Please come talk to me about wooden floors...

[SoupDreggon]

I know nothing. Well, I know laminate is cheap and cheerful but I don't want that.

I have a manky old carpet in my living room and feel that,bwith three children, a dog and a cat who likes to claw carpet, a wooden floor is a more practical option. I envisage adding a large (and easily replaceable) rug.

What are the options and the pros and cons of them?

I don't feel sanding the boards is really worth it as I think it would be quite draughty - even the carpet feels cold near where the air bricks are. Budget is not really a deciding factor but I am more likely to go for a mid range option.

What I would really like is a beautiful herringbone parquet floor in golden oak but I'm being realistic!! Sadly there isn't one hiding under the manky carpet :)

At the moment I'm just mulling it over and I just wanted to know what the different types of wooden flooring are.

Thanks :)

www.woodpeckerflooring.co.uk/goodrich-herringbone-coffee-oak.php This is a good h/bone floor if you can't be bothered with reclaimed etc.

Oh, I would still love a herringbone parquet floor, it's gorgeous... [sigh] Not sure I can justify the cost for a 1930s semi that probably isn't a "forever" home.

Apatite, we have the B&Q Sotto Natural Oak engineered wood floor. It is lovely, particularly with wet UFH.

It was fitted by our carpenter as part of our extension. He had never worked with this particular floor before but said it was good to work with.

We got ours from flooring direct.co.uk . They will send samples free of charge and have a sale on plus an extra 5% off at the minute.

Post, Marsha, Noddy and Arya

Thanks very much for sharing your recommendations, much appreciated!

And thank you as well Dave!

If you are looking for someone to do a great job I recommend www.tk-flooring.com they did a nice job with my wood floor :)

Thanks to Talkin's recommendation on a kitchen thread, we are now seriously considering bamboo for our house. I got my samples through the post on Saturday.

Having smashed and bashed them with a selection of children's toys, chair legs and sharp stones, I have come to the conclusion that the strand woven bamboo is practically bomb proof (the 'horizontal' bamboo, however, was fairly easily dented)

We laid new floor boards on top of the original ones and found it just as warm as when he had carpet down. If I wasn't lazy I would resand them now after 8 years.

Engineered wood here too. Love it. We have underfloor heating too - bliss. We got ours from Builders Depot. The flooring company was called Love Floors and ours is a very light colour - was called latte or cappuccino, something wanky like that.

It was half the price of the gorgeous Kahrs flooring I truly wanted (think it was called Artic Oak) but still looks great.

We have stranded solid bamboo. Hall (been down for about 4 years, highest possible traffic area, 3 children, football boots, dirt, roller skates - you name it, 1 messy husband and me no domestic goddess ) and it still looks lovely. In fact is getting better with age. Installed it on the back of that in very large kitchen diner (no UFH) and its lovely. Not cold at all.

Parents have Karndean (wood effect) and its nice, in a posh lino kind of way. And absolutely bomb proof (afaik). Nothing like real, solid wood though imo.

LMGTFY - I'm thinking about laying new floorboards on top of old floorboards -did you need another layer (of eg chipboard) in between, and did you lay them at 90 degrees to the one underneath?

I'll have to ask DH but I think he just put a sheet of floor insulation (white stuff on a roll) down and laid them in the same direction as existing.

I had wooden floors in a previous house, and whole they looked beautiful they marked terribly and it drove me nuts. When we renovated our current house I spent ages looking into flooring as I love the wooden look but didn't want wood again. I managed to find a laminate that really does look like it is wood. A few people have commented on how lovely our wooden floors are

The house I grew up in had lovely hardwood parquet floors in the main traffic areas. The parquet is still going strong forty years later. Meanwhile, the carpet and lino tiles elsewhere are long gone. Mum sanded the original wood floors in the kitchen and sitting room, then stained and sealed them. They look great.

I had an aunt whose downstairs was done in rustic red tiles (hall and kitchen) with sealed cork tiles for the dining room and sitting room, with a stylish trim in darker cork around the perimeter of each room. I suspect the cork was pretty thick. It was a house from the 1930s, very Bauhaus stylee..

Aw I can't get the wood flooring throughout, opted for a tiled kitchen and hall to cope with a little one, carpeted play room

I've struggled with this problem also. I was thinking about engineered wood in my new kitchen, it's much tougher and by all accounts actually a better wooden floor than real wood, but to install wood remember your floor must be dead level.

Anyway I eventually decided to opt for porcelian wood effect tiles. A decent one will look like real wood and is child and dog proof !! Yes it is a tiled floor and I can appreciate many people would not want one in their living room but a good big mat can help warm it up no end. If you do decide to go down that road two pieces of information I've gotten on my travels - go to a good tile shop (skip B&Q and place like thatget the best tiler you can, they'll be worth their money.

Cost wise depending on the quality of tile you select it is going to cost about the same as engineered wood and maybe a bit more. Is it worth it, I think it is.

Kevin

One thing I would say is: think very carefully about the finish/coating you go for, because there is a BIG difference in robustness. I have an oiled wood floor with very clear boards and it looks nicer than one of the coated ones - but it's much, much less robust. I have to oil it once a year with WOCA stuff, and it has to be washed with special soap. It does not cope well with spills of any kind. I also have a lacquered floor, which is completely smooth, and quite a lot more robust and more childproof. Easier to clean too! Consider how the boards are joined together. If there is an indentation between them, it will obviously be harder to clean than if it is completely smooth.

Have a think about heating. Ideally, a wood floor should last a long, long time. So if you'd like to put in something like a woodburning stove at any point in future, then you need to think engineered rather than solid because solid is far more likely to warp with the intense heat that these throw out. If you do go for engineered, think about getting a decent thickness of wood on the top - not one of the piddly thin veneers- so you can sand and recoat in future should you wish to. Find out the thickness of each part of the engineered board, because these can vary lot.

Also, think about underlay, and don't necessarily buy this from the same company as the floor because a lot of suppliers sell nasty, cheap underlay for £££. You can get amazing stuff that is really, really thick and insulating, which will bring down your heating bills. It is worth the extra cash to do this, as you will save it back in no time, and you'll be much cosier too.

Also, look at cheap suppliers because there is often no difference at all in the product compared to far more expensive places - I had one quote that was literally twice the price of another just for supply of the exact same flooring! I got mine from Floors-2-Go, which has about the worst customer service in the world. I bought in late November, which is not a busy season and I waited and I waited and I waited. They kept reducing the price, I kept uming and ahing, and in the end I got it for an absolute steal.

Finally, think about your skirting, and how the floor is going to join to it. Will it look ridiculous if you have it cut into your skirting board? Do you need to think about replacing tired old skirting at the same time?

Marking my place on this thread so I can shovetheholly's brilliant advice again when doing my floors!

find shovetheholly's advice, that is.