engineered wood flooring - what do I need to know?

[lisbapalea]

I am trying to budget for our new kitchen and need to work out how much to spend on flooring.

We're after engineered oak and our space is c. 5.6m x 5.6m.

Does anyone have any recommendations on where to look for the stuff, any dos or don'ts when choosing it, as well as a rough idea on how much I should budget for the space?

Bump - can anyone help on this?

Good brands are Kahrs and Junckers. Kahrs also make a line called Natura for the discount warehouses. Budget £30-60 per SQM for the product. Depends on whether you want plank or strip flooring, how rustic the grade of wood, the finish (oiled,laquered, stained etc). Get samples and look at the quality of the construction of the planks. Cheaper products are poorly glued onto strip ply or balsa wood and look like they won't lock together well.

A 15m2 roll of underlay costs from £25 to 60 depending on what properties you need for your subfloor (levelling, DPM etc). Installation costs also depend on your subfloor. If you have a perfect level new concrete, dry subfloor, probably £15-20 per m2 to include replacing the skirting boards. Primed MDF skirting boards cost £1.50 per m. Chat to people who will install it for you and ask how much to supply as well. Then look online and see if you can get the same product cheaper.

Check out havwoods.co.uk as well; you might be able to get clearance stock- we just bought some and it's good quality.

Our fitter also supplied the floor which was Nature's Own uv lacquered engineered oak - very pleased with it.

One thing I would say is try and go and see some long lengths of the wood you fancy. It's not always obvious from the (usually small) samples sent out how knotty or filled a particular product is, nor how it looks when laid. For instance, short planks have a very different appearance to long planks.

Basically, the longer and wider and finer grade (fewer knots/ filled sections/sapwood/ mineral streaks) you go, the more expensive you get. I would definitely not buy from one of the DIY sheds, but would buy from a specialist company.

One thing to bear in mind is that if you're having it in a kitchen with utilities, best to get a bit spare so that if you have a washer/ dishwasher flood or burst pipe, you can replace any ruined section. Unless of course the range is likely to be current for ever. And allow about 10 per cent for wasteage.

Whoever is fitting it will advise you as to what thickness plank to get - they range from around 11mm upwards. I didn't really think about this but as t he builder pointed out, he needed to know how much concrete subfloor to put down on the floor so that our chosen flooring didn't take the overall level of the floor up too high, above door sills etc.