Flooring dilemas - wood or karndean equivalent

[LouThomp]

We are building an open plan extension (kitchen/living/dining room) and have about 50 m/sq to floor. I love the look of wood - but have been recommend Karndean. With two very active small people, a large dog, doors straight into garden (so potential for wet and muddy feet) what should we go for??? Cost is a major factor - in that there isn't a huge amount of money left!!

Everyone says Karndean is so good people touch it to see if is real. I have touched it to see if it is real in a floor showroom. I have never felt the need to touch wood to see if it is real. You just know.

We are going for wood - engineered oak. We have dog/small children/open plan space. I have decided to quarry tile the utility and the dog's bowl will go there. The rest of the area will get scratches/dents/scuffs. It will be lived in(on). It will be real. It has been used for centuries.

Go to a showroom and check it out. It is not the same. I could not do it. Real. Engineered - but real.

What've you actually got the budget for? Karndean isn't necessarily all that cheap.

I can't remember this rightly, but don't they say that you shouldn't use some sort of wood in the vicinity of washing machines / other things which might flood? Is that engineered wood? Someone else will remember I'm sure.

Thank you both for your replies.

we have been quoted nearly £5000 for engineered wood floor (from an expensive local shop so may be able to get cheaper) fully inclusive - £3800 for Karndean. Am concerned about using engineered wood near door/kitchen as have read lots of reviews that say it warps if gets really wet.

Would have loved quarry tiles or stone, but we have varying subfloors where the extension meets the house and unless we reinfroce the existing house floor (which was ridiculously expensive) have been reliably informed the tiles will crack.

We just put Antico Spacia down and are really pleased with it. We have engineered bamboo so it doesn't need to look "real". It looks cool though - much nice than fake oak laminate for example.

i went for karndean when we had work done- it runs through conservatory, dining, kitchen, hall and cloakroom.

plus sides- you get a beautifully smooth finish as they lay a rubberised screed first. It looks exactly the same four years on. It does scratch a bit but note so you would notice/bother. A once over with a mop and it looks great. It is bomb proof, i can't see anything other than a foul water flood could damage it. (we have had leaking washing machine- no problem)

we have had no colour loss in the conservatory which was one thing i was concerned about.

downside- ours is over concrete floor and it can be cold in the winter (but prob not an issue if you were thinking about stone). i wish i had thought of underfloor heating tbh. it is also pretty hard on the old feet as it has no give in it.

whether it looks like wood, i couldnt really say as I am not fussed about that, but it looks good and i don't regret the outlay (also much cheaper than amtico)

Wood

I've just gone through a similar dilemma for my parents flat. It's also about 50sqm buys in 4 rooms.

I have gone for engineered oak and the quotes I have got range from 2k to 3.5k (fitted). I think the quote u got is a bit high.

As far as I have gathered you need to add about £10 per sqm for fitting to whatever materials price u select. Also take into consideration that a trades person wouldn't usually pay full ticket price for their materials.

My feeling is that if u want it to look like wood then go for wood! Anything else is a fake and it would annoy me over time.

I also agree about wood flooring looking "lived in/on".

Real wood. No contest.

Thank you all for your help! Think I will get some more quotes and see about the engineered wood - although husband has decided karndean is a better option so will see where we end up! Will let you know how we get on!!

Have had both karndean and engineered wood floor - Karndean all the way, much more practicable and much warmer. Engineered floor kept getting dented and lost it's look much quicker than I expected

We had antico in our kitchen when we moved into our house. I thought it awful....at first, but after awhile I realised that it actually looks ok, is amazing to clean and is really tough. When we redid the kitchen/dining room I used large cream limestone effect smooth (smooth so easy to clean) tiles with underfloor heating. I really really love this floor. I didn't use wood in the kitchen as I was concerned about cleaning.
In our new family room, study and hall I used engineered oak, wide, light and with no knots. It was an expensive brand. I have been amazed at how great they look a year on. They still look perfect and are very easy to keep clean. They have a thicker than average top layer of oak so that we will be able to sand it down in the future. The cheaper versions have much thinner top layers but they are a lot lot cheaper. I can't remember for sure but I think it was about £90 sq metre (not fitted) and I couldnt get much of a discount.

Very delayed reply as we have only just got our floor down - usual building delays! Thank you all for your advice - we have just had karndean Auckland oak put in throughout - love it! Not a cheap option - at first glance it looks very realistic, closer look clearly not but I feel happy we've made the best decision for practical purposes and it looks great. Thank you all!

I have the same dilemma, I am seriously considering laminate. I looked at 'Quick Step' and have been really impressed. I have laminate in a previous house and I always liked it. I still rather like vinyl for the kitchen (I know) but it looks good, doesn't pretend to be something its not and if after 5 years ad you fancy a change you don't feel guilty. I've had too many leaky fridges to rely on real wood

I've had a very disappointing experience with Karndean. We chose beautiful tiles from the Opus range (supposedly the commercial range) as we wanted a hard wearing floor. We spent over £1000, it was installed 8 months ago. It started scratching almost as soon as it was laid. It's taken until today for the Karndean rep to come and see the scratches which are so bad now that I expect we will have to replace the floor within the next 12-18 months. Today was extraordinary, he suggested velvet tabs for the bottom of our chairs, that we are using the wrong type of mop and that we should only be using their speciality floor cleaner. This is supposed to be commercial flooring - it's not. It can't handle a family of 4 in their slippers. I was expecting to be told that this was a bad batch of tiles or that they had not been sealed, I had not expected to be told that it's less robust that the cheap laminate that was in our previous kitchen for 6 years with barely a scratch.

Karndeen - I am happy to discuss this with you, your rep came today Elaine & Alan, M16

We have had Quickstep in the kitchen (looks like dark grey slate tiles) for three years and it's fab. I can't say I'm kind to it either.

We have Quickstep in natural oak in the diningroom/lounge and it's also been great and makes the room look more modern and has actually make it warmer too. The carpet was a bit dodgy (had dark marks from dirty air coming up) round the edges and the flooring is more sealed I suppose.

I found huge variations in price from different suppliers so once you know what you want shop around. Varied by almost £10 per sq metre and we needed over 50 metres. We then got an independent fitter who charged for the job. Fab.

I am doing a kitchen diner conversion going onto the garden, and we'll go for Karndean - tiles, fake or wood, dunno which yet. I'll soon have two kids under two and am a bit of a grubby type - my life is too short to do any more cleaning and maintenance than I have to.

I prefer real wood, have used it before and would again if life was baby free. I also like tiles, but they are hard and my son cracks his head on pretty much anything going.

Anyway, guess I'm just saying that I reckon you have to consider your life and temperament as well as the beauty of the final look :)

what about porcelanosa par-ker flooring, this looks really good

For these with Karndean or Amtico, is it slippy at all when you're just wearing socks? It's hard to tell from the small samples I have. Thanks.

KARNDEAN IS EXPENSIVE and CUSTOMER SERVICE IS RUBBISH. 15 year guarantee means nothing. Pattern wore off tiles after less than two years they sent a rep who said 7 affected tiles must have been from a different batch and had been like that all along which was untrue. Suggested using their cleaner which I had been doing. They have ignore all my letters and emails after their first response and are also ignoring trading standards. BEWARE I now have a floor that looks odd right in the middle and it cost me a lot of money. Tiles also fade which they state they dont in thei blurb.

We've had Karndean in our hallway for 13 years. Heavy traffic. Hardly ever use the recommended cleaner. It's still looking good.

ZOMBIE THREAD

Completely agree it's great stuff, although struggling to get mine looking as good as when we put it in? Any tips?