Please talk to me about flooring... very confused

[SecondBabyGirl]

So we are having almost all of our downstairs renovated apart from the lounge. Hallway, big L-shaped kitchen/living/diner, utility and toilet. Need new floors throughout.

Builder had based quote on having engineered wood flooring everywhere apart from utility and toilet which would be tiled. However this is pricing up to be a huge amount, partly because it’s a big area in total but also because everywhere will need levelling first (floors will all be ripped up/dug new drainage and pipes etc). My questions are:

• do I have any cheaper options? Considering tiles for the hallway. But is engineered wood the best hard floor to have in a kitchen/living/dining?

• how do I choose? I need something to be hard wearing, the living space will be a high traffic area and we have a spirited toddler plus new baby very soon.

• I want the flooring to be non-slip as possible, is this a thing?!

Sorry I know I am probably being very naive. We are having quite a big renovation and I am a bit overwhelmed with choices (also got to choose wall tiles, bathroom suites, floor, paint, carpet etc). I just want a floor that looks nice and clean and won’t cost a fortune but is quite resilient. Is that even a thing? Thanks!

Friends have Karndean. They're very happy with it.
Engineered Wood is very strong so perhaps best for high traffic area.
Out house has the most awful cheap laminate put in by a previous owner which we are going to replace because of looks. But we have a dog and the floor stands up to her claws really well.
The scratches on it are caused by stones on shoes. Most decent flooring is pretty resilient.

If you're going to the trouble of a big renovation then getting the right floor is a sensible investment.
Surely the levelling will have to be done regardless.
Perhaps ring a few flooring companies yourself and see if you can get a deal on the flooring if you're having a lot.

We have engineered wood throughout ground floor - it's lasted 10 years so far and probably only just starting to look like it needs sanding. The good thing is that you can sand and re varnish it at least twice so you get a good life out of it - you can't sand karndean

It's less slippy than laminate and In the kitchen if you drop something on it it's hard wearing but not going to smash like tiles would

Whatever option you choose you're going to have to put levelling compound down on the floor

I wouldn't tile such a large space unless you are having underfloor heating

You will find a lot of the cost is in the prep and labour for fixing. Not the cost of the floor.

Tiles are best for halls and kitchens etc in my view. Engineered wood is a veneer of wood. The lacquer wears in highly trafficked areas especially when in direct contact with outside. We have ceramic tiles in our hall with a huge built in door mat by the front door. This helps protect all floors.

Wood in kitchens tends to loom used and abused over time. I think ceramic is better and you can join wood to ceramic pretty seamlessly. We have wood in our lounges and dining room. It’s 12 years old and perfect. I doubt if it would be in the hall or kitchen. I don’t drop things but getting a wood floor sanded and re lacquered costs more than the odd mug dropped. If you do have wood throughout,,go for the thickest veneer you can get. There are also discount companies which have good deals.

We didn't want to spend too much either, and ruled out wood because of the damage it gets - I kept thinking school hall floor damage - we went for a LVT over the majority of our downstairs busy rooms (lounge/kitchen/diner floor, utility, hallway), tiled bathroom and laminate snug. I like LVT best. I bought it from Benchmarx and it was cheaper than Karndean but shop around if you do go for LVT.

Floors absolutely need levelling though - there's a self levelling compound you can buy but perhaps best to get a tradesman to do that

.... this is our LVT by the way

We're also doing this.

Not having any tiles saves money. We're having LVT all over the downstairs apart from the downstairs loo (not touched in this reno)

Our floors also needed levelling before laying and it's also been expensive.

It was laid yesterday and I LOVE IT!!! Honestly, so pleased with this. It's from Tapi carpets

Although you can't sand Karndean, you can replace single tiles, something you can't do with normal tiles. Might be worth looking into for your utility areas, and maybe the kitchen.

I'm assuming you don't want carpet due to the open plan nature of the rooms?

I wouid I best in engineered wood - we did and love it

Thanks all so much.
So our layout is that we have hallway first, with the Lounge off to the right (which is already carpeted and isn’t being touched), and then you go straight into the living area part of the L shape room. Then after that is the kitchen, then the dining, and then the utility and toilet off there.

If I could I think I’d have tiles in the kitchen, hall, utility and toilet and only have wood in the living and dining areas but this would look bizarre as they aren’t next to each other. So I can have tiles in the hall but then whatever I have in the L shaped room needs to be all over. Then tiles in utility and toilet.

Will I actually save any money by having tiles in the hall?

@Andthenanothercupoftea yeah carpet would look weird I think, because of layout

Ps. Can anyone who has had LVT tell me roughly how much they’ve spent per metre squared? The builder was allowing £45 per sqm for supplying the engineered wood so we’d need to spend significantly less than this on LVT if we were going to make substantial savings. I’ve seen some for as little as £10 per sqm but I’m not sure of the quality.

@SecondBabyGirl - I have just looked at my invoices, I spent between £30 per square metre for Quickstep Livyn Plus and and then it was £40 on top for the matting underneath. I also used the Quickstep Laminate in my dining room and that was £20 per square metre. To be honest I can't tell a huge difference between the two, but the Livyn is waterproof which is why I used it in my bathroom (and liked it so much I have carried the same flooring through the hall) I am in a bungalow). Actually it doesn't seem that much cheaper than the engineered wood (but I guess that wouldnt have worked in my bathroom anyway).

There's loads of options but all floor coverings have their own associated costs. Levelling with a latex screed is pretty cheap and required for a wood or tiled floor. Then you have the glue (wood floor) or tile adhesive (tiles) plus the actual flooring.
Carpet needs underlay and gripper rods but you won't have to level anything.
Basically there isn't a cheap option for a large area; once you get your head around that the choice becomes easier or at least it did for me!
I went for bamboo flooring from here www.bambooflooringcompany.com/ which is hard as nails and can be used with UFH. Did look at LVT but as good as it is, I knew it was just a picture on top of a vinyl tile and that's all I could see it as.
You need samples to be sent to you asap so you can physically see it

In that case, go with Karndean throughout. I might have a tiled hall but you need a continual floor for that layout. It would look bitty if you split it up. So choose something that’s ok in every area. We have had Amtico before big it’s more money than Karndean.

Cost of mine by the way was £1200 to fit 82m2 and the flooring was around £30 per m2 (plus glue!)

Argh thank you again everyone but I am still massively confused. From this thread people are suggesting:
LVT
Karndean (which if I understand correctly is a branded/expensive LVT? and therefore can't be sanded)
Engineered wood
Bamboo flooring

Are all of these options water-resistant? Are they all suitable for high traffic areas (and the potential for my DD to spend half an hour repeatedly bashing it with a metal spoon while she's 'helping me cook')?

I honestly don't know what is best and I feel really stressed having to make so many decisions on a tight budget all while a max. of 6 weeks away from giving birth and trying to still work full time and also look after a very demanding toddler! tempted to cancel it all but that ship has sailed

I just need to put my big girl pants on and choose something but I'm fairly terrified of making the wrong decision when it is such a big expense. I'm having similar crises of confidence over the kitchen, worktops, bathroom suite etc but at least I feel like I understand the choices available e.g. pros and cons of quartz vs wooden worktops whereas with flooring I feel completely lost.

PS. In case anyone is wondering, DH is not a huge amount of use, will get involved if asked but has no initiative and also uses the fact that he's colour blind as a get-out-of-jail card when it comes to making any sorts of interior decisions. In his defence, he pulls more than his weight around the house and in childcare duties so it seems like it's easier for me to just choose - which he is happy for me to do - rather than have to have lots of long-winded conversations about different options that invariably end in 'I'm happy with whatever you'd prefer'

@custardbear and @Twizbe both of your LVTs look really good. I think I'd want a colour roughly in the middle of those two, although I don't know what would go best with oak worktops which I think we will end up going for to keep costs down compared to quartz.

Highly trafficked has to be Karndean (or similar). Karndean is the only make ever talked about on MN. No one looks at anything else much!

However, John Lewis do flooring for half the price that is remarka bly similar. Why not have a look at the John Lewis web site? You need the Buying Guide to Hard and Natural flooring. Look for that and then you can make an informed choice. You can also send for samples from all the manufacturers. Tiles, engineered wood, Vinyl, Bamboo etc. See what you like.

Basically: Ceramic tiles do not wear. They are pretty bomb proof unless you drop a Le Crueset casserole on them! They cost quite a lot to buy and are expensive to lay. Lots of work involved. Last forever when they are down though.

Engineering wood has a 3mm, 5mm or 7mm veneer of wood. It is not solid wood. It has a top lacquer coat or its oiled. Oiled will last about 5 minutes (a year?) in a highly trafficked area. Anything wet on it is a problem in the long run too. So not suitable for kitchens or halls. The lacquer coat wears off if near an outside door and wet shoes are going over it. We have it near french windows at our holiday house and it has worn off in 10 years. It can be re-lacquered but its is a faff of course. It can also change colour. Light wood can get darker and darker wood can get lighter with exposure to sunlight. Ideally with engineered wood you need a thicker veneer and not a soft wood - so avoid pine.

Vinyl: Karndean or similar is a stable colour and does look like wood. It is cheaper to lay but still needs good prep. JL own bfrand is for the budget conscious.

Some flooring manufacturers are: Amtico, Karndean, Rhino, JL, Kahrs, Junkers, Norske, Elka etc. Prices vary enormously.

[quote SecondBabyGirl]**@custardbear* and @Twizbe* both of your LVTs look really good. I think I'd want a colour roughly in the middle of those two, although I don't know what would go best with oak worktops which I think we will end up going for to keep costs down compared to quartz.[/quote]
We've got quartz work tops, we got an amazing deal by going with a local place. Our kitchen is Howdens but we didn't get their work tops.

The ones we have are actually off cuts from a huge corporate job they'd done. We got it for a fraction of the price and they fitted our utility room top for free. They gave up some upstands for free too. Basically they wanted to use up some leftovers. It looks fab and we loved working with them

I had Polyflor Georgian oak laid as herringbone in my hallway, kitchen and dining room before Christmas. I'm rural and live on a singletrack so wanted something durable - I'm also in a cottage built in 1849 so not a wall, floor or ceiling is level in the house.

I'm absolutely in love with it. The fitters laid the levelling compound on top, and then fitted the tiles over the next two days. All in it was £2250 and I used a firm in Manchester who were brilliant. They fit Karndean, Polyflor and Amtico, and said that a Karndean quote would have come in between 4 and 5 thousand and there was no difference other than a wider range. My friend had the same fitted in her kitchen and dining room 5 years ago and it looks like the day they laid it. I just hoover it once a week and go over it with a damp mop. I've dropped pots and my phone and they've just kind of bounced. I really like that they left me with about 30 tiles so that if any gets damaged, an individual piece just needs to be refitted.

We had a similar dilemma and I'm really happy with my Karndean
The architect wanted us to have wood and was snobby about our choice but it was a) what we could afford and b) I like being able to clean it properly which I don't feel
I could with wood.

GET SAMPLES.
You can't order anything without seeing the product. All are decent options so you need to see the product and think about the area. If you're thinking of re-finishing the floor in the future then LVT is out. Engineered flooring has a solid wood top of varying thickness (thinner equals cheaper) which determines number of times it can be finished again but usually max of twice if at all. In honesty I have no idea if bamboo can be, probably can but didn't check!
Order some samples today and get some breathing space, it sounds like you're stressing out. We'll all have an opinion but it's your floor. Now go kick DH and make him help!