Come and talk to me about flooring please.

[SwimInTea]

We are having the entire house re-done, which includes decorating upstairs and putting a new extension downstairs. We bought the property recently and every room (including the bathroom!) had carpet in a horrid pattern... All of which has been ripped out now.

Now comes the hard part of deciding what flooring I should choose for each area. I have already decided to go with vinyl for the bathroom and cloakroom.

What about bedrooms? Not keen on carpets as DS and I have allergies...
Is wood flooring my only option? Isn't that very cold and also noisy?

Also what about downstairs? Has anyone had vinyl for entire downstairs? The downstairs areas are hallway, lounge and kitchen dinner family room. Are there any cheaper alternatives to Karndean and Amtico?

TIA :)

[Sounbelievablydull]

I have wood in the bedroom it's really nice I think.
Also wood in the living areas and ceramic tiles in the kitchen which is very big.
Over the years and lots of house moves have had every type of flooring going and this combo has been by far the best.
We have had vinyl of different grades, always felt not quite right.
We have had slate, disaster in the kitchen diner- I would not be told!!!
We have had carpet- teenage girls and fake tan finished that off.
We have had polished floorboards , looked nice but v dusty and draughtly.
We have had laminate it always seemed co bleak I thought.
We had a brief flirtation with seagrass in the late nineties yuck!!!
Whatever you have looks nice at first but in the long term wood and ceramic tiles or porcelain I think cannot be beaten.
Good luck with your decision

[TremoloGreen]

What are the subfloors made of, as cost/practicality would guide me if choosing for myself. Also your budget.

I don't personally like wood-effect vinyl, I would go for laminate over that if engineered or solid oak not an option. Many of these things depend on your lifestyle and how hard you are on your floors (young kids pets etc). Also what you expect from your floors e.g. real wood will scratch I personally don;t see the problem with that as it's part of the character of a wooden floor. But some people feel if they spend £££, they don;t want it to scratch.

[didireallysaythat]

Have you thought about cork ? We have it in our bathroom (which probably isn't the best place for it) but it's nice and warm under foot, and easy to clean. Lots of colours online.

[SwimInTea]

Sound thanks for those details :)

Trem Not sure what the subfloors are made of... They look like floorboards I should now this shouldn't I!! Will ask my builder to confirm.

We don't have pets. 1 Toddler and probably another in the near future :)
As for budget, since we are having everything done at once, we don't have a huge budget.

Any thoughts on bamboo floors in the bedroom ??

[TremoloGreen]

OK. If you have floorboards you could just sand them. Works out much cheaper than laying a floor. On the ground floor it can be draughty, but there are products out there for filling the gaps and some people find them effective. Check you have floorboards everywhere you want wood - example - my dining room is half floorboards/ half quarry tiles becuase it used to be a kitchen and back room knocked together.

Here are some very rough costs assuming you have old floorboards that need plying and screeding for some floor types:
Floorboard sanding with gap filling and UV oiling £25-35/m2
Engineered oak including prep and laying £50-85/m2
Good quality laminate £30-50/m2
Luxury vinyl tiles £50-75/m2

[JasperDamerel]

Cork is nice in bedrooms. It's like a compromise between wood and carpet: warmer, softer and quieter than wood, but easier to clean than carpet.