To be spending months going round in circles about flooring

[TeaLightsGlisten]

I'm driving myself mad.
I've got horrible plastic shiny laminate in lounge that I loathe. It came with the house years ago and the first thing I wanted to do was get rid of it but we never have.
DH doesn't do DIY (bain of my life but that's another story).
I don't know how to do flooring.
So I've had 3 different tradesmen round to quote for replacing laminate with engineered wood floor, and to quote for professionally sanding and staining original pine floorboards which are in excellent condition from 1980 when house was built (have pulled up and inspected, they are in near perfect condition). They natural floorboards are tongue and groove, so no draught. And nailed on to joists, so no movement.
I just cannot decide.
It's unbelievably expensive to do either one, and I'm terrified of making the wrong decision because we are going to have to take out a loan to do either option and I won't be able to afford to replace a floor I'm not happy with!
I'd love advice, and I'd love any images you may be able to share as I'm a very visual person and am struggling to be able to visualise what it could look like.
Thank you to anyone willing to help!

Engineered wood can look better, but it depends on the actual state of your sub-floor. If you have laminate down, then I don't know how you know the quality of the whole floor; one nice bit does not mean there aren't manky corners.

Either way, taking out a loan for a floor covering is very silly and will wind up costing you a lot more money. Just save the money first.

I look on rightmove and the pics of other homes in our postcode (so the same style as ours) when making decisions like this. It really helps me to visualise how different things will look in our house when I can see the different things other people have done with theirs. I have also let neighbours in to look at our house/ have had neighbours offer to let me look in theirs when I have been trying to make a decision about big change to the house (or visa versa) and it’s really helped me to make up my mind. Are either of those things an option?

That's helpful, thank you. And a good idea, thanks.

Because we've lifted the laminate all up over a large area of floor, so we do know.
I would imagine a lot of people take out loans to make home improvements.
Thanks for your help.

I think I would prefer the original flooring if it’s in good condition.

Couldn't you remove the laminate and sand and then varnish the original pine boards yourself? Maybe 100 quid to hire a big sander for a weekend. I did this in my first home and we are not particularly good at DIY.

We had our pine floorboards stripped and stained but it was an expensive mistake as the colour had rubbed off in high traffic areas within 2 years. Last year we had all the ground floor rooms done with karndean LVT and it’s gorgeous.

I've had engineered wood down for 12 years and it still looks good.

Hiring a sander isn't hard, it's just messy. I would go with DIY sanding. It will cost a lot less so once done if you hate it you could still do the engineered wood.

Juat sand and stain the floorboards yourself. It’s a fairly messy job but could easily be done in a weekend. We’ve done that in our 30s house and although it’s not the worlds best flooring its perfectly nice and a darn sight better than shitty laminate or carpet. I would never take out a loan for a cosmetic job.

I hadn't thought about sanding and staining the floorboards ourselves.. I don't know how to do this well enough to get a professional finish....
Surely there's a reason why a professional is quoting us £2,000 to do the job? There must be a lot to know how to do this properly in order to achieve a professional finish?
This has got me thinking though!
Thanks to everyone who's answering!

If you both are not DIYers i wouldnt go try to sand/ varnish floorboards. Me and my partner both like DIY but jobs like plastering, tiling a full bathroom or fitting flooring we think should be left to professionals.

Either original floorboards or engineered wood are natural products so they will require maintenance over the years. (While things like LVT are more like PVC...so there isn't maintenance as such...but once it's damaged probably harder to fix).

There are Facebook groups where people share their houseworks and photos with recommendations and what they used...i find it really useful.

In these circs I'm terrified of making the wrong decision because we are going to have to take out a loan to do either option I would stick with laminate. The floor is functional and you can't afford the replacement.

Save up and see which you want when you can afford it. It is mad to get into debt for aesthetics.

I can't live with it though! It's a ghastly, plastic floor. It looks so ugly, and it feels like a skating rink, it's literally a huge flat, smooth, shiny floor of plastic.
It genuinely depresses me to live with it.

When you say 'genuinely depresses' - do you really mean you have diagnosed depression and the floor is the only cause?

You can do as you wish with your own money (or rather, the loan) but I would just wait. It is pretty common to have some bits of a house undone for some time.

Dear OP, I haven't read advice given. All I can offer is my own experience

1. 50's house with floating floor. Can't recall if it was T&G. Crawled on hands n knees filling gaps with polybond and sawdust which made huge cracking sounds from expansion. It was draughty.

2. New apartment, concrete floors. Engineered flooring is so cold to walk on and has suffered some damage from careless painters.

Given the choice again, I'd go for solid wood or laminate. Friends have had great success from good to cheapest laminate. Just don't chuck water onto it.

It's not difficult. My partner and I did it as young 20 somethings with no DIY existence. We didn't fill the gaps though. Just sanded and varnished. Looked great even though we actually ended up doing most of it with the edging sander as it was easier.

Whack some carpet down. Nice and cosy. Job done. Return to issue in a few years when you have more money.

I really wouldn’t go into debt for flooring.

1. Watch YouTube videos on sanding and finishing floorboards
2. Rent sander from hss/jewsons/travis Perkins/other
3. Sand floor over weekend

This is a diy skill. It is very much entry level. Anyone is capable of doing it! Even if it is not perfect you will prefer it to your current plastic floor.

Start with finishing your floorboards yourself as it is the economical solution and you are likely to be very happy with the results. You really can’t do any major damage giving it a whirl.

Engineered wood is also very easy to fit. You are in the position of a good subfloor - that is a major advantage. The hardest issue with flooring is having a level base and you often need levelling compound etc. Because yours is going on floorboards it’s very straightforward and low skill.

I remember the first time doing it. The finish was great. At the time I was very much of the “hire a man” end of the diy spectrum 🤣

If you ultimately decide to pay for flooring get someone who is willing to take off the skirting to fit it. Otherwise they tend to skimp on the necessary expansion gap - which can cause massive issues. Plus you’ll have a room of ugly beaded perimeters. You’ll need the doors trimmed afterwards as you’ll be raising everything a couple of cm.

Choose an engineered wood that has minimal short lengths - the more joins the worse the appearance. The thicker the better as it will be more durable and you will be able to refinish it more times.

Also, if you pay someone buy your own underlay or make sure they fit a luxury thick product. Thin underlay is much cheaper for a reason. Thick will insulate and is also much nicer to walk on.

If you can't afford it now then your options are to DIY it or live with it until you can afford it.

Would a few small rugs help?

Personally I'd diy it, learn a skill and learn to love the bits that went wrong because they showed I can do stuff on my own. I had some very wonky tiling in my old kitchen which made me proud every time I looked at it. It's a home, not a showroom.

I have considered this but our lounge is a thoroughfare to the kitchen as we don't have a hallway. So there is constant traffic to get through to the kitchen by walking through the lounge, so I think carpet would end up with a very worn track trodden down through it. Plus our front door opens straight into the lounge, so would be covered in muddy wellies etc from the kids.
Thanks for the idea though.

Watch a YouTube vid and sand it back yourself then buy a lovely rug for the middle as a statement and for it to be cosy/warm?
Or what about getting a lovely giant rug over the laminate now which literally covers the whole floor minus a slither round the outside ?
Good luck!x

Flooring. Been through them all. Carpets are nice unless a high traffic area or you have pets. Then after a bit it smells and looks rough. Engineered wood. Look lovely when first down but if you don’t mop up spills straight away, will stain. And if left for longer will lift the wood. Lino in kitchen. Love it as it’s easy to keep clean but not anywhere else as it would look cheap no matter the pattern. Cheap laminate looks ok at first but can not stand heavy traffic or any spills without starting to look scruffy. I have a product called invictus much like karndean. It comes in planks to stick or click. Both options are good. They look amazing and any spills do not affect the finish no matter how long till you find them. Only drawback is they are cold. They clean up beautifully and it’s the best investment I’ve made in flooring. If your flooring is in good condition I would strip it with a sander easily available to hire and give several coats of a clear diamond finish. Any wear and tear is easily sorted with re sanding and varnishing. It looks beautiful. Don’t stain as if this goes wrong it just looks awful. Use the correct stain. Ask in the builders merchant what they would use. My cousins did this themselves and it looked amazing

£2000 seems a lot just to sand and revarnish solid pine floor boards. Admittedly it was 6 years ago but I paid £900 for a parquet floor specialist to check the robustness of the bricks and thenn sand and revarnish a whole parquet floor.