Real Wood or Laminate?

[Triassic]

We’re looking at flooring for the bedroom and can’t decide between real wood or laminate.
 

We’ve got real wood floors in our current house and they show every mark. Would we be better with laminate or are there any of the modern real wood (engineered timber) floors worth considering?

[markc]

Real or engineered, the top surface is still a natural product and will dent and scratch.

Even manufactured laminate (MDF with a printed surface) will still get damaged but cant be sanded etc.

[joe90]

After fitting all these types (and seeing some problems thereafter ) I would go engineered, more stable than real and more solid than laminate and can be sanded to restore if needed. I HATE hollow sounding flooring and found so many laminates that float sound hollow. With our new build we also have a shoes off policy (like so many other countries do) and it makes a difference

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by joe90

[joe90]

Forgot to say glued down engineered flooring is best IMO.

[Temp]

+1. There is a world of difference between..

 

Solid wood - not always stable, can be an issue with UFH.

Laminate -  A photo of wood stuck to something that might once have been near a tree. 

Engineered wood - typically 4-6mm of solid wood glued to 7-16mm of plywood. 

 

The latter is indistinguishable from solid wood once down. Its far more stable than solid wood so you can have wider boards with UFH with less risk of warping/cupping. You can even sand it as many times as solid wood because both fail once down to the groove (assuming T&G boards are used).

 

Shop around as the quality of Engineered wood varies. You can buy it ready finished or use Osmo Hardwax oil. The good stuff can cost more than solid wood.

 

Try asking this place for sample of ready finished.. http://www.woodsofwales.co.uk/ I have no connection other than as a customer some 13 years ago.

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by Temp

[scottishjohn]

or porcelain tile planks that look like wood ?

 

example

https://www.porcelainsuperstore.co.uk/oslo-grey.html?qty=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImquRn8a-6wIVj-3tCh0EEQQREAQYAiABEgLAtfD_BwE#fo_c=1485&fo_k=ac2754396c980e4ec9329a2d90e6a1dd&fo_s=gplauk&fo_oid=4744

[Thorfun]

4 hours ago, scottishjohn said:

or porcelain tile planks that look like wood ?

 

example

https://www.porcelainsuperstore.co.uk/oslo-grey.html?qty=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImquRn8a-6wIVj-3tCh0EEQQREAQYAiABEgLAtfD_BwE#fo_c=1485&fo_k=ac2754396c980e4ec9329a2d90e6a1dd&fo_s=gplauk&fo_oid=4744

We were just looking at this very thing this evening. 
 

do you have first hand experience with them? Is it obviously a repeating printed pattern?

[scottishjohn]

NO I do not have any first hand experience of them 

yet 

 there are people on here who have used them 

but that type of flooring will be my choice when I get there 

best for UFH ,easiest to clean ,hard wearing --

[Conor]

Any body have engineered timber in a kitchen? How does it cope with spills, dropped pans, knives etc. After having solid oak in a previous kitchen, I swore I'd always have tiles as it was basically destroyed.

[joe90]

36 minutes ago, Conor said:

Any body have engineered timber in a kitchen? How does it cope with spills, dropped pans, knives etc. After having solid oak in a previous kitchen, I swore I'd always have tiles as it was basically destroyed.

No, despite my previous comment about engineered timber above my kitchen is porcelain tiled and I would not have it any other way, my oak (engineered) flooring is in my lounge.

[ProDave]

We considered "wooden tiles" for our kitchen.  It was the tiler that put me off. He was telling me most of them come bent, they are very hard to lay without a step between tiles because of that, so best way to lay them is with only a slight bond.

 

They are all uniform length so the joints will all all line up, unlike real wood supplied in random lengths with random joints.

 

The tiler did a good job of putting us off them.

[Thorfun]

1 hour ago, scottishjohn said:

NO I do not have any first hand experience of them 

yet 

 there are people on here who have used them 

but that type of flooring will be my choice when I get there 

best for UFH ,easiest to clean ,hard wearing --

thanks. I'll do a search on here for other's experiences of them.

[Thorfun]

20 minutes ago, ProDave said:

We considered "wooden tiles" for our kitchen.  It was the tiler that put me off. He was telling me most of them come bent, they are very hard to lay without a step between tiles because of that, so best way to lay them is with only a slight bond.

 

They are all uniform length so the joints will all all line up, unlike real wood supplied in random lengths with random joints.

 

The tiler did a good job of putting us off them.

thanks @ProDave. interesting information.

[recoveringbuilder]

24 minutes ago, ProDave said:

We considered "wooden tiles" for our kitchen.  It was the tiler that put me off. He was telling me most of them come bent, they are very hard to lay without a step between tiles because of that, so best way to lay them is with only a slight bond.

 

They are all uniform length so the joints will all all line up, unlike real wood supplied in random lengths with random joints.

 

The tiler did a good job of putting us off them.

Depends on your tiler, we have them in the kitchen and the tiler made a really good job of staggering them, most visitors think they are wood 

[Conor]

3 hours ago, joe90 said:

No, despite my previous comment about engineered timber above my kitchen is porcelain tiled and I would not have it any other way, my oak (engineered) flooring is in my lounge.

That's that I thought. As most of our ground floor is basically open plan, we were hoping for herringbone engineered timber throughout. Might just tile the kitchen area behind the island so rest of the floor is continuous.

[joe90]

4 minutes ago, Conor said:

we were hoping for herringbone engineered timber

I was offered loads of reclaimed herringbone flooring from a local village hall which I fancied but it was about 2” thick which was no good for UFH, I did contemplate cutting them all in half and sanding it all but it was just too much work with the rest of the build so I bought antique looking oak flooring Which still looks good. I find new herringbone flooring on offer a bit “modern” (longer boards than traditional old flooring).

[Thorfun]

7 hours ago, Christine Walker said:

Depends on your tiler, we have them in the kitchen and the tiler made a really good job of staggering them, most visitors think they are wood 

thanks for this comment @Christine Walker. it's nice to get a positive opinion on them. don't suppose you'd be able to post of photo of them would you please?

[scottishjohn]

8 hours ago, ProDave said:

He was telling me most of them come bent,

then you know what to look for when you go shopping --take a straight edge with you to check 

 my guess is it will depend on how much you pay for them and are they porcelain or just ceramic tiles

[ProDave]

6 minutes ago, scottishjohn said:

then you know what to look for when you go shopping --take a straight edge with you to check 

 my guess is it will depend on how much you pay for them and are they porcelain or just ceramic tiles

So the one in the showroom is flat. What happens when the ones you order arrive bent?

[recoveringbuilder]

1 hour ago, Thorfun said:

thanks for this comment @Christine Walker. it's nice to get a positive opinion on them. don't suppose you'd be able to post of photo of them would you please?

No problems with them, all flat and appear to be hard wearing as they have 4 dogs regularly tramping over them!

[ProDave]

That kind of proves what my tiler said.  Yours are laid with a short bond so any bend in the tiles would not show up as they would all pretty much bend the same, and they are all uniform length.

[Thorfun]

1 hour ago, Christine Walker said:

No problems with them, all flat and appear to be hard wearing as they have 4 dogs regularly tramping over them!

thank you for the photo. they look really good. nice to see that it's not a uniform print on each tile.

[Temp]

17 hours ago, Conor said:

Any body have engineered timber in a kitchen? How does it cope with spills, dropped pans, knives etc. After having solid oak in a previous kitchen, I swore I'd always have tiles as it was basically destroyed.

 

It won't behave any different. After all the top layer is the same.

[scottishjohn]

14 hours ago, ProDave said:

So the one in the showroom is flat. What happens when the ones you order arrive bent?

you tell them to swop them for flat ones same as you looked at 

sale of goods act --merchantable quality 

[PeterE]

Hi

I think you may find the larger tiles have warnings not to exceed a 30% overlap to prevent lippage.

See pg 11 of https://www.porcelain-tiles.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/pdf/guide/Porcelain-Tiles-Installation-Guide.pdf.

Out of interest, has anybody tried ordering tiles from the internet website Tile Expert? I am considering using them, but wondering what their customer service was like.

Thanks