Please Help - confused about Flooring choices.

[befuzzled]

Have recently moved. Utility room and 2 bathrooms have nasty lino/vinyl floors - I assume that is what it is as you can pull it up in a sheet. It is a modern built house so underneath appears to be concrete. I want to replace it with something nicer. What are my options?

It has to be water resistant. I don't want to put down real wood as the rest of the house is laminate which we will eventually replace with engineered wood so don't want it to clash. So I am thinking it has to be either tiles or rubber right? Anything else suitable?

If tiles - am confused about the types - ceramic, porcelain, stone, slate etc? What's the difference? Can you basically get real stone tiles or synthetic ceramic/porcelain?

I like a matt effect. Someone on here already recomended welsh slate, Think I would prefer a light colour.

A friend who is a builder reckons I cant tile the bathrooms as they are upstiars and in a newish house the floor will still be moving/settling? Is this right?!

What would you experts recommend?

Karndean? There have been loads of threads on it here is one.

I have travertine marble in my downstairs (kitchen/diner, utility, loo and hall). That is cream with a matt finish. Its ok but not what I put in myself. Its bloody cold and hard (small DD is a worry on it and everything that hits the floor breaks).

A new house will move and tiles might not be the best bet for now, our houses are 5 years old and my NDN is on re tiling her bathroom as they have moved and she had muchrooms growing .

Karndean

That would be mushrooms obviously

oh so that is right!! This house is 7y old or so. Travertine really appeals aesthetically but for family bathroom I guess might be a bit cold / slippy. I really like that look though.

Tell me I am wrong but my perception is that Karndean is glorified vinyl/lino? Doesn't it look a bit cheapo? is it waterproof?

hmmmmmm - really wanted tiles. Off to look at Karndean.

see have just looked at your kind link, thank you - and am having trouble getting past the Vinyl bit - would I not just be replacing the existing lino - which is in perfect condition still, with more of the same?

Travertine will definitely be cold (underfloor heating maybe?) but not slippy, at least not if you get the rough, pitted type travertine.

I'm a bit in love with karndean and I'm going to put it in my ensuite when I get round to it!

I first saw it in a show house a few years ago - Its hard to describe it - it looks like real wood, I had to get down and touch it to see it wasn't! It is in effect lino, but super dooper lino. Its padded and ridged to give detail. Has the benefits of lino but really does look expensive (and it is quite expensive).

I would have a look for a flooring store that stocks it and see it in the flesh so to speak as it really is very nice!

I have the rough travertine and thats not slippy, the polished will be I'd have thought.

If the house is 7 yo I think it would have settled down by now - I understood the movement to happen in the first couple of years - but I may well be wrong and your builder friend would have a better idea than me!

another vote for Karndean here - we've recently had a new kitchen and utility extention and the builder recommended it instead of wood and I love it - it is 'posh vinyl' but so worth it

right will go and have a look at the weekend. What is Amtico then - is that a similar thing?

Ah now we were told on Saturday by the floor lady that Amtico was superior to Karndean - basically the same thing. I noted Amtico was more expensive! However, she showed us the cheaper Amtico called Spacia and it was pretty similar in price. She thought it was still superior to Karndean though. We were going to have Amtico in the living room and hall, but are now wobbling and don't know what we are doing!

I don't know what the difference is but I read a thread on here just today and someone was saying that the amtico has to be cleaned/treated with specialist products and karndean can be cleaned in the usual way.

Theres another brand called Rhino too, I suppose you would have to have a look at the various different brands be led by the sales people, and maybe look up some reviews!!

Been considering Karndean/Amtico for my own flooring dilemma . It's a bit more high-tech than your bogstandard sticky vinyl, best to go and have a look like you say, cause obviously it's hard to describe and one person's beautiful hard-wearing floor is another's vinyl nightmare. Or something.

It comes in tiles or planks - I think there is also a parquet option, but that might be overkill for a bathroom!

The quotes we were given worked out at about £70ish quid per square metre including fitting. Actually about the same as engineered wood - the product is cheaper but the fitting is more as you have to lay a plywood subfloor IIRC.

It is possible that I now have far too much brain space devoted to flooring options...

I had a look for that thread I mentioned and I can't find it or I may be loosing my mind!

Here it is

Thought I was going mad and reading imaginary threads about flooring . Is this what my life has come to

I put Amtico in my old kitchen. It is very robust and practical, and you just clean it in the normal way, I don't know what that special cleaning products thing is all about. It always looked faux though. Now I have travertine in my kitchen and honed marble (very similar to travertine, smoothe but matt appearance) in my bathroom with underfloor heating. I love it and wouldn't have anything other than natural stone now. I don't think anything else can compare.

I have Karndean in my dining room, it's a fake oak parquet, laid in little pieces like real parquet, with an acoustic underlay which makes it warmer and less noisy.Lots of people have commented to me that it's great I've used real wood and how much nicer it is to have real wood in old houses....

It's great because you can mop it and it doesn't scratch easily.