Amtico cost

[RidingMyBike]

We got a vague Amtico estimate yesterday - just from visiting the shop with a plan of our house with measurements. Man in shop quoted £11k for Amtico Form which nearly had me collapsed in a heap on their [Amtico] floor!

Does this sound right?! Or totally mad? I've just added up all the floor spaces now and it's approx 80 square metres, which would mean it costs about £137.50 per sq m. Yikes.

The man said they offered a discount for 'large areas' so it would 'almost certainly be less than £11k' and obviously he hasn't measured up himself.

ASRRGGHH there's no way we can afford this much. Wondering how much the Amtico Spacia is instead?

We're having under floor heating and screed etc put down as part of a big project so that wouldn't need to be part of the quote.

I know Amtico is very expensive, it has to be fitted by a specialist.

A quick look at check-a-trade says Amtico average cost is £35 per square metre, plus £360 per room installation so yes that does sound like an expensive quote.

I

Hmm, interesting. If the installation cost is per room that will add up as it's five rooms (assuming a downstairs loo counts as one room), including a large kitchen/diner. Minus the installation cost that would work out at £115 PSM. Which still seems like a lot!

Anybody tried a cheaper alternative? We liked the Amtico because it has lower VOCs (couldn't find this info for some brands).

I am also not sure he was using the correct measurements as he hasn't measured the space - we showed him measurements done by the structural engineer but some of the spaces are a bit odd with variable room widths or a bay window.

So the quote could be for a bigger space than we actually have.

Annoyingly, the Checkatrade starting amount and a bit more than that would be affordable! Thank you for suggesting it @DenholmElliot1

I used to sell vinyl flooring, you really are paying for the name with Amtico.
You can find a very similar product for less. Go and find a local flooring supplier and tell them you want luxury vinyl planks or tiles and see what they recommend.

Thank you @Hoppinggreen any idea how they compare in terms of quality? DH liked the Amtico because it had a 30 year guarantee and some of the areas we want to put it will see a lot of wear. Plus the lower VOCs which wasn't listed on some we looked at.

30 years would easily see us out of this house! What we don't want to do is put down something that looks rubbish within 5 years.

72sqm of Karndean supplied & fitted was £5k 7 years ago. It's got a few chips and marks
My mum & dad had Amtico 40+ years ago and it still looked brand new when we sold their house 5 years ago.

I worked for Armstrong’s, which was a commercial company so I’m not sure about the domestic brands (Amtico is both) but I have seen Karndean looking good after 20 years and they will all be safe from a VOC perspective. Also, I imagine there would be quite a few conditions to the 30 year guarantee Amtico promises
Compare the wear layers and try and find one with a similar one to Amtico, they are all quite similar at the higher end of the market

Thank you @Hoppinggreen I'll have a look. Think it was a .5 wear later for Spacia and .7 for Form.
That's a good point re the VOCs. I also think that some of the stuff we've been reading is put out by flooring companies trying to sell the stuff so not exactly an unbiased source!

The difference in those wear layers is so tiny as not to make much difference really. I would only look at differences of 0.5 upwards - so 0.5 vs 1 for example.

You pay the same for fitting as you do for the product....there's been a few threads on this over the years and a common theme is those that 'went cheap' and paid their own fitters were now having major issues down the line.....we have monduleo..... its been down 5 years looks Brad new.... we had specialist fitting though

LOL, thank you! It does seem funny to be looking at the price difference between 0.2mm!

We also now think the original quote was done on wrong measurements - the print out from the structural engineer had tiny figures on it that were hard to read.

Try Invictus Maximus. Better quality than Karndean and cheaper.

invictus.co.uk/lvt/products/maximus

The different Amtico ranges vary a lot on price. Karndean is also worth a look. We’ve had the cheaper ones from both and I’d say the Karndean wore a little better, but both were very nice.

Thank you - this is interesting. It was Invictus we looked at yesterday as it was stocked in the same place we're looking at getting carpet from.

I would certainly recommend supply and fit from the same place. You might save a bit by splitting it but if there are any issues with the product the fitter will sort it rather than just shrug

Well the Invictus has come back at 55% of the cost of the Amtico!

Definitely ensure you get it done by an Amtico specialist. The fitter that laid ours over wet the screed that went under the Amtico. The ply floor expanded and forced the Amtico up. It all had to come up ply included as it delaminated and be redone at their cost. A few weeks later the decorator flicked varnish over it because he didn’t put down dust sheets. We claimed on his insurance and up it all came again! I would happily have gone back to tiles at that point! That all said, it does look good but be aware if you have cats that it does scratch. We also have pads on all furniture just in case bits get dragged on the floor.

No pets here and we moved from a house with wooden floors so all the furniture already has little felt pads on it!

I am totally confused now. Have been back to Amtico and queried their quote, plus been to Karndean and talked to Invictus person.
Karndean is coming out the most expensive at approx £100 PSM. It also has a 10 week lead time.

Amtico is now (mysteriously) down to a range of £74-£102 PSM depending on whether it's Spacia or Form and how it's laid. So the reality would be less than that, especially as the rep insisted on quoting for a larger area than the Karndean rep.

Invictus is £52-£76 PSM so now just overlapping with Amtico and haven't yet had a chance to actually feel that one.

Which one did you end up going with OP? I am in a similar conundrum.

We're still mid-renovation so it isn't in yet but just got the final quote from Amtico and think we'll go with that. We had to wait until the walls were finished so accurate measurements could be taken.

We've gone for the cheaper Spacia in the bathroom, and Forme elsewhere but just the straight plank lay rather than the more expensive herringbone.

just wondering how you are all getting on as I am looking at LVT for downstairs - lounge, hall, utility, playroom and downstairs loo.

i love the Amtico forma samples I've had but as you say, pretty eye watering. The karndean isnt impresing me as much. What other high quality LVT brands should I be looking at?

Have you actually had an Amtico quote? We found the ballpark figure they suggested initially was several £1000 higher than our eventual quote as they added on some just in case measurements were out on our plan.

We looked at some other brands (Howdens, Invictus) but failed to get answers about VOCs in those which put us off.

The Karndean quote came in more expensive than Amtico partly because of their pricing structure - looking at the samples in the shop which was arranged by colour it is a lot harder to see which were the cheaper/more expensive ranges. Whereas the Amtico we could look at just Spacia.

I’ve had Amtico form laid recently, I was drawn on by the reviews of it being hard wearing, low maintenance and long lasting. I was quoted £5.5k by John Lewis for approx 40 sq m but actually paid £3.5k for a local chap to supply and fit the same.
The fitter did a great job but it looks pretty cheap and crap really, I wish I’d have chosen proper wood flooring.