Flooring dilemmas

[LoveAngel]

We recently moved into a new house (Edwardian semi) and are restoring / replacing the floors all over the house.
Downstairs we are going to sand and varnish the original floorboards in the reception rooms, and the wooden parquet in the entrance hall. However, we are unsure as to what to do in our kitchen and upstairs. If anyone has any advice on the following I'd be so grateful, as I am getting confused with all the conflicting advice I am getting from flooring companies.

Kitchen - we're getting a new white gloss kitchen with solid oak work surfaces and a big walnut dining table. We had one of the more expensive 'wood effect' laminates in our old kitchen and it just got really dirty looking and scratched really quickly. What would you choose? A solid wood floor? Some sort of tiling? Ceramic? Amtico/Karndean etc? originally I'd wanted quite a light wood parquet - do you think that sounds nightmarish to keep clean?

Upstairs in general - are natural wood floorboards ^really* as noisy as people say, and as draughty/chilly to live with?

Children's bedroom - do we go for cosy carpet or something easier to keep clean?

our bedroom - we have ordered an iron bed and are thinking of dark-ish wood furniture and light creamy colour scheme. I originally wanted a wooden floor with a big rug after the nightmare of trying to keep a beige carpet clean in our last house. Any advice on the best solution?

Bathroom - we are getting a new, white bathroom with glossy white wall tiling. I don't want a floor with white grouting (again, had trouble keeping it clean last time) - so do we go for white floor tiles with grey grouting? or something completely different?

HELP!! I am so crap at this design stuff.

We jave just gone for porcelein tiles in the kitchen. We looked at various things. Real stone was expensive - we liked Limestone but was advised no as looks fantastic but is a nightmare to look after. We also looked at Amtico - but it just looked fake - may go for it in our bathroom though (when and if we do it).

In our house in the US, we had wooden floors upstairs. I liked them for cleaning. I could just take a broom and scoop everything out from under beds into the middle of the floor. I didn't find them cold.

I would be cautious about using original floorboards upstairs because they won't have been sound or heat insulated.

I would definitely recommend tiles for the kitchen -you can get some really good stone and slate effect ones now that are easy to care for.

For a bathroom I would always opt for wood -warmer than tiles underfoot but easy to maintain providing its sealed well. We have reclaimed parquet flooring in our bathroom.

For childrens bedrooms I would go for carpet -quieter, warmer.

For your bedroom -???? It depends on the overall look you want I suppose and what you prefer underfoot in the morning.

We're having the current dilemma of choosing a stair carpet -we're not carpet people (tiles, wood everywhere other than children's bedrooms) so its proving to be difficult.

I have stripped floorboards all over my house upstairs and down and I like them. Whether they're noisy depends a lot on whether you wear shoes inside. In the kitchen and bathrooms I have vinyl, since you want something easy to scrub there. I'd think that parquet would look gorgeous but you'd want to make sure it would be water-resistant and doesn't have any cracks in which food can stick. I have a bit of a problem in my dining room when DS throws food around and it gets into the grooves in the floor. You may find that some things aren't possible/easy because of what your floors are currently like - originally I wanted tiles on the kitchen and bathroom floors but apparently you'd have to rip out the old floorboards and replace them with some special boarding in order to get a surface flat and fixed enough to tile onto.

hi LA

-agree laminate in kitchen a nightmare to keep clean.
-now have real wood floor which is better, but then its darker.
-slate or stone style ceramic (man-made) tiles are the easiest to take care of. practically impossible to damage, whereas 'natural' stone products do take more care to keep looking good. close up, the do look and feel better/nicer, but how close are you or anyone lse really likely to be to your floor? about as far as you are tall and from that height, its overall clean-ness will be more noticable than consistency of grain imo. i dunno, has to be a personal choice. im bigly into the real stuff, but the maintenence issues do concern me... ask in shops for said issues for each product you are interested in. and finishes etc.
-light wood parquet sounds lovely, but again, the lightness may mean more mopping than youd hope...
and personally, i think a warmer surface underfoot may be an idea as we are cold in winter. underfloor heating or an aga will keep chills out of floors, but otherwise... perhaps a lino-type stuff may feel nicer, its something to consider. amtico vastly expensive but i think can look great esp if youre not trying to 'pretend' its a real floor (imo), as can other products of same variety.

upstairs in geneeral -
we now have wood everywhere but most bedrooms and i do love it, but yes, the noise issue is a problem for us and i am having lots of rugs/runners put around the landing area to help with it. think rugs/runners a good sloution as can still see the wood at sides, can change in years to come m easily enough and can take up altogether when the rest of the house fills up a bit and is less echoey.

dc bedrooms - hmmm, we went for a v cosy carpet in the end and i do love it, but seriously considered cleanliness issue. looked into carpet tile thins (huego) as an option as any damaged bits can be easily replaced and theres lots of styles and patterns etc... if you do go hard floor in there, you'll need rugs (and a way to keep them still so theyre not death traps!) as imo, comfort is a big factor to consider in a bedroom.

your room - as long as you have lovely plush rugs on either side of bed to step onto, i think hard floor in there is ok comfort-wise. i certainly like the look. in the end, we carpetted a nice soft neutral carpet in there and it is more cosy and haven-like in there.

bathroom - you can grouts in a veritable rainbow of colours btw.
my personal vave for in here is a rubber floor we have in the family bathroom. have made floor a wetroom (even tho its not really) and put down a rubber floor surface and its indestructible, looks good, warm underfoot, no seals or groutlines to collect muck.
have a wood floor in our own bathroom and if you want that, i have mucho detailed advice on how to seal and with what products

forgot to add some links to get you started:

got most of our wood flooring from here. is good quality and prices more resonable (for quality) than many mnay i could mention

gorgeous woods from here. our bathroom is all clad in the mango.

altro. do lots and lots of flooring stuff, inc the rubber floors

good site to salivate over, then feel good about the prices youll be paying elsewhere. my word but these people are making a mint!

huega carpet tiles. some interesting designs for kids rooms... plenty more of that ilk around

porcelanosa do large size natural and ceramic tiles for floors and walls.

the salivating one didnt work. try again here

how about travertine or slate/fake slate for the kitchen? it is hard-wearing and practical and looks great. You might need underfloor heating though?

same for the bathroom - with underfloor heating - you could use limestone/travertine in the bathroom as easier to keep clean in there

boards in bedrooms - i guess have a look at them - they can be poorer quality than downstairs - see what the gaps are like. You can fill gaps but in 2-3 years bits of filler will fall out

i would imagine carpet could even be cheaper than sanding/varnishing/decent rugs

we have polished floors downstairs which I like and a solid oak floor in the kitchen which I also like. (I have had to stop being obsessed with it getting scratched though!).

Upstairs I currently have stripped floors in ds's room and painted floors in the dds' room. In the other 2 bedrooms I have carpet. I think from a cleaning point of view, stripped floors are best for the dcs - no matter how much I police them, somehow food/felt tips/nail varnish etc ends up on the floor. However, I think carpet looks better. So sorry no help there - I am in the same dilemma as you, currently considering whether to carpet all of upstairs.

Tiles with underfloor heating in a kitchen is great Carpet or sisal in bedrooms is warmer and looks nice.

Wow, can't stop long tonnight (back tomorrow) but a HUGE thank you to all of you for such fantastic and detailed advice.
Nappies - brilliant! Thank you soooo much. Will be back tomorrow with proper response xx

youre very welcome my dear