Engineered Wood, Laminate or LVT??

[NowYouListenToMeFella]

First time buyer and first time floor picker. I'm bamboozled with choice and was hoping someone could give a recommendation or advice on flooring.

Small house, so I want to have the same flooring throughout the downstairs. One person, two indoor/outdoor cat household. Flooring will need to have some level of water resistance and be a bit hard-wearing. I don't want tiles as I prefer not to have a tiled living room. I have underfloor heating so something that works with that is required.

Any advice or experiences with these types of flooring would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I have had all three, so I can share my experiences.

Laminate - will be the cheapest, but worth spending more on a good quality one, as there is a huge range. Very practical and hard wearing. I don't mind it, but I wouldn't choose it again just because I don't think even the better ones look as nice as LVT or engineered wood.

LVT - Comes in either glue down or click-together systems. If it's installed well, it looks great and is very, very hard wearing. More expensive than laminate, but you don't need to by the most expensive brands, Polyflor is cheaper and still very good. However, it is not suitable for all floors - only get this if you can have your floor professionally levelled. Yes, I say this from bitter and very expensive experience.

Engineered Wood - can be pricy, but not more than LVT. Looks really good. Wears well but not as damage impervious as either of the other two. Warm underfoot. This is what we have in the hall and living room now, and I LOVE it. It makes me happy every time I walk on it. It has a few light scratches here and there from furniture but I don't think anyone but me would notice. The cats certainly haven't damaged it.

All three are water resistant at least to a degree. LVT probably best, especially if it's glued. However, as long as you're just talking about muddy shoes/raindrops/minor spills that you'd expect to wipe up, any of them will be fine for this. Wood is actually better with water than I expected - we had a literal flood on our brand new engineered wood (a pipe burst in the ceiling, it was like we had a powershower in the hall), and it was absolutely fine, no damage at all.

We still have the disastrous LVT in the kitchen, and when we can afford to change it, I'll be getting wood there too.

I've just had LVT installed. It looks good and is nice to walk on. It feels slightly plasticky if you feel it with your hands but you won't be doing that very often. I had to get it though because my ceiling is very low so I needed the flooring as thin as possible. The engineered wood looked and felt nicer.

It's so hard isn't it, there's so much to choose from and it's a real commitment. Have you got any samples yet?

TL;DR: I'm happy with my laminate but would love engineered wood in the future...

Long version: I recently put down a fairly cheap laminate plank flooring after being very against it – mainly because I read a description of laminate as "photos of wood" which kind of blew my mind.

But in the end it was the cheapest option and I'm happy with my choice. It has transformed the room and so far it's withstood me dropping various metal tools on it and sliding some furniture around, even though it's high gloss (laminates have AC durability ratings, this one is AC4, the hardest level is AC6).

Because laminate is photos of wood, you get a limited number of designs in a pack of planks - it was sometimes a bit tricky to avoid two of the same design being near each other. Don't know if it's because it's high gloss, but oundwise, it's very clickety-click with the dog's claws, the cat's not too noisy though.

My neighbour is getting engineered wood installed. It's really nice - it looks, feels and sounds so much more lux than mine. I'd definitely go for engineered if I knew I was going to be somewhere long term.

I bought the laminate from my local Flooring Superstore, and I found the process went very smoothly, plus I'm really happy with the price I paid. Got a feeling the manager's got leeway to give discounts beyond what's on the website, but having said that I did buy something that they had discontinued and were down to the last stock, so maybe it was that.

They're the same company as Direct Wood Flooring, so if you go into a store you can look at LVT, laminate, engineered wood, and even real wood. Their range isn't huge though.

Hope something there is helpful!

I've had all three, we have engineered in the downstairs and it requires maintenance and has been damaged by plant pots and who knows what else. Laminate is just not robust enough. If I were you I'd go LVT but choose wisely, some of it looks bloody awful - so plastic. The floating kind isn't as fussy about the floor being perfectly flat.
I'm about to install the glue-down LVT in our bathroom - myself - I've levelled the floor, watched the YouTube videos - and I'll order the boards from ebay - if it doesn't work out I'll get the professionals in.

Look at the sample on the floor with the lighting you have in your house - some of the Karndean samples are just too shiny but you only notice when they are on the floor.

I think what everyone above is missing is the underfloor heating. I doubt that LVT would fair wells it is a) plastic and b) glued down.

I'm having my carpet replaced with Engineered wood which my brother, who is a hard floor engineer, recommended for underfloor heating. He says laminate would be OK too but I hate laminate so that's a no. I've never seen a laminate floor look good a year after fitting

I'd avoid LVT like the plague- it looks plasticky and cheap. You can get nice laminate but if you can afford engineered wood, get that.

Another option is bamboo - super hard wearing, sustainable and cheaper than wood.

When I got engineered wood - you had to be very careful as some of it was not suitable for underfloor heating. That was 12 years ago - maybe it improved since then but the key is regardless of what floor type you should check with the manufacturer's guidance.

Engineered wood. Get the best you can afford so it can be sanded down and refinished eventually after years of wear.

Laminate and LVT are awful.

And get your skirting taken off the the wood run underneath rather than having beading; looks so much better and helps furniture fit against the walls better.

just had new flooring in my hallway, kitchen, bathroom. Great builders who did the renovation, chatting to them about flooring they ALL recommended Karndean LVT. The head guy said he had it throughout his downstairs - perfect if you had dogs and/or small children. He warned me off cheaper LVTs, said he'd made that mistake once.

I took their advice and am very happy with the result - so easy to keep clean. they did the whole putting down a latex screed first, which was a pain, but the end result was worth it.

We have bamboo and it looks awful around the front door - sort of pitted where the crap off shoes misses the door mat. I'm looking for inspiration .. I need the toughest thing known to man/woman as I live with 3 heffalumps boys/men and a retriever who like to bring the outside inside.

I’ve got a tiled kitchen/lounge area, and an engineered wood sitting room. I love them both, we had them at different times hence the difference (we had carpet instead of the engineered wood originally). My friend has just had wood effect tiles in a herringbone pattern through her house - it’s absolutely amazing! She has UFH and the tiles really retain the heat well.
Never have laminate or LTVs, they’re just a poor relation to wood / engineered wood.

We had a similar dilemma recently and went with lvt in the end. It's not actually in yet so I can't say how it looks (Amtico) but on terms of hard-wearing ness, waterproof-ness (dog, toddler, live in the woods in West Scotland) and okay for underfloor heating it just seemed to be the best option as we wanted the same though the kitchen, bathroom and living space.

I took some large sample panels home from the shop which I am really pleased I did, the colour I had originally picked from the catalogue didn't look good at all. And other posters said, be careful with cheaper brands. I got a few samples that looked so plasticy.

Thanks so much to everyone who responded. I really appreciate it. It's so hard to pick when there is so many options to choice from.

Have a lovely man lined up to fit the flooring. The skirting boards are definitely coming off.

The responses are swaying me toward engineered wood. Rotten day here today so I think I'll go potter around some shops and get a sample or two.

I don’t think you’ve seen the higher end stuff as it certainly doesn’t look plasticky or cheap. The lower end stuff I agree does but as does cheap laminate.

I only have experience of engineered. Do not have underfloor heating. Paid extra for thicker underlay. I find engineered very cold to walk on and it is not as hard wearing as promised. I understand it can only be sanded once or twice whereas real wood can be sanded multiple times.

Hope that helps.

I’ve had LVT and engineered wood.

LVT was more durable and has stayed looking exactly the same as when it was laid.
you do get what you pay for so high end Karndean and Amtico looks nicest.

engineered wood looks more real (because it is!) and was a bit cheaper to lay.

I’d get samples of both.

Other alternative is wood effect tiles which can be lovely.

and I would personally avoid herringbone as I think that’s of the moment and will date

Should add I’ve not had underfloor heating with the wood but it worked great with the Karndean

I’ve had LVT for nine years with underfloor heating. Still looks as good as the day it was put down EXCEPT we have some fading near a window in one south facing room but that has nothing to do with the underfloor heating.

Just my opinion - it was a few years ago but even the expensive didn't look expensive imo.

Fair enough, we’ve all got different tastes. I looked at some years ago and the difference between the cheap stuff and the expensive stuff was significant- as was the price like 🤣

I've seen some nice and really horrible samples of LVT very recently, since I've just got it. I thought the Karndean was a bit disappointing, but we ended up with Quickstep and it doesn't look plasticky at all, only a slightly plastic feel if you get down on the floor and feel it with your hands.

Thanks All. The man in the shop gave me some boards to take away. Hopefully the builder will let me in during the week to see how they look. Fingers crossed I'll love one of them and the search will be over.

I liked Lamett, their parquet looked more realistic than Amtico and Karndean.

This time I've gone for Spanish Cherry in the Karndean.

lamett.co.uk/en/collections/parquetvinyl

Thanks again for all the advice. The sample I had didn't work but I found another lovely engineered wood and have just ordered it this morning.