solid wood or engineered wood flooring?

[Yellowfairy]

We currently have tiles in the kitchen and carpet everywhere else. The tiles get very cold and the carpet very dirty with 2 young children. We have decided to go for wood flooring and can't decide between engineered or solid wood.

Can anyone give me their personal experience of either. Its quite a large area we are looking to replace so its going to cost a small fortune and we don't want to make the wrong choice.

Thanks in advance

We've had both. Solid was better by a mile. However I'd never have it in a kitchen again. It ended up covered in grease and water spots all around the sink and cooking areas.

Thanks try2hard that's really helpful. i am worried about the kitchen area but we have a very open plan kitchen/dining area/lounge area so not sure how a mix and match of flooring would work. Might need to seriously consider that though.

I wouldn't have wood of any type in the kitchen. It can't be wet mopped properly (because it can't dry out effectively). It gets manky and horrible around the cooker and sink areas. Fine in less wet/dirty areas though.

If you've got underfloor heating you need engineered. If you've not then you can choose either. Solid wood will enable you to sand the floor more often for refurbishment, engineered has a thinner top layer and only allows a small number of light sandings (varies between brands).