Can anyone recommend a decent laminate / engineered wood floor for the ground floor of my house?

[Jojay]

My living room carpet is looknig really grotty and with twins on the way to add to my existing brood of two boys, i'm starting to think that a hard floor with a rug may be the way forward.

We have a cheapo Ikea laminate in the hall and kitchen but I don't want it in my living room. It's looking tired now and we're thinking of replacing the whole lot. This is my wish list:

Oak type colour
Sufficiently un-laminate looking to work in my living room
Preferably less than 1 cm thick, so easy for Dh to fit - this rules out most solid wood floors.
Hard wearing enough for a family of 6
Not too pricey!

TIA

[newnamenickname]

I'd like to have some recommendations too!

I've been looking on these two websites:

www.ukflooringdirect.co.uk/?osCsid=ff21d953e73bdcf15d52ec5c55112163

www.flooringsupplies.co.uk/

You can send off for free samples which I've been testing out at home.

I think I've narrowed it down to one engineered wood which I really like (been doing little tests like leaving different liquids on the surface for a while to see if it stains and trying to scratch them with various implements...any other suggestions for tests???), but I'm baulking at how much it will cost to buy and fit for the ground floor.

[newnamenickname]

Oh and beware - make sure you take into account the VAT when you look at the prices on those sites!! I got fooled thinking it was very cheap and didn't realise there was another 20% on top!

[Honneybunny]

we bought our kahrs engineerded oak from flooringsupplies now 6-7 years ago. they were quick and very professional.

the floor still looks beautiful, despite 2x ds (now 5 and 7). the most wonderful thing about it is that you can also sand it, if needed. we got some samples before we bought. was great to see, although i guess it is always a bit tricky to imagine the little samples across the whole of the floor. can't remember how much it cost us, but since it is 6 years back i doubt it would still be relevant...

[LadyLapsang]

We have an kahrs oak floor which DH fitted himself, having fitted a laminate (Ikea I think) previously in another part of the house. It really looks good many years on and I can't say it gets well looked after. I think it cost us about 1.5 - 2K at the time but the room is 26 ft long and it won't need replacing, so a really good purchase.