Natural wooden floors vs engineered wood?

[Ilikecakes]

We have beautiful wooden floors in our hall and living room at the moment - just long straight planks rather than parquet if that makes sense. We are extending the house and, as well as extending out the floor itself into the new section, we'd like to sand up and lighten the colour of the floor to a light grey.

We've had quotes to sand and stain the existing floor and to extend with new planks but, as well as being really expensive, no company has been able to guarantee what the final colour will look like, or whether the match between new and old flooring will be a good one.

Engineered wood flooring seems to be coming up much cheaper, and we'd be able to just point at the colour we like and guarantee we'll have it in our home. But would we be mad to ignore the beautiful original fecking squeaky boards already there? Anyone have any experience of one vs the other?

Thanks in advance!

[Qwebec]

your natural flooring will last longuer than engeneered that can withstand only a few sandings.
What I saw a few designers do is lay the gray engenered flooring over the original floors. Like this when the engeneered is finished/the gray floors go out of fashion/what ever reason you can simply remove the planks and restore the original flooring.

[livingthegoodlife]

i have just ordered real solid oak parquet flooring. the cost was actually the same as engineered wood in the end.

i was put off engineered by the fact it often comes pre-laquered, i did source some 'bare' engineered wood that could be stained and sanded and finished in a traditional way but the longevity of real wood appealed to me.

i was told by several suppliers that engineered is quicker to fit so thats why its cheaper, it is also more forgiving of things like underfloor heating.

i just preferred the feel of real wood.

i think laying engineered on top seems like a good idea? you can always go back to planks later and extend the floor or whatever.

good luck. it is not an easy decision to make!

[silversixpence]

We have chosen engineered wood in a similar situation. Good quality boards will not need refinishing in 15-20 years apparently and we found plenty of places selling unfinished engineered wood to stain or oil yourself after fitting. You can also buy aged/antiqued or brushed engineered flooring which is what we are looking at. The only problem is that I also want a very specific grey washed oak finish and can't seem to find it in our budget!

Sanding the floorboards risks not getting the finish you want as you can't have a brushed/aged look on a newly sanded floor.

[Ilikecakes]

Thought I'd replied earlier, don't know what happened to it! Thanks all, lots to think about there. Definitely veering towards the engineered wood but like the idea of fitting it over the original. silversixpence-do you have any links to the sort of grey flooring you're looking at by any chance? #nosey

[silversixpence]

There are some on Natural Wood Floor which look good but my favourite was this. Unfortunately it will take at least 6 weeks and we don't really want to be without a floor for that long! Most of the others have quite a fake looking grey colour on top which I'm not keen on.

[silversixpence]

Coastal Grey

Silver White

If you find anything else (especially if its cheaper!) would love to see links too.

[silversixpence]

We've just ordered our flooring from Floorsave, really beautiful grey washed oak. After probably 50+ samples this is the only one which looks exactly right!