Talk to me about Karndean floors

[misstiggiwinkle]

Impart your knowledge!

I'm renovating my house and had always planned to put in real, lime washed oak floors however, i keep hearing snippets about Karndean floors. What's the Mumsnet view? Brilliant? Expensive? Better/worse that real wood floors? Do they look like fake wood etc.

I have Karndean and I love it. It's not cheap, but it looks really good and is very hard wearing. It can scratch easily, but the strange thing is that after a few days, what was a noticeable scratch seems to become invisible again. I wanted it in my kitchen because the room is cold and the tiles we had were so cold underfoot. Didn't like vinyl, and thought wood wasn't practical. I'm very pleased with it.

I've got karndean throughout downstairs, and its much better than the real wood we had in the last house. Everyone thinks it is wood, but its much quieter and marks less

We put Karndean in the hall kitchen and dining room, we have the tile version not he wood effect. Absolutely brilliant.

We have had it put in in the hall, dining room and kitchen. We only had it done a month or so ago but very pleased so far. Do make sure you're careful with who you get to install it. We love the floor but aren't pleased with the finish from our installer.

we've had ours down for about the months and I love it. we are going to put it down everywhere (bungalow) .

The main plus point from me is the quietness. it's really easy to keep clean.... though you still have to clean it which is a downside

I'm in a wood/engineered wood Vs Karndean dilemma at the moment. I've heard so many good things about the Karndean and even though I've been to look at it at a local supplier, I can't get the idea out of my head that it's just posh lino because I'm a bit of a snob !
It's for the new kitchen/diner extension, family room and the hallway. I'm so worried I'll put it down and then think I've made a mistake (a very expensive one)

It definitely does NOT look like real wood if that's the look you want? But seems easier to install and more practical for family life.

I am looking at putting real wood throughout our house and love the scandanavian look so would probably lime wash. I personally wouldn't like the look of karndean from what I have seen in my friends house. It's all personal taste, but in my opinion it's not going to look like a real wood floor.

Think that's my issue too - I am not keen on things pretending to be something else. If I want a wood look, I should get wood, not something pretending to be wood. But I'm really torn because of the renowned practicality!

I've said it before, I'll say it again. Look in shops to see what you like then price it up online. The typical retail margin is appalling!

We had it in a downstairs shower room and it had pros & cons. Firstly it was lovely and warm underfoot and easy to keep clean. But, it wasn't easy to find someone to fit it- apparently it's a fairly specialist job. It didn't look like wood.
Ours got strange marks around the joins when it got wet, but I suspect this was due to poor fitting tbh.
I have since opted for Lino in the downstairs loo, it's much cheaper, has all the advantages of Karndean. IMO Karndean doesn't look very good really- if you're not going to have a 'real' floor, you might as well go for a cheaper option than Karndean.

Some of ours is stunning, rest well battered.