Laminate, Karndean, or engineered wood?

[drspouse]

We are redoing our attic and the floor is particle board type stuff. Other rooms in the house have had the floorboards stripped, or are just going to be carpeted, but we are thinking more "like floorboards" for the attic.

The flooring shop we visited was actually quite helpful and showed us older Karndean and wood, the Karndean wears really well but when it's scratched it looks scratched not "worn in" like wood.

DH thinks that a good laminate could look like floorboards - I'm not so sure - the floor won't abut any existing floorboards but I'd like it to look a bit like them.

What are you going to use the attic for? Consider the noise a hard floor will make when walked on, especially in rooms directly below.

Laminate scratches. You might cope with a light coloured one but we got supposedly super high durability but it scratches really badly.

Good to know random. We don't want that!

It's going to be my craft room at the moment and then when DS is old enough to have a bedroom up there he'll have it. We were going to put a big rug down but mainly decorate in white then we can change the rug/pictures etc more easily than carpet and paint.

We do have rug and boards in one first floor room and the noise isn't too bad.

Sorry it's also a spare room at the moment.

We just got Karndean and it's great so far - survived us moving in and dragging all our furniture around without a scratch!

If you apply floor polish (as you should occasionally), Karndean doesn't show scratches. I had some for over ten years in my old house and it still looked good.

Have you thought about bamboo? Very sustainable and hard wearing. Though possibly a bit too 'nice' if it's just going to be an occasional space?

We have karndean very dark long planks. Scratches awfully, make sure you have felt on everything.

We've had all three, I prefer engineered wood.

I think I'm inclined towards engineered wood - just to make it more like the rest of the house.
I will have to work on DH!

We've had all plus marmoleum & cushioned vinyl eg rhino floor.

Vinyl & marmoleum are quietest and quite warm.
I love engineered wood & it ages well but it is noisy, so best on ground floor & on-show rooms; karndean scratches & pits even if you buy the special v expensive floor protectors for all your furniture as shoes & hoovers & things dropped will damage it & much the same with laminate. Karndean needs good fitters or it will look crap.
Marmoleum is expensive cf vinyl & requires experienced marmoleum fitters.
Cushioned vinyl is inexpensive, quiet, warm to touch & wears well, so that's what I'd go for in a study, spare room, bedroom or bathroom in the future. It's also the easiest to care for (though I do love the smell of my method wood floor cleaner!)
Hope that helps.

Saffronesq, that's really helpful. I'm trying to figure out what to do with my floors at the moment - need to re-do the whole house except kitchen & downstairs hall (tiles & 30s parquet respectively), and accommodate a cat with an inclination to scratch at carpets, plus a tendency to allergies.

Do you think vinyl would look 'right' on stairs / upstairs hallway? I think carpet in the bedrooms would be fine (cats not allowed in there alone), and inclining towards engineered wood in sitting room, but can't quite figure out the answer for stairs/hall/sep. toilet.

Using underlay under engineered wood works as a sound dampener, stopping footfall noises. I have not tried it myself, but if laying engineered wood, also lay underlay.
eg, www.ukflooringdirect.co.uk/accessories/cushion-plus-white-underlay

Being quite noise conscious, (neighbour wood floor noise through the walls on stairs - clop clop! ) we did lay underlay beneath our engineered wood floor, & laminate before we removed it. Not really quiet.
I can't see you can use vinyl on stairs. Check at your local store.
We also have dust mite allergy & asthma & hayfever but resorted to a very short pile tough carpet for stairs & landings. No cat though. Also figured that v little of my life is spent on stairs & landings compared to bedrooms.
Marmoleum for low allergens is great. But I'd go for low cost cushioned vinyl & air the house very well in future, & be less worried about scratches & maintenance & the cost of it.

I have bamboo downstairs, but for an attic room, I'd get cork. It's easy to clean, softer than wood, quieter than wood or laminate, warmer to stand on, Eco-friendly and the modern stuff looks lovely. It's not like 1970s tiles any more.

This is where we got out cork from:

www.siestacorktiles.co.uk

Cork looks really interesting, Jasper thanks for the link

You have to be careful vinyl - I have damaged it with a Hoover in the past.

There are a few old mumsnet threads about cork floors which is where I first heard about them.