What flooring shall I put in my open plan kitchen/living/dining room and front hallway?

[tassisssss]

The open plan room is off the front hall and I need new flooring throughout.

Have only ever had carpets, lino and ceramic tiles before and would like to know about wood/laminate options.

Anyone passionate about what they have???

I love wood floors - but not in a kitchen. One previous rental property had a washing machine leak. Another previous rental property and our current house have had the dishwasher leak.....not great with wooden floors.

We are planning a kitchen/dining/living knock-through next year, but plan to tile the kitchen/dining part, and have wood flooring in the other area (don't love tiles for living area, especially with small kids)

Are you putting in underfloor heating? If so, I would also look into what will work well with that.

VERY exciting

but have no opinions, sorry...

oops, that wasn't meant to be a link

We have Karndean and love it.

ja9, I know, but don't hold your breath!!! Just seems I need to decide this now and then we can get quotes for the job in its entirety. How do you find your tiles ja9?

pootlebug, i fear you might be right re wood, but i'm not keen to have tiles in my kitchen and would really prefer same throughout.

hadn't considered underfloor, think probably won't have that...

MrsSharp, can you please tell me in a nutshell what Karndean is? is it v expensive? and why exactly do you love it?

ooh, karndean. We're thinking of that - in fact i ordered some samples and a brochure this morning from the website.
We have the same decision to make for the same space actually.
I saw a friend's new floor at the weekend and she has Karndean - looked absolutely fantastic and I thought it was wood till she explained. I'd never heard of it till Sat.
They are really pleased, it's sealed so spillages don't impact.
The only thing I thought was odd was that it was laid on the diagonal? Not sure if that was personal choice or a specific reason.
Shall watch with interest.

i think underfloor is FAB! Try out CMs upstairs bathroom.

My tiles are great....but things smash on them and slippers are a winter rule. I do love them...

yeah we had tiles previously and hadn't realised till then how much we dropped and how forgiving lino was!!

can't see underfloor happening but you never know...

so is karndean basically posh laminate that looks like wood?

I think so, it looked very good to me, and in a big space but I'm no expert!
I do know they did a lot of research and actually went to the main showroom, somewhere near Gloucester (?) to make their choice.
DH and I are a bit lazy when it comes to research...
I'll let you know when my samples arrive

I have engineered wood in the hall and dining room. I prefer carpet in a front room and amtico in the kitchen.

Have you considered bamboo? If you serach 'bamboo' in this topic you'll find me and others waxing lyrical about it. I got the idea from someone on MN and have never looked back.

'Search', not 'serach'. (But you could do that as well if you feel like it.)

I have Amtico tiles in my kitchen/family room.

We have oak throughout the whole of the downstairs except the kitchen where we have porcelain tile.
If you are worried about water spillage you could look at bamboo flooring... Very water resistant (you can even use it in bathrooms) and even environmentally friendly. Get samples tho as some of the really cheap stuff looks a bit naff... But I've seen samples that look as good as our oak.

Amtico Spacia, wood effect. Love it. Looks really "realistic". Hard wearing, warmer and less slippy than laminate and can cope with spills, dog wee etc.
It's vinyl boards stuck down on plywood.

I have engineered wood throughout. I was worried about leaks in the kitchen so we soaked a board for 24 hours and it was still perfect - no swelling, splitting or anything. It looks like solid wood but was much easier to lay and it's lovely underfoot.

I have oiled engineered oak throughout the ground floor - don't ask me how but it is incredibly stainproof - red wine & tomato sauce dry in and are wiped away with no bother.

We are laying varnished engineered oak boards right now! I thought long and hard about having wood in the kitchen but I just think tiles are too cold, and as it is a large room and is also our only dining room, then I think the wood makes it more comfortable, somehow. Ours is about £37 sq m, I think.

Bibbity - can I just hijack and ask what the fitting costs are like on engineered oak? We want to do two large rooms but i've just no idea what sort of figures we're looking at. thanks

We recently had Karndean put in our kitchen - replacing ceramic tiles - and we love it.

Lots of choice - it comes in plank size strips and feels like very heavy thick plastic. It is glued to square boards of wood which the fitters also supply and fit. Looks great and a lot warmer underfoot than tiles. Looks like real wood.

Cost about £1,000 for a room 6m x 3m. If I could afford it I'd have in other rooms too

kitsmummy
Afraid I don't know what the fitting costs are - it is part of the overall cost of our complete refurb.

Oh goodie. I'm going to be flooring a similar space - kitchen/diner/family room and hallway - so watching with interest. Not interested in tiles as cold without underfloor heating and that would cost a fortune. My friend has oak effect laminate in her kitchen, and it looks fab.

We're having Karndean fitted throughout the ground floor after Christmas. We have it in the hall already and it's very practical, doesn't show the dirt, but easy to clean anyway.
Much, much better than the cold, noisy and slippery laminate we have in the front room at the moment. I'll be glad to see the back of that.
Luckily DH fits it for a living otherwise we couldn't afford it.

Well my dh is waxing lyrical about limestone with underfloor heating (if you have the budget) . But thinks the best option out of all that's been suggested is bamboo! He's an architect. I need to replace the flooring of our new house now (living diningand kitchen). I am guessing we will be having some samples through soon .....