Have you got an engineered wood floor?

[AramintaJames]

Considering it for the whole of our downstairs, bar the living room. So kitchen diner, downstairs bathroom , study and hall. We've found the colour we want - a sort of warm chestnut - so... do you have an engineered wood floor? Pros and cons? Anything else we should consider?

We currently have large tiles and I do not want tiles going forward. The kitchen is big and goes into what is our 2nd living room which has sofas/ tv/rug in so a nice warm wood look is what we are after ideally

Thanks in advance

I’ve had oak engineered flooring down for the last 10 years and I love it. I have it in every room downstairs except the kitchen And personally I wouldn’t put it in a kitchen unless I knew I was going to be really careful cleaning up every spill immediately. The lounge is marked in a few places where the DCs have spilt things and we haven’t noticed straight away. I’ll probably wait a couple more years until they are a bit older and have it re-sanded. A darker colour might be more forgiving though.

I have normal bamboo
and its taken an utter pasting over the last 12 years
(including teenage swamp parties)
and we are a boots / shoes on house
and its still there
and i still love it

I have a wooden floor in the kitchen and downstairs toilet and hate it. I find it much harder to clean properly compared to tiles. We can’t really justify ripping it up but I’d love to.

We have an engineered wood floor in living room, hallway and dining room. We oil it periodically which improves its appearance and the oil is supposed to give some protection from damage caused by spillages. We love it. It's warm underfoot, looks beautiful and is wearing very well. Its about 4 years old. You can buy wood cleaner which is quick and easy to apply.

I don't think we are particularly messy and we are a 'shoes off' family as a rule so I'm not too concerned about spillages etc - although I'm sure there'll be some from time to time (and having said that, I smashed an entire glass of tomato pasta sauce last week which took hours to clean properly 😂)

The tiles just look so cold in a room that we also use as a family room. I'd love a real wood floor but understand it's not a good idea in a kitchen

There are different qualities of engineered wood. The cheapest often have a very thin layer of wood - if it gets marked...tough. The thicker the layer wood, the more option to sand out any marks, or sand over the whole floor.

Good quality engineered wood wears better than solid wood, as it doesn’t warp/split in the same way. Cheap versions are a bit like a cheap carpet - great when they are new, but show wear too quickly.

I made the (wrong) decision 5 years ago and “ saved” money, it looked great for a while, then just looks rubbish. I’m saving up to replace. My neighbour bought a better quality and it still looks great.

Don’t go for a fashionable greyish wood, it will date.

My bamboo is solid, 13mm thick
it could probably do with 1mm sanded back and re sealing at some stage
but it runs right through the kitchen, hall, utility, bathrooms
and its fab