Any bad experiences with Karndean?

[morningporridge]

We were planning to install Karndean after hearing lots of positive comments about it being attractive, durable and easy to look after.

However, I've just been looking online and found a lot of negative reviews on trust pilot and Facebook which have got me worried! Has anyone been disappointed with Karndean?

We are thinking of the lime washed oak in herringbone with a border, which is in the Knight Tile range.

Thanks

I think most LVT is much the same....we have had moduleo and amtico....and both been fabulous .... karndean could be much the same. The negative reviews , I think, stem form the fitting. This type of flooring requires expert fitting and meticulous prep work before fitting.....it took 3 half days to lay my floor
....the first 2 half days were prep work....Labour is not cheap....but you pay for what you get...I love my LVT flooring .... go for it!

I dropped a hot iron on it once and the mark wiped off

Easy to clean looks good

Can’t go wrong really

I've got it all over in my house in Church Oak. We are much larger than the average family. Mine has a fair bit of usage and heavy traffic areas. We have the inlaid darker line around the edge, and fancy corners. Ours always looks immaculate, is often complimented and I would never have anything else down now.

As PP have said it's all down to the prep, and the fitting. It's not a flooring that can be rushed. It's time consuming to fit it just right, especially if you are having any extra detail adding. Once down it is very durable and always looks fantastic.

Well ours always does, I don't know about others tbf.

Nope, it still looks good in high traffic areas, after several years.

The prep needed and the fitting itself must be of good quality; precision and expertise are essential otherwise this is where the problems come in.

Our karndean kitchen floor is now nine years old, and looks just as good as the day it was laid apart from one ding where I dropped an 11" knife into it. Even that's only a tiny divot. Yes, it does take expert fitting - the screeding and glueing has to be good under the tiling.

Thanks for the reassuring comments. Has anyone had Karndean installed relatively recently? Some of the bad reviews seem to imply that the quality has gone down hill over recent years. Thanks

We had ours done 3ish years ago and it's great. Easy to clean, warmer than tiles, colour hasn't faded at all etc.

Only reason I'm considering anything different in our next house is I'm not sure I like the colour of their "terracotta" tiles.

We have Karndean in both kitchen and bathroom both laid over 15 years ago, still good as new. DH is a bathroom installer and has installed Karndean 100’s of times, no problems if laid properly,

Mine is 2 years old. Great.

I had mine fitted less than a year ago and it’s quite scratched, not as hard wearing as I thought it was. It’s black so it’s quite visible. I know they say you can refresh it as most of it will be surface scratches however that’s supposed to be an annual thing, mine was scratched within weeks of putting it in - just from shoes 😳

Another who will say it’s a fitting thing - so much prep work needed to get it right, but it’s a lovely flooring to live with. Can’t comment on scuffs from shoes though because we are a shoes off house.

@Shafted2020 do you mean scuffed by high heeled shoes or similar?

No, don’t wear high heels, just stones in shoes that have been walked in - we have it right through the bottom floor. It also has scrapes from furniture despite having the furniture pads on the bottom. Also shows up every little mark 🙈, but that will be the colour more than anything.

3 years old, high traffic & pets. Went for the cheaper end & it's indestructible & looks brand new. Aunt had engineered wood thick high end stuff installed 2 years ago & it looks battered. My friend had real wood, looks beautiful, nicer than my karndeen but she has had to refinish EVERY year.

Totally outing me but we had the exact type you’re after put down in spring this year (replaced 20 year old karndean due to a water leak). I love it and couldn’t be happier. You need to ensure the fitter is experienced.

I should add, there’s 5 of us and dc roller blade on it. No scuffs so far. I did put pads on dining chairs.

@Kamma89

3 years old, high traffic & pets. Went for the cheaper end & it's indestructible & looks brand new. Aunt had engineered wood thick high end stuff installed 2 years ago & it looks battered. My friend had real wood, looks beautiful, nicer than my karndeen but she has had to refinish EVERY year.

Did your friend varnish the wood? I used a very posh super-hard varnish on mine, it scratched in no time. So I asked a Danish friend of mine what they used in Denmark, where they have wood floors a lot. Ans: oil. (A good quality oil, mark you.) I had to sand all the posh varnish off but once oiled it was fine, no further trouble. I used oil on all subsequent woodblock floors, including a kitchen, no problem. When we put woodblock down in this house, kitchen included, I'll do the same. The trick with proper wood is oiling it, not varnishing it. It's less likely to scratch, and easy to wipe a bit of oil in if it does. NB- we have no kids/pets, if we had to mop the floor all the time it might not be suitable, I can't say.

@m0therofdragons thanks so much for posting the photos - it looks really lovely 😊 good to hear it stands up well. I don't think I'd be brave enough to let the kids roller blade on it 🤣

@Shafted2020 ah, I hadn't thought about that being a problem, thanks for mentioning.

I was protective for about 3 weeks then the heelys came out which moved quickly to roller blades. I have lively twins and it keeps raining so they do loops round the house.

@m0therofdragons That's absolutely gorgeous. Is it slippy for dogs paws?

@m0therofdragons thank you for the photos, I have been looking at Kardean for s as while and can't decide on a pattern or if it's worth it

We have an L shaped hall with 10 doors and do love the herringbone like yours but wasn't sure it would look right on one direction if the hall IYSWIM, but seeing your picture makes me think it will be ok

(And the squared, non directional one was £80 sq m 🙁

@userxx we have an over enthusiastic 1 year old cocker and he often slides like a 5 year old at a wedding disco and when he sits his tail wags so he slides backwards but in an hilarious way. General walking he’s fine on it.

@Oldraver I think the hallway edging breaks ours up a bit.

@m0therofdragons this evening's challenge has been trying to work out the borders for our Karndean! It looks like you have borders in some rooms and not others? We can't quite work out how it will be in our hallway / corridor as it's L shaped - the entrance part is quite wide but then round the corner it's quite long and narrow so the combination of a border and the direction of the herringbone there is going to make it look even longer and narrower 🤔

Not sure if having a single plank thickness border would help or would spoil the look of the border. Too many decisions!!