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I've had a very disappointing experience with Karndean. We chose beautiful tiles from the Opus range (supposedly the commercial range) as we wanted a hard wearing floor. We spent over £1000, it was installed 8 months ago. It started scratching almost as soon as it was laid. It's taken until today for the Karndean rep to come and see the scratches which are so bad now that I expect we will have to replace the floor within the next 12-18 months. Today was extraordinary, he suggested velvet tabs for the bottom of our chairs, that we are using the wrong type of mop and that we should only be using their speciality floor cleaner. This is supposed to be commercial flooring - it's not. It can't handle a family of 4 in their slippers. I was expecting to be told that this was a bad batch of tiles or that they had not been sealed, I had not expected to be told that it's less robust that the cheap laminate that was in our previous kitchen for 6 years with barely a scratch.

Karndeen - I am happy to discuss this with you, your rep came today Elaine & Alan, M16

I'm not sure what it is tbh but I don't think it's the Knight range. It was already in the house when we bought it.

reastie - Just as a slight reassurance... I have had karndean in our main bathroom for about nine years, and it still looks brand new. It's only in the kitchen there's a problem, and the guy from the carpet shop said he'd never seen anything like it in many years of fitting karndean, and that he felt once the rep saw it he would replace it FOC. We will see...

Is yours the knight tile range though xben (the cheapest range)?

We've had Kardean for 8 years now in our hallway, so high traffic and has no problems at all. Looks as good as new when it gets polished hope they sort it for you.

This is a really interesting thread as we are having kardean fitted in a couple of months and now a bit

theflooringcontractor is knight tile really only for low traffic areas? We are looking to have it in our dining room and kitchen - they aren't exactly low traffic areas

My kitchen tiles have shrunk next to my windows - maybe due to the sun? Gutted. Also getting a rep out soon as I want it throughout my halls too - but only if I know it won't shrink!

Knight tile for low traffic areas.
Da Vinci and Van Gogh are great for high traffic.

Installing Karndean when it is warm causes it to be expanded or at its larger size. (things expand when are heated) ,then when it gets colder it shrinks or contracts ,leaving gaps. Never install Karndean in the direct hot sun. I have installed it in sun rooms, but only it is cool. I personally don't think acclimation is good for Karndean unless it is hotter that the sub floor. It works Great over radiant heat. Make sure that the heat is very low or even off when installing. And a final word on there adhesive K-91 is great.

I don't know about Karndean, but various other floorings you are advised to loose-lay flat in the room for a few days to settle and acclimatise. Does that apply?

In May we had Karndean Summer Oak fitted which is wood effect plank tiles.

Since being fitted (it was perfect when first laid) we have noticed how it has shrunk slightly leaving gaps.

The floor layer has gone out of his way to help and try to make it right but in fairness to him we truly believe it is the product and upon searching the Internet there seem to be others who have had similar experiences.

Karndean are due to visit and according to others they go out of their way to point the finger elsewhere.

I would really appreciate any help anyone else can give - I did find an old thread on here with a member saying they actually had a group up and running for people with Karndean issues but this was back in 2009.

Thanks in advance x