Karndean / Amtico for kitchen and hallway - are they scratch resistant?

[runningLou]

Currently considering wood/stone effect vinyl flooring for new kitchen and hallway. Has anyone used Karndean or similar? How hardwearing is it, especially for by front door with lots of traffic and dirty shoes (though we will have inlaid mat by door)?
Is it better to go for tiles to be sure of durability (though so cold!)?

It's very good and because they are not a block colour you wouldn't notice the odd scratch or stain.

I don't know how they would hold up under animal claws but for ordinary foot traffic and children they're brilliant. They're also laid in tiles so you could replace any worn bits fairly easily.

Buy your flooring online rather than from a fitter. Much cheaper.

Thank you that's great advice. If ordering online could I then ask builders doing kitchen to fit it, as they would floor tiles?

We have 2 dogs, 3 cats and Karndean wood effect in the hall/lounge/dining room, tile effect in the kitchen. The only damage in 7 years that doesn't disappear with the polish is where one of the dogs dropped a big bone down the stairs and took a chip out of it. I love it, and warmer and quieter than tiles or wood flooring

We have Kardean by the door & through the hallway. No scratches or marks. Hardly worn out anywhere in 3 years. It's quite brilliant. The only negative is that it's quite slippery even with a drop of water on it - like my kitchen tiles.

No pets here so most likely damage would be DS's Lego / cars or DD in play heels (thankfully she's grown out of her tap shoes now!)
Just need to decide between wood or stone. We have original timber floors varnished in front room and dining room so am thinking maybe stone so real and fake wood aren't next to each other??
I really like the wood though, especially Van Gogh classic oak. We are getting cream kitchen cabinets so maybe stone would look a bit cold?

We have Karndean in several rooms throughout the house. It's been down for about 10 years and looks perfect (no pets though)

Karndean is NOT scratch proof. How well it stands upto wear may depend on its thickness.
I has Karndean put down throughout my house a little over a year ago by a family firm who were supposedly experienced competent. Three of the rooms had significant problems. I had them out several times trying to rectify problems but
a) they werent as great as they thought - couldn't sort lifting tiles once fitted;
b) the product really isn't as good as people make out. I have found that it scratches and pits far more easily than eg rhino floor cushioned vinyl.

I gave up in the end, got a substantial discount, and bought rugs for 2 of the rooms. Kitchen wasn't sensible. It still upsets me that I effectively wasted over 10k.

I would avoid that SW London Co. like the plague.
Sorry that I cannot be more positive

We had karndean laid about 2 weeks ago and have scratches in two different rooms now. My husband moved a child play pen on it without lifting it and it has snagged it massively. Also deep cuts at the top of the stairs... no idea what caused it. £3k. Still waiting to put kitchen down and wondering if tiles will be better. Not impressed at all really.

Amtico for 10 years had two cats ( and their associated vermin) for all that time and a wheel spinning dog for 6years. No permanent scratches in that time. It has not been damaged by anything.

We have karndean in our hallway and one of the kid's bedrooms, and amtico in another bedroom, and despite the fact that our kids trash everything, they haven't done any damage to any of these!
Supermarkets have used Amtico flooring for many years because of its durability.

I'd be wary of trying to use any old fitter/builder though. It generally needs a specialist to get it just right.

Agreed
We went out of our way to use specialists, who claimed to have been laying karndean & amtico for decades.
If it's a high street Co. Ask lots of friends directly. Only after the trauma did friends tell me of their dire experiences with T as I hadn't specifically asked them before, just heard oh, T laid mine.

We had a terrible experience with karndean. We had 5k worth of their slate grey tiles laid and they repeatedly scratched and scuffed. When the first rep came to assess, he basically blamed the fact that because we had a dog and small children, it was inevitable, and we needed to invest in several mats about the place to collect any 'potentially damaging hard matter' ie small stones, hard crumbs, debris. I found it the most stressful thing to try and keep on top of. We had it ripped up and replaced last year with laminate. That still marks but is far easier to maintain and you can but the repair kits to fill in any chips which work brilliantly.

We have karndean throughout, kids and pets, it's been down 7 yrs.
We never bothered with the polish as I knew it would be done once and never again. Ours is scratched but unless you look closely you'd not know and most people think it's wood.
I love it even though it's not perfect. Warm, easy to clean (I steam clean every week and vacuum daily) it's better than the tiles and laminate I had before.

I bought a box of Karndean vinyl floor tiles for my bathroom. They were super cheap (end of line in a discount flooring place) and DH laid then himself with the pressure sensitive adhesive. They're fab. Anti slip so when they get wet it's not a problem. BUT it cost less than a hundred quid to do the bathroom floor. Not sure how I'd feel if I'd spent thousands on them though!

We have the most expensive (can't remember which!) Karndean in the kitchen, hall, boot room and laundry. It has heavy traffic from children and ride ons.

It had scratched a bit, but not terribly and you don't notice it. I love it.

It does need a specialist to fit though.

We had Camarro (similar product) in our old house and will be putting it in this house too, it wore brilliantly. Our new house has laminate which shows every scratch and mark, can't wait to change it!