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!

We have engineered oak came with new build. The exterior of the development is paved with these annoying little stones and when they get wedged under shoes it scratches the floor. We have a few quite ugly scratches but I think I'm the only one that notices them. Would have to be a lot worse for me to bother sanding. Been down eight years and young kids all that time.

I have engineered wood in two lounges. Still perfect after 10 years. We have rugs.

Engineered wood in a bedroom and bathroom with no problems either.

I do have a problem in a bedroom in my holiday house where French doors lead outside. It’s not a good idea to have wood next to an external door. Have tiles!

That’s the key really. Have it in lower trafficked areas. Have ceramic tiles in halls and kitchens. Be careful in bathrooms.

We have oiled oak engineered (limed effect, so lightish)Dogs small large children lots of mud, tomato sauce oil dragged chairs, spilled water.
9 years in has patina and still looks great.

The laminate I see in people's houses not only copes badly with leaks and spills (disintegrates beneath) but gives off a strange smell...VOCs give me itchy eyes etc. Also it sounds and feels wrong when you walk on it...sort of hard and clicky unlike the spring of wood.
Wood with a big rug....you can't go wrong...even pine floorboards are nicer than laminate...

There are definitely scratches and scuffs though...but it's like wrinkles...looks natural rather than ugly or damaged.
Oiled rather than varnished is better.

I've had mine down for about 6 years now. Adult household with four cats. Shoes off usually but not 100% of the time.

It is mostly in really good condition. A couple of boards have had a bit chip off the edge like this but other issues are more from obvious accidents or something. There is a big scratch in the hallway from when a courier pushed a heavy parcel in and there was a stone on the floor under it.

One thing I would do differently is go for a lacquer finish boards. Mine are waxed finish and it's not as durable. I would also definitely go for a lighter shade as this one shows every little bit of debris (nightmare with cat litter trays in the house!).

Please don’t have it in doorways - it gets warped, but worse it’s INCREDIBLY slippery. A friend slipped on hers and broke her collarbone in several places. For the same reason it’s really not suitable for bathrooms!

@mustopeating - the scratches are tiny! Most of them you can rub out. It's a textured finish so minor scratches don't seem to show up.

I would query getting it in high traffic hallways though, the contrast in damage would get on your nerves within a few years x

We have engineered oak over wet UFH. Just under 30m2. Installed about 3.5 years ago.

Overall I think it's done well. Scratches where dining chairs missing their felt pads have moved across it, or where we've been careless and scratched it somehow (probably a small stone underfoot or under furniture we've slid). Scratches not too bad even so.

We have 8mm (thickest) with the idea we can sand down lots of times. We're probably too lazy to do that though!!

Big issue for us is that the builder didn't get the final layer of screed right. As we have long (8ft) planks, it bounces in place where it passes over dips and hollows. It really annoys me. Be utterly fascist with your builder on this. Also get the flooring supplier to fit it. We let the builder quote for and get their joiner to do it, and they ballsed-up a couple of bits (over and above the dips). Again, pretty annoying.

We have a smooth finish, varnished. As for you, we (I ) spent aaaaages agonising over which finish. For us, smooth and slightly light reflecting as it's a relatively small living/dining room.

We are v lazy and it only gets washed once a week by cleaner (not at moment!!) and swept in between. Spills wiped up. Red wine and other spills haven't had any impact.

Would I lay it again? Yes, definitely, but not making the same mistakes as above.

I would also consider (and did!!) Karndean. No difference in price iirc. I think it would be overall warmer underfoot than wood when UFH not on, but could be wrong.

First 2 pics below are of the same spot, but different angles. Scratches are from dining chair. We have felt pads but sometimes they wear down or fall off, or get grit underneath. I don't notice them. Third picture is the highest internal traffic zone. Perfect. We are a shoes off house. The varnished finish has done less well in the hall and is looking a bit patchy in the threshold. That could be muck, however! (4th pic in next post). We should probably have a rug. If you go for a brushed finish in any medium (wood, vinyl, etc.) you'll probably end up with muck stuck in the grooves near entrances, so a rug probably a good idea anyway.

Last pic of the hallway nearest the door. The lightest board on the RHS definitely looks a bit ropey. Dirt has stuck into the gaps in the grain. It hasn't been properly washed since before Christmas, however, just a lick and a promise.

@hennybeans

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.

Why do you say that about the limestone?

I know you don't want bamboo but for anyone else - Our Bamboo has no scratches 9 years in that I can find. The patch where the dishwasher leaks on it a bit has just gone slightly darker but no damage. Apart from hoovering and washing it it's had no maintenance in that time.

Interesting about bamboo - we had that down in our flat before we had kids and it scratched like nobody's business. Huge mistake.

We have engineered oak (lacquered finish) in our hall, playroom and downstairs toilet. Very high traffic areas. It still looks good after 4 years, 2 wild children and 2 cats.

We actually got a massive scratch in it the minute we put it down, when we were replacing a storage unit in the hall. At the time I was absolutely gutted but actually it sort of just melted into the fabric of the wood and now I'm not even sure I could find it again.

The only downside is that the hall gets a lot of sun and has a rug down. When you move the rug the wood is a different colour underneath, so the sun has lightened the surrounding wood. Not a big deal.

We also got one with loads of layers so we could sand and re-lacquer. My parents are about to do this, having laid their similar floor about 12 years ago.

I have limestone in my holiday home in the kitchen and bathrooms. It needs resealing all the time. Grime gets into it and stays in it. We are planning to get rid of it. Fine when new but 12 years in, not great except in the bathrooms.

My recommendation is look alike limestone ceramic tiles. I have them in my hall and kitchen at home. Much better! No one can tell the difference!

@Bereftmypoormum. The limestone always looks terrible, every drop from a tea bag or wet paw print shows. Looks dirty even after is just been mopped ( even with expensive limestone cleaner). The grout is dirty, discoloured, and cracked and it's only 3 years old.

I hate the limestone and it was expensive. I had read others saying not to get it, but I just had a certain look in my head and ignored the advice.

Me too! Regret it!

We have the lacquer finish on the wood floor by the French doors but it’s worn. So it’s not bomb proof with wet/trafficked areas. Definitely get ceramic tiles for these areas and built in mats!

Our dark engineered lacquered oak gas been down at least 7 years and still looks great - no scratches. We got an amazing deal online and paid £16/SQM.

Our b&q laminate in the kitchen has not faired so well and has chipped. As it's a slate effect, I touch that up with children's black paint!

We’ve got engineered oak flooring throughout our downstairs (but not in kitchen, utility or toilet, which are tiled). It’s been down 24 years since they last renovated. It’s in lovely condition still. The engineered floor is the only decorative thing we’re keeping when we start a new renovation shortly, as it’s lovely quality. I’ve had a wood floor guy over to confirm that he can sand and restain it a darker colour. It’s 6mm thick, so apparently could take 2 resandings.

Glad to read your review on the limestone @PresentingPercy. I’ve been looking at limestone flooring for our new kitchen and utility. I think I’ll go with the porcelain that looks like limestone instead! Thanks

What the hardest wearing finish on engineered? We have oiled, but I didn't actually consider the finish only the look

We have amtico. Picture is from before the kitchen’s fitted to show its full glory. Absolutely love it and still can’t believe how realistic it looks.

OP the marks do not bother me one bit! They look fine against the surface of the floor. Having said that, it's a room that we are making off-limits to the kids! In high traffic areas we will probably put down LVT. x

Hi @Muststopeating i came across this thread while researching as I am in exactly the same situation at the minute and I am going backwards and forwards constantly between LVT and engineered wood. I want engineered wood but I know LVT is probably a more sensible decision with two small children and a big dog. Argh I can not decide! I'm just wondering what you went for in the end?

We had engineered wood in our old house - similar to you in a large extension and through into the hallway.
We sold 3 years after the work and it still looked brilliant. I would have loved karndean but it just wasn't in budget. However I'm pleased with our choice. This photo is from the summer

Hi everyone. Sorry I disappeared... kids, work, pregnancy, extension and a husband that works away. All your replies have been soooo helpful. Thank you so much.

@soggycornflakes we haven't committed but after getting a whole load of samples I think we are probably going to go for Quickstep Impressive laminate with the silent walk underlay.

Its certainly not the popular choice, even the builder says he doesn't install laminate anymore only click vinyl. I'm a little confused by it. LVT is beautiful and the floors that have been shared on here are gorgeous, and the different lay patterns you can have etc are amazing and make it unique. Some of it is also bomb proof.

But... there seems to be such snobbery round laminate because its fake, yet LVT is still an imitation product but doesn't seem to have the same stigma.

If you are considering LVT just make sure you have a quote for the fit in advance. The need for a perfect subfloor can make an already quite expensive product very expensive. As an estimate (which I'm sure varies widely), we were told about £22 sqm for a new subfloor + £15 sqm to install the product (though that would vary dependent on laying pattern). When Amtico itself varies between £30-75 sqm it can get seriously expensive (perhaps thats why the snobbery isn't there).

I also mentioned some friends who were having a mass of LVT installed... i obviously haven't seen it in person yet but it does look fab in pictures. However, there's was installed in a new extension with a brand new concrete screed that was supposed to be poured with LVT in mind. It still took the fitters (Amtico registered and do this every single day) 4 days to prepare the subfloor before they could start installation.

All that being said if we were having parquet/herringbone i probably would consider the LVT for its durability.

However, on the large planks I prefer the textures of the Quickstep and find them more realistic... but its obviously all personal taste. Unfortunately the one I prefer in terms of colour I have ruled out having had a large sample because it has a design with a very significant 'groove'. Which i don't dislike but is going to make the repeat of the pattern VERY obvious.

Anyway, this is turning into a monster but I just wanted to share my pictures of my samples that i tested. Now caveat is that this was fairly extreme testing (so more intense than the average floor would suffer).

The very first (accidental) test we did was the kids started playing with the samples and using them for stepping stones. The wood samples were already marked after that.

We left tomato ketchup, vinegar and water on the samples overnight. This didn't really bother them, except one (the oiled engineered wood) which darkened slightly under the water, but even that dried up after a bit longer. I then popped a chuckie (we have a gravel drive and doors that come via slabs straight onto the floor) on top and danced around in my slippers... none of them liked that at all, but the laminate definitely held up much better.

Then i tried various things to scratch the samples. None of them touched the laminate but it didnt take much to scratch the wood.

Finally, we dropped a butter knife from standing height... that leaves a mark in the laminate and the wood.

The woods were Kahrs (though not one of their top range) and the laminate was Quickstep Impressive. I also tested a more expensive, absolutely beautiful engineered wood from a local company that is Osmo oiled, but I'll have to dig that out to get a picture.

Ultimately I think I've concluded that although the wood will look much better, I am not so sure it will still look better in a couple of years. So i will be eternally jealous of you all who have it and can only assume that you are better at looking after your house than I am!

Quickstep Impressive Classic Oak (this is the one with the distinctive groove) - these pictures are after the 'tests'.