Laminate or Solid Wood Flooring?

[Kismett]

We currently have laminate in our hallway downstairs as well as the dining room. Tile in the kitchen, and carpet in the rest of the house. We are planning to change all the carpet to hard floors, probably to laminate.

Will this look bad? Should we consider wood instead? I’ve heard that laminate is easier if you have pets and children. We are planning to be in this house indefinitely so not moving anytime soon.

Also from a decorating perspective, should the bedrooms and hallway have different flooring? Does it matter if the living room and downstairs hallway don’t match? What about the stairs?

We have Balterio laminate in two rooms at the moment and absolutely love it. We've just had an extension done and are also having the same laminate in there. We asked our flooring guy about real wood flooring and he said he'd stopped doing it as the quality of the laminate had got so good, there just wasn't a market for real wood. I absolutely can't fault it and would definitely recommend it.

Personally I don't think it's a problem if the living room and hallway don't match. Not sure what you would do with the stairs though.

Mismatching hall and living room would really annoy me. Same floor throughout downstairs looks better to my eyes. I don't like real wood purely because of the upkeep involved. However even the poshest laminate looks a bit rubbish (we have it upstairs as small rooms with little floor on show. Downstairs we have karndean (LVT) and that's the only floor I'd ever get again!

No to laminate, posh vinyl all the way for me Karndean or similar.

Sorry for the late response. I didn’t even know about vinyl or that there was a massive difference! What are the main benefits of vinyl over laminate?

Are there any other brands that people would recommend? Or general tips as we go forward with quotes? We unfortunately don’t have any local recommendations and are a bit in over our heads.

Definitely have a look at LVT. We’ve just had it put in pastries it looks great

Vinyl is waterproof so spills don't matter and you can mop it. It's softer and warmer under foot and dampens sound better. Amtico and karndean are the best known and look great but they don't come cheap.

Traditionally you need a completely level floor to glue the boards down but you can now get click vinyl that lays like laminate and doesn't require screed if your floor is level enough. This makes it much more affordable.

I'd advise searching local floor shops that stock those brands and going to see them in person. The samples you get in the post are too small, you need to see a large board (most places will let you borrow one to try at home).

If you are in the north west I can recommend someone

Unfortunately we aren’t in the NW, but I appreciate the help!

Looking for dealers sounds like a good way to go. I’m worried that it will look odd having the living room be different and that we will end up replacing perfectly good flooring. But we will take a look at the samples and go from there.

Our floors are probably level but horribly creaky. It’s a cheaply done modern build so I expect we will need to spend money there, too.

Laminate is horrible stuff. I don't know why it was ever popular. It scratches easily, liquids can get in the joints and make it swell and deform. Even cheap vinyl is way better.

If you have the money then lvt tiles are the way to go.

I think all carpet areas should match and all wood/wood effect floors should match. It's ok to have different (tiles/tile effect) in kitchen and bathrooms though.

We have bamboo through the hall, kitchen, dining room, utility room and cloakroom
then we have dark carpet in the living room and family room
both of which are wallpapered rather than painted like all of the other spaces
it works

the bamboo is ten years old now

Personally I would go for wooden floors over laminate every time if I could afford it - they look gorgeous and so much nicer than laminate. However, I’d guess they're also way more expensive than laminate as well.

We have laminate in the office and LVT in the bathroom.

In the office there is a lot of furniture so a lot of the floor is covered and you don't see the repeats so much as there are only so many print variations.

The same with the LVT (Quickstep) in the bathroom, it is a relatively small room. It is very easy to clean and it is in the children's bathroom so I don't worry about water spills, lovely and warm underfoot.

The children's playroom has laminate which we laid 9 years ago when they were still into playdoh and painting. As it is a large room (used to be a double garage) you can see the repeats in the flooring so we are considering engineered wood flooring for there and a different LVT for the hall and dining room.

I have tried to find out which company has the most variation in prints on LVT but I can't seem to find an answer so if anyone does know can you tell me please.

Laminate can look very good, but I am leaning more toward LVT or engineered wood flooring for the realistic look.

For those of you using engineered wood flooring or bamboo flooring, how practical are they? I was thinking laminate for sheer practicality but it sounds like LVT or one of the other options could offer practicality while looking nicer. Cost is always going to be a factor, but my main reason for leaning away from wood flooring is that it seems more stressful to maintain.

my bamboo is now ten years old and looking tired
but then I have had multiple teenage parties that turned the whole downstairs into a swamp

being 13mm thick wood its nothing that a sand and seal will not cure in the next few years

Good quality laminates like quickstep are waterproof and arent prone to scrapes and scratches but can be noisy with kids, dogs, heels etc. Wood needs looking after and resealing/restaining in heavy wear areas