engineered wood or hardwood for the kitchen?

[Raks]

In an open plan kitchen, I would like to put wood flooring (its a an elevated timber joist floor structure).

I do not want to put half tile, half wood as I find tile in a living area a bit cold but  as you know in the kitchen environment; water, oil splashes and food, knife, plate drops are inevitable. 

In my case, is hardwood or engineered wood flooring  better option for the kitchen ?

[Thedreamer]

We considered engineered or solid wood for our kitchen, but in the end selected neither.

 

Decided to go with luxury vinyl plank with oak effect, slightly more expensive than engineered oak, but should be more durable for an kitchen environment.

[ragg987]

We have engineered oiled flooring in our kitchen, continuity from open plan lounge and diner. Looks nice, bur after 3 years it looks a bit grubby as bits of food have been trodden in.

 

If I were to do it again I would use Amtico, as we had in our previous kitchen. Pretty much indestructible in domestic use, cleans well and is not hard, cold or echoey. I used Amtico in our current bathrooms, with a transition from wooden flooring using Schluter straight-edge strips. Subtle and interesting transition.

https://www.northantstools.co.uk/product/schluter-schiene-av-straight-edge-milled-aluminium-2-5m-length

[Raks]

1 hour ago, ragg987 said:

We have engineered oiled flooring in our kitchen, continuity from open plan lounge and diner. Looks nice, bur after 3 years it looks a bit grubby as bits of food have been trodden in.

 

If I were to do it again I would use Amtico, as we had in our previous kitchen. Pretty much indestructible in domestic use, cleans well and is not hard, cold or echoey. I used Amtico in our current bathrooms, with a transition from wooden flooring using Schluter straight-edge strips. Subtle and interesting transition.

https://www.northantstools.co.uk/product/schluter-schiene-av-straight-edge-milled-aluminium-2-5m-length

 

Is it Amtico's domestic LVT?  Do they have different quality or types for bathroom or kitchen?

[ragg987]

Yes domestic vinyl tile range, we used Spacia. I don't think they have specific bathroom or kitchen tiles.

[Gone West]

11 hours ago, ragg987 said:

Yes domestic vinyl tile range, we used Spacia. I don't think they have specific bathroom or kitchen tiles.

+1 for Amtico Spacia which we used in our upstairs bathrooms.

[SiBee]

We have Amtico spacia (slate) in a newly refurbished bathroom thinking it to be a good alternative to tiles. I can see surface scratches in it already and we don’t use this bathroom. Really disappointed.

Put solid oak flooring in the living room and diner over ten years ago. Looks nice but I have signs of water damage and board movement where a plot pot was leaking. Heel marks and scuffs from stuff under shoes can be seen and bleaching from the sun where rugs are down looks horrible. In reality, I am not going to sand the flooring.

So for us and our experiences we will be trying engineered and laminate flooring.

Our estate agent said most buyers wouldn’t even notice the flooring as real oak. For what we paid in oak could have paid for a few new laminate floors. Some of samples of modern laminate we have are really good.

[AliG]

If you want a warm and soft feeling floor I would recommend Amtico or similar also. It does get small surface scratches in it, but even with my usual OCDness these weren't too annoying to me. Not sure how it got scratched in a bathroom as generally you need to drag something hard across it to scratch it like grit in a suitcase wheel.

 

The other alternative is wood effect tiles. We have some Porcelanosa wooden tiles. They have a nice surface grain and really look like wood, they come in plank like strips. No issues with scratching, dirt etc, but obv harder and less warm than wood.

[Dreadnaught]

When it comes to Amtico, would it be fair to say that other LVT brands, such as Karndean, Polyflor and Cavalio, are just as good and that they are all somewhat commoditised for a given price point (and wear-layer thickness)?

 

Has anyone any comments about "Click Smart" style products? Are they worth considering?

[ragg987]

19 minutes ago, Dreadnaught said:

When it comes to Amtico, would it be fair to say that other LVT brands, such as Karndean, Polyflor and Cavalio, are just as good

Potentially, I have never used the others. I looked at Karndean closely, but disliked the colour and style options, so ended up with amtico.

[ProDave]

Late to the conversation, but we agonised over the same thing.

 

We have Engineered Oak in our kitchen / diner that then runs through the hall to the snug living room.  It is not oiled, but one pre finished in a matt finish.

 

It is bearing up well, been in use for a year,  Easy to sweep regularly and it cleans up well with a mop.  So far no signs of stains or scratching, but we do try and not drop stuff on it or if we do clean up quickly.

 

We chose engineered Oak rather than solid as it has UFH and the engineered type is suitable for UFH in wide (190mm) planks.  No sign at all of shrinkage etc all joints are still nice and tight.

[AleesLLD]

We wanted engineered wood flooring in our kitchen but worked out that it was too expensive so we opted for laminate after comparing it to alternatives. 

 

Wouldn't look back now as it's easier to clean and maintain. 

[Oz07]

Used the click quickstep  lvyn in my latest place. Brilliant. Warm under foot, durable and easy to put down. The glued down lvt seems a more premium product but I can do the click myself. What are you all paying m2 supplied and fitted

[jonM]

We laid an unfinished engineered wood throughout the house and then applied an ultra matt waxoil finish

https://www.peakoak.co.uk/wood-care/wood-finishes/blanchon-hard-waxoil/

Early days, but we are delighted with the results. We have previously used Karndean, but found that it would scratch.