Amtico flooring - but it's vinyl ?

[MissMilbanke]

Please help me get an understanding of this as two kitchen designers have suggested this already.

I can't get my head around paying £££ for vinyl (always been a solid oak or limestone type of choice)

Is it really any good and would you expect it in a £££ house in a rather large kitchen / boot room ?

I like it when it's open about what it is - not pretending to be wood. I have cheap laminate in our kitchen diner at the moment (went so so so overbudget) but our aim is engineered bamboo in a few years. Laminate only cost £300 so I won't be gutted to rip it out when we need to.

We have vinyl tiles in our bathrooms and utility and I much prefer them to ceramic tiles. Warmer, less slipping and don't crack all the time!

I love ours....I'm not a lover of laminate and the gorgeous hardwood floor we had in old house just not practical here....I thought I'd hate It I was so shocked when I saw it. Love it down.

I think there's a lot of snobbery about flooring which seems to be driven by what is fashionable at the time. When laminate was really 'in' and everyone was getting it everywhere, we had carpet because it's warmer and quieter, etc, but plenty of people turned their noses up at our choice.

Now it's wood and engineered wood that's in. I'm still a carpet fan - not in kitchens and bathrooms, but for those rooms I would go for the expensive vinyl tiles because of the warmth underfoot, soft landing for things that get dropped and the durability, I think they look great, plus they are easy to clean.

I guess I am not a follower of fashion. I don't have a feature wallpapered chimney breast either - I've seen hundreds of those on Rightmove.

Oh and I hate stripped wood everywhere when it was never intended to be like that in Victorian, Edwardian and 1930s houses.

We have karndean- in a parquet. It's fooled 99% of our visitors thinking it was real. I was put off wood- I know someone who had a v expensive wood floor in their kitchen, for their washing machine to leak all over it- it all had to be taken up and replaced.

We have dogs too and it's bomb proof!

Our wood is painted with big rugs? Is that ok? Couldn't afford to floor bedrooms or living room so we painted the bare boards and covered as much as possible :)

we have karndean in our kitchen and everyone asks where we got our oak flooring from, its fooled everyone...

Can I ask why would anyone would bother of gluing down vinyl tiles when there is vinyl sheet which you just roll and lay?

Meadowquark - because it is nowhere near as hard wearing and has the pattern printed onto it so it is obvious it is a sheet of vinyl, especially after it has worn a bit: Amtico, Karndean etc are vinyl tiles similar to ceramic tiles in terms of thickness so can be laid in different ways and in different patterns. Some of it looks like planks of wood or parquet, for example. Once it's been laid there is no maintenance - unlike with wood - and you just clean it.

I have dropped things on our vinyl kitchen flooring (knife, screwdriver which bounced off a dustsheet, stainless steel flask minus the lid) over the years and they have all marked the flooring. That just doesn't happen with Amtico, etc.

Another amtico fan here! I have antique wood and it's bombproof (and better still -teenager proof!).

Meadow- also with tiles you can replace one which is damaged you can't do that with sheet vinyl flooring

We have original polished wood floorboards inthe living room and Karndean throughout the kitchen/dining room. Real wood whilst lovely fades, scratches and is draughty in winter. The Karndean looks beautiful and is pretty much indestructible. We have a plank effect so it looks like wood, not in a nasty laminate flooring type of way but really natural and has ridges and bumps like wood.

The fitters brought lots of samples that covered quite a large area so I could really get a feel of what it would look like. It is quite dear though so we opted for a cheaper lino type in the utility and playroom...I wish we had it all through.

Original floorboards might be draughty but that doesn't make real wood draughty - it's all in the fitting.
Our old house had an oak floor in all of the ground floor except the kitchen & utility where I had porcelain.
The oak was great, not draughty at all and still looked fab after 10years of abuse (bikes, shoes, kids toys, front door - I'm not precious). The one area of damage from a dodgy tradesman (who wasn't supposed to be anywhere near the floor!) was able to be repaired rather than replaced & looked good as new.
It also cost less than the Kardean.

We have amtico slate tiles in our kitchen. I absolutely love it. As said, easy to clean, warm, non scratch, and slightly more bounce than real slate. Ours were laid with grey grout between the tiles which makes it look more earthy perhaps than than strips which can look a bit plasticy.