condenstaion not an issue.

deadlydarcy to the thread!

Why? I wouldnt trust anything that diminutive potato harvester has to say 😉

its true, he does suffer from teh oirish

Apparently it’s genetic 😯

Anyway, back on topic…, ISTR that DD would favour engineered over solid.

We’ve just gone for V4 engineered in lounge and dining room – brushed and oiled for home maintenanc as laquered is a bit of a mare to fix if damaged

fk’n expensive but it looks the dogs

Just had engineered oak throughout the house (downstairs) it’s all open plan so we included the kitchen. The floor was from Howdens is lovely, really solid and cleans easily (so far at least, been about a month). We got a massive bargain from Howdens as they gave us a quote based on a wrong cost per metre, worked out pretty much half price 😮

Meanies be meanyin’ 😛

Is the sub-floor suspended joists or chipboard/plywood? Are you building from the ground up ie floor, then kitchen, plinths, skirts, etc?

DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?!

just ignore it phil. It cant see you if you stay perfectly still. It’ll eventually get bored and go and bother someone else.

IMHO would look at karndean/amtico. I wanted real oak but the pros of the vinyl tile outweighed the negatives. The big negative being the hassle if you need to access wires/plumbing under the floor but fingers crossed and touch wood lookeylikey vinyl. Mid range karndean works out about c£55psm fitted.
Could supply a pic if I got my arse in gear so let me know if it would be useful….

Karndean?

*shudders*

snoorrrff. You’re just too posh dd 🙂

Floor is chipboard over wooden joists. 1M basement (if you can call it that) We’ll be starting floor up.allowing 20mm expension gap pretty much all the way around.

main area is 6.5 x 5.5M

There will be a wood burner in the room.

We’ve got amtico in the bathroom which is nice enough but it’s not the same.

Looking at puchasing through – http://www.frenchtimberdirect.com/

What is wrong with Karndean?

was going to do something similar but have decided to either tile or stick some new vinyl down in my kitchen

the place i am going to get the flooring from posts the below on their website:

Only lacquered floors are recommended in a kitchen as it offers better protection against moisture than oiled floors and, as such, we don’t recommend oiled floors to be laid in kitchens. One thing to remember with these floors is that they cannot be mopped, or have water sat on the surface for long periods. Splashes from washing up and the like are acceptable, just wipe them up as soon as you see them.

Wharfedale, Are you in Whafedale??

We have just fitted engineered oak floorboards. They have been laid on top of the original floorboards in our living room (fixed) and on top of Yks flagstones in our hall (floating). Both areas are above a cellar.
Engineered boards don’t appear to expand/contract with moisture from the cellar.

We will eventually get it in our kitchen, when it gets replaced

Supplied by Oak By Design, Harrogate. Fitted by a great joiner from knaresborough.

eGn

Only lacquered floors are recommended in a kitchen as it offers better protection against moisture than oiled floors and, as such, we don’t recommend oiled floors to be laid in kitchens. One thing to remember with these floors is that they cannot be mopped

With respect to where you lifted that from, that’s pretty much bollocks. 🙂

engineered oak versus oak was the question, ones usually 2mm thicker and needs an expansion gap to expand and contract. Neither should be a real problem in a kitchen unless you’re using it to swim in. Niether apparently like being moped or wet lots, if you need to mop, then dry off straight away is the advice. I guess the main risk is flooding from a sink/washer/dish washer or something major… or if you’re really a mucky pup!

*shrugs shoulders* you pays your money etc. I was all for real wood and then for engineered and then vinyl. It was an ‘easy to clean, maintain and fit n forget’ v but ‘it’s real wood’ decision. Life’s too short to be worrying….

I installed solid beech in my kitchen and sealed it with oil. However, I got slack with maintenance and never re-proofed it, so over the years it has got a lot of dirt in the wood near the back door and needs a major sand to clean it all up.

Solid Oak fitted through kitchen/lounge, 18mm thick, 80sqm. Laid directly on to old floorboards and lost nailed down. Fitted when the skirting was off. No problems at all. Got a great deal from a company via the internet at about £20 ish psm… and I’m sorry but I cant recall who supplied it. Its been down three years and faultless. Insulated under the floor at the same time.

There will be a wood burner in the room.

I’m no expert, but when I looked into this a couple of years ago, I was advised that an engineered floor was less likely to suffer from the temperature changes near a stove.

I went for an engineered bamboo in the end .

*ninja edit

there will always be a risk with any wood flooring in a kitchen…..my dishwasher was leaking very slowly and i didn’t notice until the tension in the floor was enough to overcome the friction in the tongue and groove and bang, came home from work and there is a big bulge in the floor. not great advertising when you often sand floors for other people 😳 been trying to get around lifting the whole floor but it looks like it is too far gone and ill have to rip it up and relay/ replace 😥

that said, my kitchen floor is beech and bar that stupid leak has been great for 7 years and im not that fussy with water spills from washing up etc