Hall flooring options - wood? tiles?

[HailGallaxhar]

We have a large hall that is kind of Y shaped, i.e. it goes off in two directions from the main hall bit, IYSWIM. The house is about 10 years old, quite a lot of glass, and has a rather odd layout.

The hall gives access to:
kitchen
downstairs loo
utility room
study
spare bedroom (we use it as spare but it's officially the master bedroom as it has an ensuite, therefore can't be used as a living room)
stairs

At the moment there is engineered wood, which I like the look of but was damaged beyond repair by the previous owners and we need to replace the lot.

Any ideas?

Would tiles be freezing and unwelcoming, given that the hall gives access to a bedroom? I hate tiles in living rooms. I'm reluctant to do carpet given that that it gets a lot of foot traffic.

Don't rule out a wood effect vinyl. My neighbour laid it a couple of years ago and it still looks perfect. Very realistic looking, low maintenance and warm underfoot. I was really cynical when they first talked about it but it's been great.

Jojay id push for that next time at the very least. It looks awesome. And you can steam clean it too can't you??

I'm not sure I could quite go for that, Jojay, I feel a bit of a pang every time I look at my new laminate kitchen floor as even though it looks lovely I know it's not the real deal and it's not going to be as durable. I think vinyl would push me over the edge! Although I do love proper linoleum and cork flooring.

I'm now wondering about painting over the varnished engineered wood, to maybe just get us a bit more time out of it. Would it be hellish to do, I wonder...

I have used Farrow & Ball floor paint on old floorboards (F&B much overrated but I was sucked in at the time). I think I would 'key' it first with fine sandpaper, all any damaged bits and paint it.

On the tile front, we have always had old houses with old tiled hallways, like 200 year old plus tiles made of terracotta, york stone or slate. Our houses are fairly lived in/rustic but the massive chips (some, many in fact, half an egg in its shell size) look fine, don't bother me at all.

My mother on the other hand thinks it is like living in a cow shed. Depends on what you like/who you are I reckon .

You see, if it was an old house with a traditional layout and the hall led to the living room, kitchen and stairs, I'd go for something like this.

I don't remember my painted floors being slippy but I suppose you would have to test that somehow as rain outside and the wrong hallway floor could be a problem.

Could you sand the existing floor? Don't some of these engineered floors have enough depth to sand.

Sorry, posted too soon. The chips wouldn't annoy me in an old house, and battered real wooden floors don't annoy me. Battered laminate or engineered, on the other hand, stress me out a bit. It's definitely psychological, scratches and dents in a genuine wooden floor don't mean it's coming to the end of its life, whereas a scratched laminate leads to water getting in and then The End Is Nigh.

That photo is lovely. Mine are like this - rustic, cowshed, scruffy, etc.....

No, the damage to the existing floor goes right through to the MDF, in some places in patches a few inches across.

That is a shame, could you try one of those really hard wood fillers (where you have to mix the two parts together, one of them is a tiny tube of hardening compound) and paint it first. Minimal outlay.

Of course paint isn't cheap. I bet there are others out there now but F&B had more than 100 colours when I did my bathrooms, where the floorboards were stained with 100 years of wee .

Ugh! 50 Shades of Wee!

I do love painted floors, but I've never seen one in a modern house. Damn modern houses, they're so bloody hard to decorate! I like this, but we're not sure how long we're staying, and I wonder if it may be a bit 'out there' for a lot of buyers.

It was truly gross Hail. The stench was horrid and despite sanding (with a mask of course) the stains just wouldn't go away. The house had the loo that was first installed when plumbing was put in, it was terracotta on the outside like a Mason and Cash mining bowl.

We did eventually renew the floorboards but the floor paint was down for a couple of years until we changed the bathrooms and made it liveable and many times nicer than before.

I would definitely try the lowest cost option for now if you are not planning on staying. I like the green, does it go with the flavour of the rest of the house?

OP: we have oiled wood.