Is Karndean worth it?

[andynarwhal]

Morning,

I need to cover the floor living, dining, kitchen in an L shape. At present living and dining is (threadbare) carpet and kitchen is very cold and partly smashed ceramic tiles.

I've fallen down an internet rabbit hole of LVT and, honestly, I'm not sure how to decide.

We're a big messy family of cats and children and I'd say the most important feature has to be hard wearing.

Would love to hear anyone else's experiences of floor coverings please?
Should say im looking at wood-a-like.

I have Karndean throughout my ground floor. Had it for 15 years now and still looks very good. 2 cats snd brought up a family.
We do have one deepish scratch on it and some minor wear at front door. But for a 15 year old floor it looks good.

Just be careful about laying it yourself @andynarwhal
When we bought our it was only covered by the (long) Karndean guarantee if was fitted by a Karndean trained fitter so you'll need to check that out. It was VERY expensive to get it fitted!

Thanks @Chasingsquirrels and @SauMore I have had second thoughts even in the few minutes since posting. We've always done everything ourselves but I can see we'd need everything out to be able to assess the floor. And if we're doing that, it would make sense to have it fitted esp if it affects the guarantee.

Still considering modeolu (sp?) and the Wickes version. DH now plotting a floor layout on his laptop and it looks very fiddly with all the wiggly bits. Not quite as L shaped as I thought 😂

This was mine just fitted a few years ago. The Hall beyond was fitted 10 years previous.

@Chasingsquirrels, I think ours is the same as that but a bit darker. Kind of feels like slightly bumpy bark under your feet. Still in mint condition despite the best efforts of my two now kidults!

We have karndean, we went with a light brown wood effect so it hides any stains (it doesn't stain easily) and we knew it does scratch so the light colour looks good still. I've seen dark coloured karndean look awful because the scratches are so visible.

We had real oak before the karndean (different house) and I much prefer the karndean. The oak got filthy and was a pain to clean, needed re-oiling etc.

We have moduleo right through downstairs ….I love it…..attractive and hard wearing…ours has been down 5 years…looks the same as the day it was laid

We haven’t got a single scratch in 5 years🤷‍♀️….wood scratches….very rarely LVT I would think….we have a dog….and 3 little grandchildren…and we all wear our shoes in side

No skirting boards??

I would never ever ever attempt to fit myself and we do lots of diy….it’s a proper specialist job…..lots of stories of lifting floors from the diyers

Yes, those pictures were taken the evening the floor was finished but the skirting boards weren't yet back on.

I do like my Karndean, been down about 10 years now, but don’t believe the hype about not scratching etc, Ive dropped the odd plate etc, & it certainly shows! I call it ‘character’ now! 😅 I don’t think I’d pay the price tag now if I was to do it again, but I’d be interested to know how LVT has worked out wear wise for others?

It definitely does scratch, we have a dog but also the dc take no prisoners and will scrape furniture around on it quite a bit. You can only see it in certain light though.

We had slate effect amnico laid in our kitchen 15 years ago. With dogs, kids, daily tread it still looks great. I would get it again. we had it professionally laid.

We’ve got it in one bathroom and a bedroom/office. Bathroom been down 19 years and it is still immaculate.

We had 17 year old karndean down when we moved in and it still looked good (just very dark wood and not our style). We had a water leak so ended up replacing it with lighter wood effect karndean and get lots of compliments. We’re a family of 5 with a dog and it’s been down 3 years and still looks new.

I’ve just had Karndean Alderney limestone fitted in my kitchen and I’m really, really pleased. It took the fitter nearly 3 days by the time he had screeded the floor level and got behind appliances, but it’s a superb job and looks great. Seeing how he had to work to get everything perfect, I wouldn’t want to attempt a DIY job on it myself.
I’ve had Amtico in a hallway and conservatory where it did scratch following furniture being dragged forward to clean under. I mentioned this to the flooring company and they advised always putting felt pads on the feet of chairs, tables and sofas for this reason. But, to be fair, there’s absolutely no damage on the LVT from ordinary day to day usage and we’ve got two two cats and a manic dog.
Previously we had an expensive supposedly water repellent wood laminate that got ruined by inevitable spills and animal accidents.

We bought a half finished renovation in 2016. The kitchen ceramic tiles put in by our seller in 2015 are chipped and cracking in places. The polyflor we put in everywhere else in 2017 (we are not carpet fans) is totally fine and looks great.

How did it go OP? What did you go for? I absolutely love our Karndean which is all downstairs