Amtico type flooring vs wood

[ButtertubsPass]

If you chose Amtico type flooring over solid wood can you tell me why and how you like it.

I am planning on solid wood flooring in a reception room and hallway and someone asked me if I had thought of Amtico instead.

I hadn’t - be interested to know why I might think about it.

We have wood. It scratches like billio, whatever we do to protect it. I’d go Amtici/Quickstep etc next time. There are some very authentic looking wood designs.

I love our solid oak floor! Yes it has the odd scratch but so what? It’s not meant to look pristine. When the kids (and my DH) grow up I’ll have it re-sanded and varnished. Wouldn’t change it for anything.
Disclaimer: solid oak is in reception areas only. I have laminate in utility areas (kitchen, bathrooms etc)

I have always had oiled wood treated with Osmo. If you get a massive scratch you can just put a bit of Osmo on it.

I wonder what happens if you drop something sharp on Amtico and make a hole/gauge. I think that would bother me more than a scratch.

It looks like it is the same sort of price as solid wood.

We have something similar to Amtico. It is very practical and still looks the same as when it went in but I still wish we had gone for wood. A natural material always feels better and as someone said above it is not meant to stay pristine. The ageing and wear gives it history and character.

Good, I wanted people to tell me why I might think about it. That isn’t happening.

I am actually thinking of solid oak parquet in this house which has ££££ installation costs, hence my friend suggested Amtico parquet look a like.

I have amtico in my kitchen/ diner for practicality and it still looks great after 6 years in a heavy traffic area. In my living room, however I have a junkers solid oak floor which I love. It has got scratches but every few years it gets sanded and varnished and looks amazing with a cosy rug in the centre. I would choose the natural wood for your reception, for kitchen or bathroom go for amtico.

I only want one type geri, think I am going to go with parquet and Osmo.

Sounds like a more stylish choice. Vinyl floors are pretty durable but real wood is lovely and you can sand it down a few times over the years so it's actually very long lasting overall.

We have vinyl in the playroom
& I will use it again. It was a brand cheaper than Amtico. Looks great, warm under foot, not noisy, comfy to sit & crawl on & easy to clean.

I’ve had both and I’d go natural wood every time. Amtico looks like wood but it isn’t wood and you can tell.

We have Amtico and I wouldn't have anything else now... Easily maintained and it looks like new 4 years later !

Amtico parquet is something daft like £65 psqm 😳. I thought I must be missing something.

We won’t be in the house forever, seven years of secondary school but that is seven years I have to live with my choice.

I love LVT because it is really easy to look after and keeps its looks. We do have some original parquet too but for kitchens and bathrooms LVT is great. Doesn't have to be as expensive as Amtico either. If you damage LVT, you can just have the individual tile replaced. Which is exactly what we had to do when we scratched one of the planks moving the fridge freezer back into place.

What is LVT?

Luxury Vinyl Tile - Amtico, Karndean, Polyflor, etc are all LVT.

The major advantage to luxury vinyl compared with wood is the maintenance.
We have vinyl in our bathrooms which we put in. Elsewhere we have old wooden floors. The wood is lovely, but requires polishing to keep looking good. For that reason I'm happy with wood in my hall and drawing room, but wouldn't want it all over the house.

Also bear in mind the different durability of different woods. We had bamboo wood floors in one house, which we loved. However, bamboo is a soft wood and scratches very easily. I would always chose oak or pine now if I was putting in new wooden floors.

I have only ever had oak floors, we did the whole house a few years ago but moved.

I had never looked at Amtico type stuff until last night and know now it isn’t what I am after.

I can have the one on the left for the same price. Fitting is £££ though.

We live with wood, the longest we have stayed in one place is nine years and it needed re-sanding by the time we left but I don’t mind the worn look (with Osmo you don’t need to resand you can just add a coat).

Old dog new tricks and all that!

Our house has Amtico (previous owners choice). It must have been down 15 years ?? It's indestructible, as far as I can tell.

We've got wood as well (my preference) which has definitely been more temperamental.

We had original floorboards in the last house and they weren't great but perhaps they were some soft sort of wood - pine perhaps? But we also had a proper parquet that was excellent. In the current house we put down oak and it looks completely immaculate so far (just over 2 years).

If you have dogws they sscratch real wood.... another consideration

*dogs

We have Karndean (the exact same as Amtico, but their competing brand).

It's fab. It feels warm to touch not as cold as wooden floor of a bare foot.

When our dog walks over the solid wood flooring, his claws make such a racket, whereas on the Karndean flooring its almost silent. The Karndean is 'glued' to the concrete floor so it's very solid whereas I find 'solid wood' is noisier and cracks/creaks a bit (even though it's only 2 years old so it's not that the wood is old).

(oh one thing I don't like is you cannot steam clean Amtico/karndean)

We went with LVT as it's more UV stable - lots of glass and southwest facing means the risk of floors fading badly. Very happy so far.