Flooring advice

[cjackson129]

Good morning! 

I am looking for recommendations for either laminate, vinyl or engineered wood flooring. Looking for good quality at a reasonable price which won't look rubbish after a couple of years. So many products out there and so many mixed reviews. Any advice would be welcomed. Thanks. 

[Nickfromwales]

1 minute ago, cjackson129 said:

Good morning! 

I am looking for recommendations for either laminate, vinyl or engineered wood flooring. Looking for good quality at a reasonable price which won't look rubbish after a couple of years. So many products out there and so many mixed reviews. Any advice would be welcomed. Thanks. 

For wood, try and avoid laminate as it needs professional repair. Splash out on engineered with a real wood veneered finish. Some can be ’refinished’ ( sanded back and varnished / other ) as many as 5 times, dependant on how thick the veneer is. 

Amtico and Karndean are the industry standard for soft footing, and wear very very well. I recently took out a KD floor which had been born for nearly 30 years. Was still in exceptional condition just bleached by the sun in the normal places. 

Check UV resistance, whatever you choose, if subject to direct sweeping sunlight. 

[Pete]

+1 on Karndean but be careful if you or somebody wears stiletto heels as when that person has had a few drinks and sends all their weight directly through the vinyl it can leave perfect shaped indents in the floor. You can change the damaged pieces but it is a pain and will always look different as it does fade quite badly as @Nickfromwales mentioned.

[scottishjohn]

thats why so many people ban shoes in the house --

cuts down on damage dramatically

you want no damage,then cermaic  tile it--good choice if under floor heating

[nod]

48 minutes ago, scottishjohn said:

thats why so many people ban shoes in the house --

cuts down on damage dramatically

you want no damage,then cermaic  tile it--good choice if under floor heating

Very good point 

I’ve put a 150 mtrs of porcelain slats on our ground floor with UFH

 Bomb proof 

We had a oak floor at our last house and didn’t take into account how careful we needed to be with furniture and shoes ? 

[scottishjohn]

18 minutes ago, nod said:

Very good point 

I’ve put a 150 mtrs of porcelain slats on our ground floor with UFH

 Bomb proof 

We had a oak floor at our last house and didn’t take into account how careful we needed to be with furniture and shoes ? 

I,m very much a scuffy out door type --so that is what is planned for my build .

To be fair I have mixture of hard floors in present house of quickstep and tiles --been down over ten years and the quickstep still looks good and its in kitchen and hall ,so high wear zones 

the wife after living with them for years now and seeing just how much crap must have been sitting in carpet is a full convert and would never go back to soft floors

 

did you butt those porcelain planks up tight  and if not how wide a gap+ what sort of sealer on grout

Edited January 12, 2019 by scottishjohn

[ProDave]

What you are missing is you need different floors for different parts of the house.

 

We have oak in the living rooms, but strictly no outdoor footwear.  The entrance hall and utility will be tiled, probably in slate, that we had in the last house and that was bomb proof even with wellies etc.  Just make sure you change to your slippers before crossing over to the nice floor.

 

And remember the felt pads on ALL your furniture.

[cjackson129]

I guess I was hoping for the same flooring throughout the ground floor as the layout is open plan. 

 

We don't wear shoes indoors anyhow. 

 

Thanks for the advice thus far everyone. 

[newhome]

I had Karndean all over the ground floor in my previous house. We used the one with the thickest wear layer at the time, Da Vinci, as it had a 0.7mm wear layer vs 0.3 for the cheapest range. It still looked great after 10 years when we moved. 

 

For this house we used a mix of tiles and engineered oak as although Karndean can apparently be used with UFH we didn’t want to take the risk. We also chose the engineered oak with the thickest wear layer @ 6mm. I would never have laminate personally. For one thing with dogs it would be far too noisy. 

[newhome]

8 minutes ago, cjackson129 said:

 

I guess I was hoping for the same flooring throughout the ground floor as the layout is open plan. 

 

 

We had Karndean throughout the ground floor. It was laid in planks and looked like wood unless you looked closely. Was a great choice for ‘all the way through’. 

 

I have tiles in the utility, kitchen / family room and hall (plus bathrooms), for durability and ease of cleaning (dogs being the main reason), and the engineered oak everywhere else including upstairs. The engineered oak would probably work everywhere TBH if you were careful. 

[nod]

2 hours ago, scottishjohn said:

I,m very much a scuffy out door type --so that is what is planned for my build .

To be fair I have mixture of hard floors in present house of quickstep and tiles --been down over ten years and the quickstep still looks good and its in kitchen and hall ,so high wear zones 

the wife after living with them for years now and seeing just how much crap must have been sitting in carpet is a full convert and would never go back to soft floors

 

did you butt those porcelain planks up tight  and if not how wide a gap+ what sort of sealer on grout

No you shouldn’t but any tiles up tight 

I normally do five mil

But my wife wanted them with three mill spacers 

[scottishjohn]

38 minutes ago, nod said:

No you shouldn’t but any tiles up tight 

I normally do five mil

But my wife wanted them with three mill spacers 

yes I know ,thats why i asked 

cos any advert you see they always show NO gap to make them look better.

did you seal the grout

[newhome]

10 minutes ago, scottishjohn said:

did you seal the grout

 

The tiler I had here for the extension that it wasn't necessary to seal the grout. I showed him a can of the stuff I had used elsewhere and he said it wasn't needed. I did it anyway after he left as wasn't comfortable about leaving it but I still don't know whether it's needed or not ... 

 

 

 

[scottishjohn]

17 minutes ago, newhome said:

 

The tiler I had here for the extension that it wasn't necessary to seal the grout. I showed him a can of the stuff I had used elsewhere and he said it wasn't needed. I did it anyway after he left as wasn't comfortable about leaving it but I still don't know whether it's needed or not ... 

 

 

 

Iwas told the same +didnt, --but 4 years on it is getting discoloured in places ,especially in toilet --so will not be listening to "professionals " again

[newhome]

1 minute ago, scottishjohn said:

Iwas told the same +didnt, --but 4 years on it is getting discoloured in places ,especially in toilet --so will not be listening to "professionals " again

 

My grout is 'jasmine' and still gets dirty, sealed or not. I use a grout spray to clean it off and on these days. The grout colour was probably a poor choice with dogs TBH. 

 

[scottishjohn]

Just now, newhome said:

 

My grout is 'jasmine' and still gets dirty, sealed or not. I use a grout spray to clean it off and on these days. The grout colour was probably a poor choice with dogs TBH. 

 

maybe needs more coats

to seal all the porous surface  of the grout

stuff i was going to use said 2 to 3 coats

 

maybe choose a black grout?

[newhome]

2 minutes ago, scottishjohn said:

stuff i was going to use said 2 to 3 coats

 

 

I did use 2 coats but it still stains over time. A darker grout colour would have been better probably. Light cream doesn't cut it in a kitchen / utility etc when that floor is constantly being washed.  

[scottishjohn]

Just now, newhome said:

 

I did use 2 coats but it still stains over time. A darker grout colour would have been better probably. Light cream doesn't cut it in a kitchen / utility etc when that floor is constantly being washed.  

when I get to that stage will look to see if they do a 2 pack sealer --that will not fade

could it be the cleaner is eating it away?

 

[AliG]

We have tiles in the hall, kitchen and bathrooms and engineered walnut everywhere else. The whole ground floor of our last house was Amtico and our previous house was solid oak.

 

I really liked the Amtico, after almost 15 years it still looked excellent. The wood stuff looks pretty realistic, although my wife wanted real wood this time. We had it over UFH and it worked really well. We had oak in our previous house. Amtico is much more resilient than wooden flooring where the surface is easier to scratch. Amtico tends to get fine scratches in the surface wear layer, but this is clear and so it is much less visible that a scratch in wooden flooring. Amtico is also much warmer to the touch than tiles and very easy to clean with no grout and being water proof.

 

Wooden flooring does require a degree of being careful and nor dragging stuff across it. This is usually not a problem, but you can still accidentally damage it, a particular issue I found is that I was used to pulling out the plug on the vacuum and dropping it on the floor to roll back in if you forget on a wooden floor, this will dent the floor.

 

Wooden flooring of course can eventually be refinished, but this is a lot of work.

 

Tiles are definitely the easiest to look after floor surface. I also find that the UFH works a lot more efficiently in the rooms with tiles in our current house.

 

Whatever you plan, it is good to decide ahead of time as it affects how you build the floors. If the floor is not absolutely rock solid, tiles will crack or lift and Amtico will show and variations in the floor below it.

 

Downstairs if you have screed or concrete you may still have to apply some levelling screed before putting floors down. On a wooden sub floor you probably need ply if you are tiling it or putting down Amtico. Ideally try and allow for variations in floor depth and try to get all your finished flush with each other. Make sure you allow for finishes below doors and windows, I was in a house where they didn't plan correctly and all the patio doors were a couple of inches off the floor which looked really bad.

 

 

 

 

[nod]

2 hours ago, scottishjohn said:

yes I know ,thats why i asked 

cos any advert you see they always show NO gap to make them look better.

did you seal the grout

No I always use water resistant flexible grout 

 

on most of tge the commercial jobs I do We tend to do the 5 mil joints as it’s easier to nip the grout out with a grinder when replacing damaged tile 

There always a few while the jobs still going on 

Mape is the best for holding colour 

[newhome]

Mine is Mapei but still discolours unfortunately 

[Pete]

Karndean does show the contours of the floor in certain light. In our previous house it was a floating floor of chipboard on Kingspan insulation. Over the years as the chipboard cupped as it does you could see the ripple in the floor even though the Kingspan was sat on a b&b floor.

[newhome]

4 minutes ago, Pete said:

Karndean does show the contours of the floor in certain light.

 

Yes, we had a screed put down before the Karndean was laid so it was pretty level but there was still an area near the French doors that showed up a small ripple in the floor when it was sunny. Someone I worked with had Karndean laid (by the company I used) and it was clearly done badly as they could see the patterns of how the glue had been spread all the way through their lounge. The company agreed that it was substandard and ripped it up and relaid the floor.