Engineered, laminate or real wood flooring?

[Tansie]

Can you please tell me about your experiences with the different types of flooring?

We are looking to replace all the wood effect laminate on the ground floor of the house (18 year old concrete floored estate house)- it's a large area so we can't go mad with price!

What are the pitfalls? One thing I don't want is that clacky-ness you get on some laminate flooring.

Your thoughts, please!

[PigletJohn]

if you use real or "engineered" wood, then all your skirtings, architraves and doors will have to come off to make room for the extra thickness.

If you try to put mouldings round the skirting to hide the edge you will not be satisfied.

For a modern house it is very easy to get new skirting, and less trouble than trying to re-fit the old.

[Tansie]

Aha, that's the sort of thing I need to know! Thanks.

[mandy214]

We have solid bamboo flooring and love it. Quite cost effective too if you're covering a large area. Would recommend simplybamboo.co.uk.

[ch1a]

Love my engineered wood flooring. If you get it make sure top layer is thick and lots of underneath layers so it can cope well with wear and tear and any moisture. Mine is a kitchen diner and hall so needed to be engineered floor to deal with moisture in kitchen otherwise I would have gone for hardwood if it was for a living room.

I'd recommend UKflooringdirect for good choice and prices and customer service.