Lay Laminate floor or do we varnish old floorboards?

[DarlingCoffee]

Hello, can anyone help me with some advice? We are undergoing a first floor single storey extension and need to decide whether we are to keep our old floorboards and sand and varnish them or put down a laminate floor over them. The new extension part would then have a better look if we chose the laminate but I honestly don’t know what is for the best.

Can anyone who has been in this position offer any morsels of advice on this?! Thank you wise mumsnetters

Personally I’d always go for original or old floor boards and varnish or stain, over installing laminate which I think looks and feels cheap. Or at least it often does.

Depends on the condition and quality of the original floor boards of course. Just my 2p.

If the original flooring is in good condition
Go for it- id insulate under the floor though. If you choose laminate use LVT- karndean, amtico etc. really hard wearing and looks nice

I got a laminate floor and really regret it. I wish I had fixed up the original floor boards. It was expensive, but still not as hard wearing as the floor boards would have been.

Our kitchen floorboards have been sanded so many times we can’t do it again. We’re having Amtico when the new kitchen’s fitted, there’s an amazing choice.

Thank you both. The original flooring isn’t too bad but there are gaps which need to be closed and nailed down and apparently there have been two different widths of floorboards laid down so the overall effect will be a mis match of boards.

Is it essential to varnish the floorboards if we keep to the original floor? I’m just keen to reduce the amount of time it takes to move back in if I’m honest plus also with a mind to the cost of both options and long term wear.

Sanding and sealing boards doesn’t last forever, we did it twice in 18 years, we couldn’t face it again and put Karndean over the top, glad we did, no more droughts, less dusty, much easier to keep clean and generally feels cleaner. Having said that, not entirely keen Karndean, it will do, our intention is to move in a couple of years, my next house will have oak flooring over the the top of any boards, etc.

Laminate feels cold in bare feet and looks tatty very quickly. Our original floorboards weren't in great condition, so we had new wooden floors laid on top - feel warm, wear well and the wood mellows with age so you have great floors for decades.

If you don’t seal or varnish, the boards will quickly become grubby, there’s an oil you can use instead of varnish but can’t remember the name.

We’ll be dead in a couple of decades so Amtico it is!

Personally I would restore the old floorboards if they are in ok condition - sand and reseal. I'm not a fan of varnish myself, I've used wax oil on my floorboards, as I prefer the finish [https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/product/fiddes-hard-wax-oil-tints]]

If you don't want to go down the restoration route, laminate isn't the only other option - you could lay a new solid or engineered wood floor over the top of the old one. We have just put engineered hardwood down in one of our rooms - we chose the 'click' system, which doesn't need glueing. We did it ourselves and it only took a weekend to do one big room.
www.ambiencehardwoodflooring.co.uk/engineered-wood-flooring/profile-type/click/