Is engineered oak a pain with small children?

[PanicMode]

Just about to have a major kitchen/diner/playroom conversion done and had decided on engineered oak flooring throughout. The kitchen designer has said it may be more sensible to have good quality laminate as it will take less maintenance and doesn't matter if it gets battered, but it would still look like a proper wood floor. Is she right? My only experience is moving into houses with cheap laminate and ripping it up immediately! (My eldest is 8 but youngest is 2 and still bashes and crashes cars/trains etc around!)

Get engineered. Laminate other than clearly being just a picture of wood glued onto particle board, can also crack if it's bashed and it cannot then be mended or rescued in any way.

Good quality engineered wood is a 5mm to 10mm slice of wood glued onto particle board and a backing.

I am on my 4th kitchen/diner with engineered wood floors. It's excellent. I have never had issues with water damage or stains from food spillages.

I have a 1 year old and a 3 year old. My 1 year old DS bashes the life out of it but floor is holding up amazingly well. No real damage to be seen

Don't get varnished. Get brushed and oiled. It does show scratches as badly plus the oiling has penetrated the wood so you don't get staining or water issues like you would when the varnish wears down
Hth

Laminate is vile. We had engineered oak in our kitchen/playroom when the DCs were very small, and it was great. You do have to mop up spills reasonably promptly, and put felt pads on chair legs, but it is very resilient, and any small scuffs/dents don't seem to detract from it, as it is wood. Engineered wood can be sanded back and varnished if necessary, but we never needed to.

We have good quality engineered oak flooring in our loft room. It's not a regularly used room yet has many visible scratches and we are really careful!

I wouldn't put that sort of flooring in a high traffic area. It will be trashed in no time.

I've got engineered oak in my sitting room and study, plus a ten month old and a 6 stone Weimaraner. I don't like the way it looks very much, if I had to choose again I'd get the floorboards replaced and stained rather than covered but the floor was done literally the day before I gave birth and I was getting a bit panicked. However, it's held up very very well, not much marking visible at all.

It depends on your expectations.

We laid engineered walnut (softer than oak) throughout the house last, year, except in the kitchen and bathrooms.

It does get scratched and battered, particularly in the hall. But, if the wood is the same colour all the way through, these will not be too noticeable, and in any case, wood does get a patina of ageing over time, which is not unattractive. You can get stuff to paint on which can disguise the worst of the scratches, anyway.

Once the top of laminate wears off (as described by skandi1) you will have the lovely look of chipboard!

You could also look at Amtico and Kardean, which should be very durable, and come in a huge range of finishes. I'm not sure about the cost.

We have it in our kitchen (door straight in from the garden) - it's been in three years and it looks great. Only the odd scratch but if necessary we can get it lightly sanded and re-varnished (we don't mind the scratches though).
We went for a Matt varnish rather than oil as I was worried about water spillage.
I would definitely have it again.

We have been through this whole dilemma - tried to find tiles for practicality but just did not want that cold hard look/feel. I hate laminate and the fact that people say of various Kardean etc "it is so realistic people touch it to see if is real" Well people don't do that with real wood. Absolute clinchers for me were 1) in a coffee shop the other day - I was looking at the floor wondering "Hmm is that real" And yes, when I sat on the sofa I copped a feel - was laminate/vinyl. Very good. But not real. 2) In the carpet shop the vinyl/laminate in the door way was "perfect" and that sheen it has made it clearly laminate. The wood by the wood display was scratched, dented - but warm, full of character and not "pretending" to be real. It was real.

So we are doing engineered oak. It will get scratched but that is part of the charm.

( We are doing utility area in quarry tiles so dog's bowl and associated drippage can go in there)

We have it downstairs everywhere ,kitchen included .Scratched in places but still looks great . Have had it for 7 yrs now ,children and dogs .

We had it in our living room and loved it. Very annoyed when we had to remove it as downstairs neighbour complained about noise. Brought it with us to new house and have a choice of laying it in our dining room or study. I think am going to put it in study as it will fit better with book-lined shelves etc and am going for vinyl in dining room, as have baby who will be weaned soon, and it will be easier to clean. Also plan to build extension if we ever have any money again so dining room will get knocked through at some stage. And have found some funky vinyl which i love www.zazous.co.uk/retro-vinyl-flooring.htm, now just have to persuade dh it's not expensive.
So I guess it's not my first choice of surface for kitchen/diner.

Thank you everyone - I agree that the lovely thing about real wood is its character. Think that we'll probably stick with it, but didn't want to make a big mistake if you'd all done a big intake of breath and said no WAY!

Oh wow, I love that vinyl Stokey.

We're going for distressed engineered oak boards in our new kitchen diner because laminate looks like crap and engineered is the next best thing in wood / wood-effect. I think I'd have gone for that vinyl had I known about it but am committed already to the engineered floor.

dislike! it scratches, when not clean shows up tumble weed dust, dog hair and had many pits in it. As for cleaning strictly speaking this type of floor should not be wet washed. After a while you see edges where water has penetrated and sunlight damage around patio door. Children drop drinks doesnt help and then gets sticky and dusty.

Highly recommend ceramic floor for children. Once this floor goes I will fit ceramic throughout. 7 years from new build and looks ok but showing wear.

To get the best and most finished look, make sure you take all the skirting boards off to tuck your choice of floor underneath. Beading always makes flooring look like an after thought. If its nicely tucked under the skirting, it will look lovely and finished.

I too would have preferred to lay solid wood however the sub floors we were laying on top of consisted of part flagstone flooring directly onto earth and suspended timber floor. This means lots of thermal movement and potentially moisture from the flagstone part so short of constructing a whole new floor on top, engineered was the best option.

That said we got 200mm wide extra long boards and these would have looked no different if we had used solid planks with a glue down t&g system.

I did think about stone given the flagstones. I did consider laying underfloor heating and limestone on top. This would be more durable than the brushed and oiled oak but very hard to walk on. And this would have been in our hallway, kitchen diner, playroom, utility and corridors downstairs so I would spend most of my time on a very hard surface.

I guess you could debate it endlessly.

We have engineered oak in our hallway and living room. It has been in place for two years. We love it. We have two children (now 12 and 9) and one mucky dog. (and a hamster which rolls around it its ball a fair bit)

We had the floor put in as part of a major renovation programme and the skirting boards were fit last so the floor is nicely tucked under.

It looks fab, is robust and easy to keep clean.

In fact I love it and regret tiling the kitchen as the tiles (travertine) now look crap and one is cracked whereas the floor still comes up as new after a hoover and swift mop!

Thank you - all good points and yes, the skirting is being laid last so it should look really good.

I think we're going to go for it - I do prefer wood to laminate - and I don't want tiles or vinyl really.

Engineered boards are better than solid wood, because they do not warp and crack.

Panic, make sure you wait a little once the floor is laid before attaching the skirting boards, as f there is a problem with the floor, once the skirting is on, it's a real pain to take up. (I am speaking from bitter experience.)

Good advice HandMadeTail, thank you.