Please can I see pictures of your engineered wood floors... especially the scratches

[Muststopeating]

I have read and reread every Mumsnet post I can find on this and it is a complete mix of 'I love my engineered wood floor, and the dents add character' to 'My engineered wood floor is trashed and I wish I'd gone for something else'.

Could those of you who have it share pictures, especially of any scratched/worn areas. I would love to see examples of how it looks a few years on instead of the showroom finish.

We are building a considerable extension (starting imminently) and I just cannot decide on the floor. It will be the same floor through the hall, playroom, and into the open plan kitchen, diner, living room.

Budget is an issue cos this extension is eye wateringly £££ and we need nearly 100 sqm, but I would rather pay more money once and get it right.

My brain says Quickstep Impressive Laminate, my heart says Engineered Oak. Either would be in a natural colour, brushed and the more rustic the better! Not sure on brand or oiled vs lacquered/varnished for engineered.

Any advice and especially pics would be massively appreciated as I'm driving myself (and DH) nuts!

Have you looked at bamboo? Any scratches are superficial and seem to disappear with a touch of olive oil rubbed over them.
I might also suggest that the hallway is something else, such as carpet, we found that with a large kitchen the sound travels straight through the house on the hard floor

Thanks Loofah01. I have looked at bamboo, but its the knots and cracks of oak that I really love. If I was giving those up I'd probably opt for the 'fake' it route and save some pennies to put towards the kitchen.

Good point on the hallway, the reason we are having the same floor all the way through is because it is very open plan... we will have a 2.4m opening from the hall into the dining end of the extension. That's not to say we can't have a different floor of course, but I have always loved the idea of the seamless flow. I will definitely be investing in a great big hall runner and another big rug for the playroom.

I had engineered in a previous house. We were there about 5 years - the elderly cat had an accident and couldn’t get it out. It had heel marks in the hall as my daughter was into high heels at that point. Ok if you’re a shoe remover. Would I have it again? Probably not. My current house has solid oak which has been refinished once and came out looking like new. This was bought from a reclamation yard and from memory the difference in price wasn’t horrendous. You need to shop around for someone reasonable to finish it though. Second time I plucked someone out of the paper and he was wonderful and reasonable to pay by luck.

We have quickstep laminate, it has chipped in a couple of places where the kids have dropped heavy things on it. That definitely hasn’t added character...

We were completely set to have engineered wood in our new kitchen but decided against it after stress testing our samples with scratches, drops of oil and washing up liquid, and those definitely added 'character' that we didn't want.

We have now decided for Amtico, it seems indestructible and the wood looks very real. It's not installed yet so I am hoping it will live up to its promises.

I have Karndean oak throughout a large open plan downstairs plus hall, downstairs toilet and utility. It looks great, not echoey, cleans really easily and is pretty indestructible. I would definitely look at this instead of laminate.

We’ve got engineered oak. We’re only a few months in, but it’s a big open plan expanse, a little smaller than yours, OP. We’ve got 2 little kids and a very lively dog and I haven’t noticed any marks yet. We went for varnished over oiled as it’s more hardwearing, and a thick top layer that will allow 3 or 4 sand downs. I love it - but then I really hate things ‘pretending’ to be other things, so fake wood laminate / vinyl / tiles aren’t my thing. My parents have real wood in their house and an enormous open plan space. They’ve had it sanded once, I think, in 40 years, and it looks amazing, despite multiple dogs / cats / kids not being very respectful to it. It’s not pristine, but because it’s wood, the marks look part of it, in a way I don’t think would be the case with a different material.

I was put off engineered wood for the fact I was told you can only sand them down 3 times before they need replacing and we have high traffic, dogs etc. I went with stone in the end . I would do karndean instead of I didn't need a breathable material.

We’ve had lacquered engineered oak floors in the hallway and sitting room for 11 years.
We remove shoes at the front door.
The majority of the scratches are from my excitable dog. We have the odd dent when something heavy has been dropped but generally it’s very durable with toys etc.
If it weren’t for the dog it would be in great condition for an 11 year old floor.
Our issue is it creaks a lot but that’s to do with rooky installation and a bouncy suspended sub-floor.
I personally wouldn’t have it in a kitchen in case of leaks but plenty of people do.

I’m happy with oak engineered floorboards. Few marks but can be sanded to look nearly new. The depth of mine allowed sandings up to 5 or 8 times. From a company called Timberland.

We have engineered oak in the hall and living/dining room and the only things that have scratched it are if a dining chair has been dragged in or out when there’s a small piece of dirt or something under the leg. And those scratches have easily been polished/buffed/oiled out.

It depends on your lifestyle/household but after doing lots of agonising like you when choosing flooring the upshot seemed to be real wood or LVT. I didn't fancy the upkeep of real wood with children/pets/clumsy adults so went with Karndean & very glad I did. Looks immaculate years later & so easy to clean. Don't have to rush to sort stains/spillages etc. There wasn't much difference in price between that and real wood to be fair. Almost every floor shop advised against engineered for the reasons others have stated, you can only refinish it so many times or you have to have a very hard-wearing/ugly varnish.

Does LVT look as good as real wood? No. It's pretty close though & miles better than laminate.

We have engineered oak in the living room, had it put in a few months ago just before we moved in. We have 2 small kids although no dog, still looks like new, though there are a few very small marks from when we moved in. We don't allow shoes to be worn on it and take great care moving furniture around, etc. Thick 14mm top layer so should allow for a fair few sandings! Absolutely love it, beautiful warm colour and some lovely knots.

In general cheaper floors look cheaper. Especially when the floor is mimicking something real.

If you're looking for hard wearing, totally agree with bamboo. It's pretty indestructible.

Real wood will mark, especially in a kitchen. If you want it to stay immaculate, it probably won't in a kitchen or high traffic area.

Oiled is more forgiving than varnished.

Sanding is hugely messy and you would lose a detail such as a bevelled edge.

So pros and cons. Depends what is most important to you.

Thanks so much for all your replies. Those of you who have it and say it still looks great have given me such hope. It really is such a mixed bag though and I wonder how mcuh of it comes down to colour (i.e. would a darker stain be less forgiving) and brand?

In terms of lifestyle, we have a 3 year old, 2 year old and one on the way... and DH would love to get a puppy/dog in the next few years. The front door and the new extension door will also come directly from outside onto the new floor. We are a shoes off house (because I have light carpets in the lounge and upstairs), but I have exactly zero intention of following the kids (or myself) round with a cloth wiping up every tiny drop of water. So in short, we're going to be pretty tough on anything we choose.

@Kamma89 I have had the same experience with almost every flooring shop warning me away from wood - which I know should be enough for me to walk away. I really did think I'd made my mind up on faking it and then I did one of those room visualiser things and completely fell in love with the real stuff all over again. Sigh!

If we opted for oak it would have to be Engineered as the extension will have underfloor heating + 40% glazed, so solid wood would warp. Otherwise @Countmeout I would 100% be searching high and low for reclaimed floorboards and starting with something that had some decent dents!

Stone/tiles aren't an option because I think it will be too cold in the older parts of the house which are drafty and won't have UFH (not enough head height for wet UFH), but also because I am so clumsy it is ridiculous and nothing would survive!

@Mouseparty is there any chance you could send me a couple of pictures of the scratches? Do they come out white and very obvious or are they just sort of dented but similar in colour?

@irisetta your floor is beautiful and exactly what I'd love to put down. Do the small marks bother you? Do you find you have to be very precious with it?

@tilder I don't think I do need it to stay immaculate, and in fact the more 'rustic' I can buy it originally the better... I am really just trying to understand how damaged it could end up looking. I have read that lacquer protects more but do you think oil is more forgiving because it's easier to 'patch' repair. Agree, that we will almost certainly never sand it down again! Very good point re. the bevel, I hadn't thought of that.

I have ordered lots of samples to do the stress testing as I saw that suggested on here a while ago and it's a brilliant idea.

I have friends who are about to put down a mass of Amtico, which I am looking forward to seeing in person. The reason I am leaning for laminate (albeit the most expensive one I can find) is that LVT, Amtico/Karndean, requires a perfect subfloor, which we definitely do not have in the old part of the house. The cost of a new subfloor added to the already quite high cost of the LVT itself plus the fact that DH couldn't fit it himself means I could almost have the engineered wood twice over!

In case it's not immediately obvious I overthink everything to the point of my head exploding. If it was just one room I'd take a chance but to be such a massive mass I'm terrified of making the wrong decision, so all your opinions and pictures are a massive help!

This is a close-up of a very high traffic doorway. The scratches are dark not white and are mostly visible when light is on them.
It looks bad in the photo but they are pretty much all attributed to our large dog - that is the compromise of dog ownership! I think only stone flooring would be fully dog proof for us!
It’s a huge decision for you and you're right to get lots of opinions and try to see real life photos.

@Mouseparty that picture is soooo helpful and exactly what I was hoping to see! And indeed I really don't think marks like that would bother me. I do wonder if the mumsnetters who have described their floors as ruined had a varnished and smooth (as opposed to brushed) finish which showed scratches like that much more. And then I wonder if I'm being recklessly optimistic and trying to justify the thing I really want.

I think in my head I am picturing scratched laminate and as @BananaPie alluded to, the chips and scratches in laminate can be much more obvious and there really is nothing you can do about them when they happen.

I read every past thread on engineered/ LVT flooring I could lay my hands on before I had flooring put down in my extension.
In the end I chose Amtico Spacia honey oak, 3 years on and still delighted. Had loads of parties and dancing on it, still looks good as new. So easy to clean, maintenance free really.

Sorry I missed the bit about the subfloor.

The other thing I wished I had known was the drying time of the new concrete slab, which no one had warned me about in advance. Something like 1 week for every 1 millimetre? Quite a few months anyway.

I have quickstep majestic desert Oak warm natural in my living room and I love it. Looks fantastic, doesn't scratch with 3 DC and a dog and most importantly, never looks dirty. I really agonised over this choice as I put limestone in my kitchen and that was a huge, costly mistake.

When your samples arrive you’ll be able to abuse them and see what the ‘marks’ look like in the light of your home.
Good luck with the extension.

We have engineered brushed oiled oak in our kitchen, utility, study and hallway. We have three teens and a large dog. There are some marks similar to above where the dog lands when he runs down the stairs, and one dent where I dropped a very large and very heavy vase. The only bit that has caused a problem I'm unhappy about is where we had a leaky basing with some bicarb in it that left some black stains. That was my fault though, and the only thing that wouldn't have been spoiled would be tiles.

We love it, and plan to have it again in our extension later this year.

We have karndeen. 5 years in including child and dog traffic and it’s still as new.

We've got engineered oak - oiled and thick enough to withstand 3 sandings - it's been down just over 4 yrs and I still love it. Like you we have quite an open plan house and it's lovely not to have door thresholds into every room. We've got wet UFH throughout and the wood feels lovely underfoot in the mornings! There's a few scratches (pic 1), but no stains, despite two teenagers and red wine drinkers. I Hoover regularly but don't often wash it, just wipe up spills as and when. Water does leave a stain if not mopped up, but they can be reoiled easily.

We did take the fitters advice to not have it in the kitchen. I was worried about oil splashes or a leak from dishwasher or sink. So we have Karndean in a L shape in the working part of the kitchen. See pic for how it joins. Same karndean in the bathrooms and utility room, and a fitted coir mat in the porch, where we keep our shoes. You don't need a perfect floor for karndean - the fitter can just lay a latex screed over whatever is currently on the floor (we had it laid over ceramic tiles in our old house)

Previous houses have had laminate, (cheap) parquet, carpet, tiles and nasty (full of nails, ragged edges, huge drafty gaps) floorboards. Our engineered oak is by far the best looking and most hard-wearing thing

I have rustic engineered oak ( oiled ) through the bottom of my house. It looks great and there is just one area that in the morning does a couple of creaks/ cracking type noises ( we had been warned there is a lot of noise from engineered, but we used a good thick underlay)

We don't have an water marks from drips, but food will make oily marks on it. It seems to be when stuff sticks on, like a squished bit of cake. Weirdly today I wiped off ketchup from last night and it hadn't stained, but a stray bit of stuck on porridge had made a oily mark. So having young children myself that's the main issue all around the dining table.

Big dent or stratches can be filled with wax, you can buy kits to fill. But of a hassle I guess.

I don't know whether different finishes are better for kids. We have a dog and it's not scratched the floor, but a few scratches from ride on cars if a small stone or grit gets under the wheels. I wouldn't say big issue.

My parents have had solid floors in the past and they always seem to have gaps.

The fake wood my friends had in a toilet and it did really look like wood, it does have a bit of sheen, not sure how warm it is though. For us the engineered wood has made our house, much warmer. I love the look.