I need new flooring.

[MedusaIsHavingaBadHairday]

Currently we have cheapish laminate down. It's been fine, but having had a boiler leak in the hallway it has swollen and shifted and needs replacing. Also we are having our living room opened up into the conservatory (being replaced with a proper room and bifold doors to the garden so won't be like living in a cave any more) The old conservatory floor is tiled so that will need replacing to make it all one floor.

We could go for laminate again (not having carpet...kids and eldely hairball puking cats) but wondered what else would be nice? How hideously expensive would a real wood floor be? Or would Karndean flooring be nice? Tiles?

I need ideas (and some pictures would fab if anyone has a floor they love!)

I'm watching with interest as I need new flooring in 2 bathrooms and my kitchen. I don't want tiles as they're too hard and everything dropped gets smashed. We have laminate at the moment but I don't like that anymore. My husband suggested "amtico". Have you looked at that? Husband works in construction and he says a lot of retail outlets are using it as it's very hard wearing.

What area of the country are you in? My next door neighbour has a flooring company and directly imports top quality engineered oak flooring (wide 220mm planks) - he's just done our downstairs and I'm absolutely delighted. It's SW London/Surrey he covers so if that's any good let me know and I can put you in touch

Kardean is really hard wearing. Have had this down for ten years in my kitchen where it has survived a flood and a dishwasher fire which dropped hot molten metal. It came out unscathed. There is only one drawback and that is Karndean will probably need their cleaning pack every six months or so if it is to look it's best. When used it comes up as good as new. I have had it in my lounge for three years and not needed to use it as obviously the kitchen has harder use. Also I am in the habit of using other products on the kitchen floor. My daughter has it in her new kitchen and she only uses Karndean cleaner. My son in law is a builder and puts this down all the time and swears by it. He uses plywood as a base and not hardboard. There are different qualities and loads of choices.

HollyMaingate We are in London and I would be interested - does your neighbour have a website? We are North of the river though, would that be a problem?

Shouldn't be, he travels all over, they do a lot of restaurants and commercial too so it has to be top notch hard wearing stuff. The website is:

rpkflooring.co.uk/

My neighbour is called Rob, if you speak to him just say his next door neighbour Oli sent you his way

We've just put Quickstep down - miles better quality than our old laminate.

I meant to get the perspective as it mimicked closely the engineered wood we were looking at but ordered the impressive in error after looking at too many samples and getting myself confused as I was swayed by the waterproofness

Can't comment in durability but it looks good and is taking a beating from work mens boots

We put engineered wood down in our entire downstairs when we bought the house a year ago. With two kids and a dog and being next to the sink etc I'm so impressed that it looks as good as the day we put it down.

I browsed for prices and got so many samples and settled on one very similar to this from this company www.ukflooringdirect.co.uk/engineered-wood-flooring/home-choice-european-honey-oak-180mm-lacquered-engineered-flooring
I chose it because of the width of the boards and the thickness of the top layer and the number of layers and total thickness of the boards and im delighted with both looks and durability.

Here are a few pics. I love the warmth of oak...visually and underfoot. Also I should say that I am a total slattern and whilst I wipe under the high chair and sweep I rarely mop the whole floor properly or anything so its very low maintenance!)

I'll always vote for bamboo

• its eco sound (3 years to harvest size)
• cheap (because it grows quick)
• resilient
• warm

I abuse mine horribly and it still looks fab

@dynevoran love your floor! I am currently deciding on flooring for my whole downstairs and dithering between oak and karndean. Can I say I also love the colour of your kitchen, is it a matt grey green colour? I am also having to decide on a kitchen (builder coming shortly) and I love the bit I can see.

Thanks oldmum it's a very cheap Ikea kitchen but I love it. The doors are veddinge grey.
I had a lovely rented house pre children with an amazing grey /green Matt kitchen like you say and I was trying to recreate that for minimal cost or hassle!

Oh thank you for that, I have been looking at the Ikea colour now, it looks a slightly lighter grey than it does in your photo, I guess it is the light.
To complicate issues we have paid a deposit with a kitchen shop, colleague of my husband used them and thrilled with the result, so we have booked the same fitter as he had and had to put down a deposit.
I am having a meltdown deciding as it is not a cheap kitchen and although I love where we live, in terms of location and nearby to friends/family, I don't love my house I like it if that makes sense.
So I want to do a decent kitchen that I like but then if our dream house comes up in the area, I want a kitchen which the majority of people will like!
I am seriously considering matt grey handless with white quartz worktop and oak floor, just like yours!
Any more pictures would be great!!

oldmum Sorry its taken me a while but in case you still want for reference here are a few more pics of the Ikea grey veddinge. I'm delighted with it and in total I spent only around £1000.

White quartz worktop sounds like it would look great....I would have preferred that definitely but money was too tight at the time - hoping to change it in a few years. Getting a new induction range this week though - a more modern looking one in black.

It is a light grey cabinet door on the pics but it's a north facing room and so the tall doors are darker on pics but not so much in person.