Bamboo or engineered wood flooring?

[Somanyillustrations]

We are planning to have either bamboo or engineered wood throughout hallway and open kitchen/dining/ living room.

We want a brushed finish in a non yellow light wood finish. Have been looking at natural strand woven bamboo, and limed oak type engineered.

Does anyone have anything like this? Would you recommend it? It's hard to see from stock photos what they will look like over a large area...

I previously had engineered oak in a kitchen and it didn't cope well with kitchen life, I'm planning bamboo next but I would be interested to hear other feedback

That's what I'm worried about- we are not the tidiest of families, and DH cannot be trusted not to splash about when washing up!

I've had bamboo for 8 years
it takes an utter pasting (boots on household and drunken teenage parties)
I should probably polish it but life is too short
a daily sweep and a weekly mop with linseed ecover is what it gets
when I sell this house I'll have 1mm sanded off and the whole thing made pretty again
I love it.

PS
I have bamboo in my bathrooms and bamboo worktops
they are all fine too
yup there are marks on them
they are WORK tops

the worktops get proper tlc (sand and linseed) every couple of years
between that its a damp cloth and a dab of olive oil
then again I Danish oiled them LOTS before installation
(4 coats on every surface)

Sounds good Peace what colour is yours? Worried that the natural might be yellowy. What is the finish on yours?

Everything bamboo I've had in the past goes quite yellow quite quickly.

Kitchen and a detail of the bathroom floor - both taken some years ago ....
Its satin finish if I remember - it came direct from China but the website was "simplybamboo" if I remember right

That's really nice Peace. We were thinking to go light, but that looks fab down. Definitely being swayed towards bamboo....

We have / had both.

We had a dark-ish bamboo put in the hall about 7 years ago. It was highly polished and looked great. We have 3 young children, have had 2 lots of building work, it gets dirty / wet / pounded by football boots etc and I still really like it. It has lost its sheen but actually unless you knew that or looked closely, it still looks great. No plans to remove / replace it.

We did have bamboo installed in the kitchen diner previously - either from simply bamboo or bamboo flooring - can't remember which. It was relatively pale, very practical, easy to maintain etc, but a couple of people mistook it for laminate.

We've just had a big extension and have gone for engineered oak this time (in the kitchen diner) - it was more expensive than the bamboo but looks much nicer imo. It depends what look you're going for - its a more authentic looking wooden floor in that makes sense. Its only been down 6 months so can't comment on the longevity of it, or whether it would stand up to the beating that a hall floor needs to (at least in our house) but I love it so far.

We have bamboo throughout our downstairs. It's been down 7 years, and looks as good as new. Very easy to look after too.

I've seen a sample of matt varnished bamboo which looked a bit laminate-y name but the nicer brushed stuff looks like a bit of a dirt trap...

What colour do you have Skippy?

I was recently in this dilemma. DPs sister actually had just got bamboo lain in her front room. It looked nice but did look a bit cheap and like laminate as a PP said. Theirs was from Bamboo Flooring I think. We thought we'd be swayed by the price difference but the bamboo wasn't actually that much less. We ended up buying an engineered oak Khars Oak Breeze floor from flooring Supplies and were really pleased with it. I think it looks more expensive than the bamboo too.

My bamboo is 11mm thick
the thinner stuff is not worth it IMHO
and nobody has ever thought mine was laminate as it feels like wood
(and its much more environmentally sound as it grows in three years not 30)

Yes Gimble our engineered oak is Kahrs too.

We have bamboo in the kitchen. Love it.

namechanged did you lay it yourself or get it done? We don't know if it's worth paying someone else to do it!

We paid our builder to lay it as part of the overall extension. My H probably could have done it (he's quite DIY savvy) but not at the same speed as the joiner with all the equipment / ability to do it with everyone out of the house.

Don't suppose you would share a picture would you name? I like the look of it online

Thanks for getting back to me name. We were planning to lay it ourselves but thinking we might just save ourselves the hassle!

This isn't a great photo but its the only one I have (bit dark now to take another!)

That is beautiful- love the kitchen! What shade is it? There are so many!

Kitchen is Light Grey on the wall and Charcoal for the island unit

Wow stunning extension. You really have the balance of homely but also modern and sleek. So many 'modern' kitchens look so unwelcoming but this looks like a really loved space.

Thank you . That's exactly what I was trying to achieve. Its our family's space to live, not a show home!

It's very similar colours to the kitchen we have chosen... is the flooring kahrs Cornwall oak? I need to get out to a showroom and see some more samples I think...