Wood flooring help please, solid or engineered

I’ll be laying a new wood floor in our largeish kitchen diner. I’d previously been advised that in a kitchen, engineered board was best due to the chance of flooding but i can’t find anything decent for much less that £40 a sq meter.

Today I’ve seen some very nice solid oak for £26 a sq meter but will it be ok. As mentioned the area is quite big, there’s no issue from condensation and the washer is in the garage but there will still be a flooding risk from the dishwasher and sink?

thanks

I’m not sure the engineered stuff will be more flood proof.

We got bamboo and are well chuffed with it.

http://www.simplybamboo.co.uk/products.php

Actually there was some lovely bamboo there for £18 a meter but the chap said it was softer than oak and would mark/dent easier, what do you reckon?

its a kitchen, you need stone or rubber

Actually there was some lovely bamboo there for £18 a meter but the chap said it was softer than oak and would mark/dent easier, what do you reckon?

I reckon he was talking bollocks. It has a high silica content, which makes it pretty tough. Ours has been down in a high traffic open plan living / kitchen area for a year now and looks as good when it was put down. There are some light scratches, where kids have dragged things, but you will get that with any wood.

Ours is the engineered stuff which is more stable than solid, which is useful because we have a wood burning stove in the same room, so potential for high temps and it drying out. Its been great, I couldn’t recommend it more.

Solid Oak? £26 a sq metre? Was it by any chance “Rustic” or “Character” grade?

Hmm..what would a flood do to your engineered wood then? If you get engineered make you it’s from a quality brand name like Tarket or Junkers because some of the cheaper stuff is a nightmare to clip together.
I would go for 18mm oak in boards not wider than 120mm and nail it down (nailer available from hire centres). I really don’t believe it’s any less dimensionly stable than engineered, I’ve centainly seen the latter expand about 12mm over a run of 7metres.
Kirkby & Aitken sell good stuff under various brand names like Caledonian.

thanks geoffj i’ll look into the bamboo a bit more

Mr Nutt, stone would be ok for the kitchen but i think having it right through the dining room too would be a bit much and i can’t see rubber working either.

reuben, no it looked pretty good to me

http://www.wickes.co.uk/Solid-Wood-Flooring/invt/157983

Karndean all the way. Far less maintanence than ral wood and suitable for areas where wood is not, kitchen bathroom etc. Nice and warm too but expensive.

we’ve got that in one of the bathrooms but i can’t see it in the kitchen

Nice and warm too but expensive.

And not wood.

swiss, what’s the sub-floor?

I lay quite a bit of flooring, and recommend engineered oak, over solid. i reckon solid has about had its day for most applications. If your floor is nice and level, just glue the t&g with wood glue and push together. Ive layed some bamboo too, and it is moisture resistant, but will discolour if flooded, and swell and part. Tiles are the best thing for a kitchen by far though. Happy fitting.

the kitchen floor will be a new concrete floor and the dining room is floor board

Got bamboo work tops in my kitchen! Mint, not a sign of blackening etc round the sink! Could do with a resand and treat now tho but very happy!

the kitchen floor will be a new concrete floor and the dining room is floor board

Are you planning to float it?

As with all solid flooring. just look at the test panels on display and try and scratch them with your thumb nail. You will be supprised at the so called hard wood ones that mark easily.
Also bare in mind that they have to withstand kids and dogs.

I have a solid oak floor I got here http://www.ukflooringdirect.co.uk/ Its in my hall and lounge and the hall is wearing very well it gets wet quite regularly from feet etc and isn’t phased. I went for oiled oak. It can scratch but a crayon sorts it and it has dented from kids dropping stuff etc but it still looks good. Engineered is best for underfloor heating as it is more stable but solid is fine for a kitchen as long as its laid properly and sealed correctly. The top layer of engineered is still real wood after all.

Mines laid on a plywood base that was screwed to the planks over some kind of fabric layer and then the boards were glued to that.

Skirting came off and floor laid under it to allow lots of expansion room and it looks much better than a bead.

I’d go for oiled as its easy to clean easy to re oil and less prone to damage unlike laquer.

I have solid oak in the kitchen and the bathroom. Its been there for about 8 years and there has been no problems and it still looks ok.

you should’nt lay a wood floor on new concrete for at least 4 to 6 weeks

thanks joolsburger, great tip, they’re cheaper than i’ve found for engineered

Shadow, really, i wish you hadn’t told me that

The guy who laid the floor said it was good quality stuff and they’ve been around for a while my floors five years old now.

The glue is surprisingly expensive mine was about 80 quid a tub.

thanks, the stuff i’m looking at is click installation so i’ll be ok for glue

I have Solid oak 120mm wide boards glued to Concrete screed with an electric underfloor heating system under the screed. been down 3 years, has never moved and looks great (to me anyway) didn’t want tiles as have them in a lot of other rooms and hate Karndean with a passion, looks shite too me.

If it’s a new screed you need to allow 1 day per mm thickness to dryout properly. I’d always glue to sceed and nail to floorboards. hate floating floors as they sound like laminate even with good underlay.

shadow is right we had to wait longer than that before the carpet fitter would lay a sisal carpet as the moisture level was too high.

worth the wait I’m sure now got wood everywhere and love it if not a tad noisier than carpet

Longer than what? 1mm per day is the guide, screed on average is 50mm thick so 50 days, which is just over 7 weeks by my reckoning?

Yep, or a month an inch.

If you use something like Sika Primer mB, you can lay as soon as the moisture level goes below 10% (Tramex reading).

Do not float a solid oak floor. It’s ok to float an engineered but expect a bit of spring. You’re best off fixing to the subfloor if you can.

curve ball . . . . cork flooring?

Worth bearing in mind – unfinished wood then treat with OS hardwax oil so you can easily spot repair as subsequent spot coats blend in and don’t permanently darken.

It’s what we did anyway.

But tell stupid friends with buggered high heels to take the fracking things off first 👿

Kahrs? We have Kahrs throughout the kitchen / diner and hall. We like and managed to get a good deal in t’interweb box.

We,ve got Karndean in the kitchen. Excellent. We have the da Vinci – lowest price grade. Next time I would get the next one up, no real reason, just would.

Your dishwasher WILL flood. It’s what they do.

m_f, you wanna keep some of these in the drawer for visitors 🙂

Stillettos give it a bit of Patina. The floor a The Royal Festival Hall was beautiful for this reason. 50 years of wear, but waxed every morning; lovely!

Ask trout he’ll give yeah good advice, if it was I’d go for amtico, hard wearing and easy to keep clean. HTH