Karndean (vinyl) flooring or carpet?

[lifeisabalance]

We are getting new flooring over the whole downstairs. We have decided on Karndean for the kitchen/Hall/small dining room but can't decide on the lounge.

We have a large, long lounge with doors leading to the garden. Older kids and no pets. Can't decide what would be best and don't want to make an expensive wrong decision!

We have Karndean upstairs in all our bedrooms we’ve put antique rugs down in places to make it feel less utilitarian, I really like it, it’s easy to clean hoover up dust off etc. But I have pets and live rurally and there is a lot of mud here. I don’t find it noisy unlike laminate or cold unlike tiles. Everyone who looks at it assumes it’s real wood (which we have downstairs again with antique rugs on). Having done it I wouldn’t go back to carpet. I agree it’s not cheap but I think it’s money well spent.

Doors leading to garden = not a good place for carpet, in my book. I’d go karndean all over.

We have Karndean stone effect flooring in our kitchen, hall and utility. It looked great at first but hasn’t worn well. I find it has scratched easily (dog’s feet) and areas in direct sunshine have actually gone green. All in all, it looks bad now and we are going to replace it with engineered wood.

We’ve had oak herringbone Karndean in our hall for 8 years. Still looks like wood - the scratches just make it look like scratched wood. Have just gone from old carpet to the same Karndean plus a Persian rug in the living room. It looks great and we are really pleased. Barely maintain it, no issues. Even when the hall was underwater for a few hours due to a plumbing disaster upstairs, it recovered!

I have Karndean throughout the downstairs of my house [hall, loo, kitchen, utility, dining room] but carpet in the living room.
I'd happily swap out the carpet for Karndean, with a rug as we have in the dining room. I think it's brilliant stuff: easy clean, looks good.

Im interested how long has yours been down? We’ve got some in high footfall area that’s been down nearly 3 years and it looks as good as new and I just run a mop over it once a week. I have 2 dogs constantly walking/running around on it.

I have had Karndean in my hall for over 10 years and it is like new - but I don’t have dogs and live alone! At my previous house, with three teenage children, I had Amtico which I think is better, still looked immaculate after 15 years. But it’s dearer and I didn’t think it was necessary when I moved here.

I have just replaced the carpet in my lounge and went for mid price laminate as it had to match the dining extension. I’m not sure I would have used laminate in a heavy use area but it’s fine for me.

I had Karndean in the kitchen. I found it scratched really easily and looked scratched. It was expensive and I regretted having it. I took it all up and tiled the floor which has been a much better option for me.

I have Karndean everywhere downstairs in our house and I absolutely love it! It looks great, easy to clean, not too cold underfoot, can't say enough nice things about it!

I think carpet is nice for a living room as you don’t have pets or young children to worry about

Thanks all, really useful. Still can't decide though!!

We originally intended to put karndean down in our large sitting room / dining room, but it was more practical, quicker and much cheaper to put carpet down. It's lovely and cosy, and we just run the vacuum over now and again. No dogs, and we do ask for shoes off. A quick and painless decision.

Our bathroom fitter suggested Karndean - I thought it looked flat and fake. Found another vinyl system that looked very wood-like. It's from Lamett - Parquet Vinyl. I like the bevelled yukon range. Putting it side by side with Karndean, there's no contest.
I'd go for wood if I could but we can't afford to lose head height.