Who can tell me about wood floors?

[custardlover]

When we moved in 7 years ago I was advised to get a very hard wearing wood-look laminate as my floor. Advised by my dad who - while he does know a lot about floors - also was probably being very frugal in a way which I probably don't have to be once my bonus comes through later this year. I don't love it and it's been 7 years and I would love to change it. I'd love 'real' wood but I do want it to be hard wearing (two DCs) and my floor is not all even; the house is from the 1910s and there is an extension and I can see the 'join' in the floor (now all open plan) when the new build is.

Any advice? What would you do / what would I look out for? Thanks very much in advance :)

I'm certainly no expert but currently renovating our 1905 house so am familiar with some options. I guess you could choose between reclaimed wood, engineered wood or luxury vinyl tiles like karndean or amtico. Engineered wood probably looks more authentic but lvt is more hardwearing and can look really nice. We have restored our original wooden floorboards in some rooms in our house but we are going to put lvt in the new kitchen extension in a herringbone style.

Laminate is still probably the more hardwearing imo, especially for the price (and some of the more high end ones I've seen look very "real" imo - I chose a quickstep one). I looked at a couple of brands of vinyl planks and I liked them for tile/stone effects, but I felt good laminates looked and felt more "real" for wood effect, personally.

Engineered wood could be a good compromise if you really hate laminate - I'd choose one with a thick enough top layer that you can sand it down a couple of times if it gets marked (most "real woods" seem to mark more easily than quality laminate or vinyl I think, simply because it tends to be a bit softer).

No experience of what's best for uneven floors though, hopefully someone can help.

We’re redoing our kitchen in a 400 year old house and replacing the floor. We’re going for reclaimed floorboards.

Laminate is still the low end option and it doesn't add value to your property in the way that real wood (either solid or engineered) will do.

We have commercial grade expensive laminate in our kitchen and snug which has been down about 8 years. We are about to take it up and replace it with real wood (engineered herringbone). The laminate has scratched and worn over the years and if you drop something on it and it pierces the photo layer then it looks dreadful. At the end of the day its just a photo of wood stuck onto board and varnished. We have Karndean (LVT) upstairs in two bathrooms which is good and definitely better than laminate but has also scratched a bit. Wood will obviously scratch in some situations but you can sand and oil it very easily.

We did engineered wood in our old house (if I remember it was Original Timber smoked oak) and it was hard wearing enough for it to look good when we sold the house 8 years later without needing to be re-sanded). Going to put the same in the new one, once we get round to it.

Laminate is crap, damages easily. We have engineered oak. Looks great still 12 years on

Solid wood is pretty much indestructible in my experience, unless there is a water/damp problem. If it gets too scratched you just sand it down. Parents have had wooden floors for over 40 years, and even after DB and I abused the floor for years it still looked fine. I think they're dark stained oak, but not sure.

Thanks - I would very much like wood (currently we have something called Tegola which is a sort of very thick vinyl laminate planks) and it's fine but I want wood now. I was just worried about the uneven floors really; original part of the house will have presumably original boards and then extended part of the house has poured concrete and I can see the join under the Tegola at least. But I guess wood can be sanded smooth?

They're likely to level the sub floor with ply before fitting.