Kitchen/diner flooring - bamboo vs LVT vs eng wood?

[WorrisomeHeart]

Hi folks

Planning a kitchen extension which will give us a large open plan kitchen/diner/seating area. At the moment we have horrendously badly laid floor tiles and when we do the build I want to change to a wood or wood effect flooring. I’ve read that a LVT (Karndean or Amtico) is a good option because of durability and water resistance but have also looked at bamboo and engineered wood. Any recommendations?

I have had a bamboo floor for the past 4 years, and love it. It has survived a sink leak unscathed.

That’s great to know, thanks. What shade did you go for? Some of the online photos I’ve seen look a bit yellowy. Also did you put underlay down as well?

I have bamboo in my front room and hall for 15 years, it hasn't fared well, it's badly scuffed and marked and there is a discoloured patch in the hall where it got wet.

But I think I chose badly, it was relatively cheap not a good quality product.

We have bamboo in the hall, been down 10 years and it looks great. Unfortunately by the time we came to do our kitchen diner it had been discontinued and we used a different brand. That scratched really badly so we took it up and replaced with another type of bamboo which was hard wearing and didnt scratch, but a couple of people asked me where I got my laminate from . So my advice is if you're going to go with bamboo, get a decent size sample and make sure it doesn't scratch/ you like the look of it.

Personally I dont like LVT some have engineered oak now since we had an extension and its lovely and looks as good as when it was first put down 2 years ago.

Do you have a dog?

… If so bamboo and engineered wood will both be too slippery. Not sure about Amtico.

No dog but two kids who run everywhere. That is a good point though - MIL has shiny floors which are a death trap, I wonder what hers are.

Yes, I remember one of my nieces slipping on sock feet on my floor (engineered wood) and almost crashing headfirst into the glass display cabinet!

I guess with kids (unlike dogs) you could get them a pair of trainers to wear indoors.

Bamboo here. Love it. We looked at Karndean but couldn't get over the fact it was posh lino ( and looked it in certain lights- we got lots of samples and laid them out in various spots in the house) it also cost the same as Bamboo.

My DD has expensive engineered wood. It has lifted slightly in a couple of places and the feet of the couch have scratched it.
I have tiled flooring. Looks like pale grey slate. It's not shiny, has lots of random patterning in it (so doesn't show the dirt 🤣) and isn't slippy. We love it. I wanted wood/bamboo type floor but am glad I was persuaded to go for tile.

If you get bamboo, you should get the strand-woven type. Here's a picture of mine, which is around 4 years old. I've taken the picture of the area next to the sink, which is where the leak was.

We had bamboo in the bathroom and it was awful. It got scratched and swollen easily.