not to understand the obsession with Karndean flooring

[Catsanddogs11]

It is just vinyl tiles isn’t it?

I second the recommendation for Camaro. We put it in 10 years ago and still going strong. Cheaper than Karndean and Amtico.

I used to have it, I didn't like it very much. Tbh I think its just expensive vinyl. And it looked particularly crap when bits started to lift up. I'd never buy it again.

Ohgoodness we had exactly the same dilemma!
Can you have underfloor heating? We have it with our wood effect tiles and it’s a good solution. Without ufh I probably would have gone for real wood but a very rustic style so that the inevitable marks and scratches didn’t look so bad.

@minipie yes we’re having underfloor heating ..
Do you mean wood effect ceramic tiles? I’m worried that they will “feel” cold - not literally as they will be heated, but a cold texture and hard underfoot as ceramic not wood?
Are you happy with yours? All advice gratefully received at this point!!

We’re happy with ours yes and have been very grateful that we didn’t go for wood as I suspect it would have been badly marked on several occasions by the DC and various tradesmen. We went for the longest “planks” I could find - Selection Oak by Rex in Cream, 180x26.5cm - laid randomly with a matching grout colour (Ardex gentle dawn).

They do feel a little harder underfoot than wood but wood isn’t exactly soft itself, and taking the chill off with ufh means there is very little difference in feel. They still don’t look exactly like wood but give a similar warm visual effect. Will post a photo

Photos

Timely thread. We are just about to lay Polyfor click LVT in our new kitchen/diner/living room. My main reason for choosing this is the dog, she struggles to walk on the wood in our our living room and I have been advised that LVT is better for her. It also looks really lovely.

Ogoodness34

Whatever choice you make I think had to be based on seeing and touching the product in the real world. It's really hard to judge from pictures.

I rejected a lot of tiles because of what they felt like even though they looked great.

I am not obsessed with mine. But it is lovely. Much nicer than the laminate I used to have. Warm underfoot, not overly shiny, nice texture, practical with kids and dog, little bit of dirt/fluff doesn’t jump out at you!

YANBU. Karndean and Amtico must have excellent marketing strategies; the products themselves aren't any better than their rivals.

I looked at their wood effect ranges and wasn't impressed (although their stone effect ones looked more convincing) so ended up going with Ter Hurne vinyl planks. They look far more like real wood, were cheaper, didn't need an overpriced accredited fitter to lay and are extremely durable. I love them.

Had 1930s rosewood parquet floors in my childhood home. Have Karndean parquet with a beautiful border in my current home.

Kardean all.The.Way.

It looks stunning. Practically no upkeep. Doesnt look like vinyl at all, really appears to be like wood without all the hassle I remember. The Karndean I have in my lounge is jaw droppingly gorgeous.

Namechange84 photo please!!!!

@minipie where did you buy your tiles from? They're lovely

I quite like the idea of it. I've got engineered oak though and it's also pretty low maintenance although I guess a flooding would damage it.

I'm a bit intrigued by a jaw droppingly beautiful floor - can you post a picture?

We have karndean and it's fab .. no idea what it is but it's 5 years old and looks new so I'm happy .

We've had it before.

Expensive, well marketed shite.

It's cheap looking and doesn't allow for easy lifting without destroying it for e.g. access to pipes. Never looked clean despite mopping.

I would rather have caravan style lino down if I was going for that look - at least it's exactly what it looks (cheap but hygienic & rollable).

Just seen they do it at Fishpools. Thanks op! My wood floor is splitting from various children’s spillages throughout the years. SOme of them look lovely. Others do just look like normal lino to me though.

We have wood effect ceramic/porcelain (not sure which) tiles with underfloor heating. People always think it's real wood but it's so easy to look after.

@OhBladdyHell thank you! They are Selection Oak by Rex (more details in my pp). We saw them at a local shop but shopped around by emailing various tile suppliers and got them for much less. I think we bought them through Material Plans. I agree with a pp that you do need to see wood look tiles in the flesh rather than going by pictures, and a tiny sample isn’t ideal as there is so much variation across each tile. So look in showrooms but then shop around for price once you’ve chosen!

It's just vinyl. I wouldn't put vinyl anywhere but a bathroom

I thought it was worth a look so popped to John Lewis to see it in the flesh and to a flooring shop to see other vinyl tiles and there didn't seem to me much difference at all except Karndean was around £60 per sqm (probably could get it cheaper elsewhere) and other brands were around 1/3 of the price. Think it might be ok in downstairs loo or a utility room but think all in all real wood would be much better in the living room and tiles in the kitchen. It is a tricky decision as I have 200 sqm to cover downstairs so really don't want to get it wrong

I have Amtico running from hall to kitchen, I think it's fantastic. I ordered loads of different brands samples and checked showrooms before I settled. Personally preffered it to Karndean but you have to really get samples yourself. I suspect there probably is a little bit of a mark up for recognised brand names. X

I hated my kitchen tiles. One of the kids dropped a heavy handled fork and it cracked a tile in a really difficult bit to cut in so we decided to live with it but it upset me every time I saw it. It was cold and only looked shiny when I really put in the effort to polish it instead of doing the usual clean. I am very unsure about lino in a front room though. Like you say such a large area and the greys look particularly fake to me.

I’ll def look in to this for my kitchen though.

I really wanted to like it as lots of people seem to sing its praises and thought it could be the solution for us. There is nothing wrong with Vinyl tiles but I thought that Karndean would be significantly better than other much cheaper brands which it wasn't. At £60 per sqm it would cost us £12k just in the flooring let alone fitting costs etc. and £60 per sqm you could get many other options which may look better. I will have to continue the hunt.

The problem with real wood is careless children. Or at least my careless children! And my careless DM for that matter! 😂