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Original poster

Karndean vs Tiles

40 replies

StorminaBcup · 20/08/2018 13:25

Looking for a bit of advice for our kitchen floor. We're having underfloor heating and we've been recommended either tiles or karndean flooring. I've seen a parquet style karndean floor which looks lovely but we have real wood floors throughout the rest of the house. I'm concerned it will look obviously vinyl in comparison but lots of people have said it's great to keep clean and is hard wearing. We have a young family (2 & 4), and are possibly getting a dog next year too. Will keeping tiles clean be a nightmare compared to karndean or are tiles a better fit for our lifestyle? Will tiles last look better for longer?
I'm totally clueless as I only know one person with a karndean floor and they've only just had it fitted. Any opinions please?

OP posts:
Bluebell9 · 20/08/2018 13:38

I had tiles in my last house (until I replaced it) and when looking for our new house, anything with a tiled kitchen put me off.
We've got Karndean in our new kitchen and I love it. The utility is tiled and I can't wait to replace it!
The reasons I hated the tiled floor, apart from being cold (not an issue for you), were that anything that was dropped would smash or be dented, it was a pain to clean the tiles and keeping the grout clean was even worse!
I have 2 step kids and a hairy dog and would pick karndean everytime.

Original poster
StorminaBcup · 20/08/2018 16:28

Thanks Bluebell9 it was the grout in the tiles that I was worried about. How 'old' is your new kitchen? Just wondering how well Karndean wears over the years?

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missyB1 · 20/08/2018 16:33

I’ve had Karndean for years, I’ve got it in living room and hall, it seems pretty indestructible. My kitchen diner unfortunately has tiles, I hate them, they chip as soon as you look at them and they are a bugger to keep clean. I dream of having them replaced by Karndean.

MyNameIsJane · 20/08/2018 17:41

We have Karndean down and would recommend. We had a dog and in her last few months with us was incontinent, the Karendean coped with the accidents and the subsequent deep clean.

Talia99 · 20/08/2018 19:15

I had tiles in my last house and hated them. They were freezing cold underfoot and if I dropped anything either the item smashed or on one notable occasion, the tile cracked. I notice you say you have you have young children. I would have thought bearing in mind what happened to my crockery, they’d be better off with something other than tiles.

I’ve never had Karndean so I can’t comment on it.

Original poster
StorminaBcup · 20/08/2018 19:45

Thank you all for your replies. Seems like karndean might be best for our kitchen. I was mainly worried about keeping the grout clean but that's a very good point about smashed crockery!

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BubblesBuddy · 20/08/2018 21:40

We don’t drop things and have porcelain tiles that look like limestone. Vinyl is vinyl. It’s not very stylish for a house that has wooden floors in my view. It will look like you couldn’t afford anything better. I’ve never chipped a tile and we steam clean the tiles so the grout is pristine. It looks like an expensive floor and is brilliant with underfloor heating.

Blackgrouse · 20/08/2018 22:35

We had underfloor heating with Karndean in the kitchen and living area of our last house. We lived there for 7 years with our dd and dog, it's then been rented out for 3 years and the floors still look like new.

Due mostly to budget we tiled the kitchen in our current house, it's cold and anything you drop breaks. I would love to change it to Karndean, specifically the oak herringbone. I have samples and tried it against the sanded boards we have in our hallway and front room, it looks very realistic. If we could afford it I'd be having Karndean put down.

If you do go with tiles I'd recommend a dark grout, we have a dog so I went with a grey grout, white or cream would have discoloured within months.

midgesforever · 20/08/2018 22:40

I put kardean down in our family bathroom, we have lots of natural wood and I was worried it would look a little naff but I was pleasantly surprised and it wore well.

Bluebell9 · 21/08/2018 14:11

Storm the kitchen floor is probably 6/7 years old and still looks great.

Redhound · 21/08/2018 15:46

I have tiles in my kitchen and the thing I hate about them is that they are dangerously slippery when anything spills on them. The vinyl which I put in the kitchen/dining area is much warmer and not slippery. But I really don't care whether people think it looks cheap. I think it looks fine!

minipie · 21/08/2018 18:35

I thought Karndean didn't work with UFH but a pp says they had them together so I'm clearly wrong!

Personally I prefer tiles, Karndean is very good but it's still obvious it's not wood (I expect even more so if it's next to real wood).

You can take the chill off on cold days with UFH. the cool feel is actually a benefit on hot days. If you choose large format rectified tiles, then you can have very few slim grout lines, so you will not have much grout to keep clean. If you have grey grout rather than white any grubbiness is less obvious!

We've had two babies with stone tiles and no cracked heads (not due to the kitchen floor anyway!)

B1rdinthebush · 21/08/2018 21:54

I've just replaced my tiles kitchen floor with Karndean. I'm not in love with it and it's obviously not wood but that's completely outweighed by how easy it is to maintain and keep clean. I've got two young kids and never felt I could keep the tiles clean.

Original poster
StorminaBcup · 21/08/2018 22:27

Bluebell9, thank you!

It is the oak herringbone karndean that I've seen, we've found a local stockist so we're going to have a look at it tomorrow. If we went for tiles we would be going for large and rectified so grout joins should be minimal.

Thanks for all of your replies. I thought the actual kitchen plan would be the difficult choice, not the floor!

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BubblesBuddy · 22/08/2018 00:20

Large format tiles are perfect with underfloor heating. It won’t be cold as the tiles will be warm with the heating on! They are just so much more stylish and perfectly easy to clean. I find the Karndean fan club utterly baffling. It will look naff with real wood.

I have tiles with a dog. We clean thevtiles as we would any floor!

SpoonBlender · 22/08/2018 00:25

Karndean doesn't have grout at all, if there's stuff between the panels it's more strips of karndean. The whole lot goes onto a spread of glue.
Love our karndean - sturdy, easy to clean, things usually (but not always) bounce instead of break, reasonably warm.

Original poster
StorminaBcup · 22/08/2018 11:48

We went to look at the karndean flooring today and also saw some Amtico designs while we were there. It looked much better than I thought it would, some texture and not completely uniform in colour. That said I'm not sure we can get over the fact it's vinyl Blush. It's probably going to be a huge regret but we're going to stick with tiles. Thanks for all of your replies!

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OliviaBenson · 22/08/2018 11:55

We have the karndean parquet and it fools so many people. Not sure why you are so against vinyl op, but I'd choose it over tiles any day.

BubblesBuddy · 22/08/2018 12:51

Honestly Stormin - you will not regret tiles! Classy choice!

Blackgrouse · 22/08/2018 20:23

We've had tiles, Karndean, original wooden floor boards, engineered wood flooring and Harvey Maria LVT. For practicality, durability, and warmth I love Karndean. The Harvey Maria vinyl tiles are good but can scratch. Karndean is bomb proof.

I used to be a bit snobby about having vinyl but was won over after having it in our last house. I would never replace an original tiled floor, or nice original boards or parquet with LVT but I honestly think the oak herringbone looks lovely and very realistic.

@StorminaBcup did you get a quote for the oak Karndean? I haven't even bothered as I know it's out of our budget for now, that's why we ended up with tiles.

WeeM · 22/08/2018 20:30

We have karndean and love it. I’ve seen the parquet stuff in the shop and it’s lovely (and very expensive Wink!)-I’d have had it if budget allowed. My parents have tiles and they are forever smashing stuff on it, but that could just be cos they’re clumsy!

Original poster
StorminaBcup · 22/08/2018 23:50

@Blackgrouse - we didn't, I just wanted to see how it looked in the flesh. I think it was approx £68 per sq m for Karndean and Amtico was slightly cheaper but I can't remember how much. It did look lovely but in the shop it still had that laminate look about it which I don't really like. I'm sure we'll live to regret it!

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jaffajiffy · 23/08/2018 06:18

Might you consider engineered wood? Real wood and can be sanded a few times. We have it throughout our ground floor with UFH. It’s great!

Original poster
StorminaBcup · 23/08/2018 16:10

We were told it wouldn't work well in the kitchen and with UFH as it would be prone to warping Confused

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NonaGrey · 23/08/2018 16:14

Our Karndean has been down for over ten years (kitchen and bathrooms) and is immaculate.