Wooden floor - Engineered, laminate, LVT or solid wood?

[VenusClapTrap]

It’s for the lounge and hallway in a 1960s bungalow we are renovating for my Dad. No pets and just one old man living there.

I have original waxed wooden floors in my own house and although beautiful, they are a pain - every time the cat throws up or the kids spill something it leaves a mark. So I’m leaning towards easy care, but I don’t want it to look naff.

Different shops are saying different things. The first place said laminate (click system) floating floor gives better results and is more insulated. Second shop says they’ve stopped doing click systems because they’ve caused them so much grief; so they recommended stick down LVT.

Any experiences, good or bad? Also wondering about cork.

Following. (Sorry nothing to add - same dilemma!)

I have oiled engineered wood in one room, floating on foam underlay. It looks beautiful, but it crackles along the joins with every step which drives me potty. I'm not sure if gluing down would have been the answer but I'd get a pro to lay it next time rather than DIY. I'd still go for engineered wood or hard wood next time though - anything else looks plasticky to me (including lacquered engineered wood). It does mark though. All wood will, though lacquer will chip instead of scratch.

LVT very low maintenance and looks amazing, especially the higher quality ones like Amtico

I had solid wood put down. Really happy with it.

If you’ve already got good quality wood but don’t like the finish, have it properly sanded and refinished with a clear matte lacquer, it’s a very strong finish. They can also address any gaps to improve thermal efficiency. The absolute key is finding a professional wooden floor service, not a local ‘sanding floors’ ad. The right people are highly skilled and fairly rare. There were only two companies in my large city offering the level of skill I wanted.The other issue is that most flooring shops and a lot of flooring people are tied to particular manufacturers, rather than being skilled at working with wood.

At my last house I had engineered wood and I loved it but it did scratch very badly.
Moved house and just had LVT fitted and I love it too, it's easier to clean and personally I think it's more hard-wearing.

Hmm yes DF is adamant he doesn’t want that crackling feel/sound. The floor is concrete underneath though, so I don’t know if that would help, compared to when it’s laid over boards.

Sorry, I’ve misread it. I was responding to your floor with the old wax on it. Don’t have anything useful to add here!

I went with LVT for the whole of the downstairs. I love it. It looks lovely, easy to clean and non slip

@smooththecat I did look into this for my own floors. But we were quoted £30K by my craftsman of choice (I’ve seen his work and know his skill) just for the ground floor, and couldn’t quite bring myself to pay that! We might do it in the future, but for now funds must be focussed on sorting out df’s bungalow, and that’s on concrete.

Both those LVT photos look really good, thank you. Are they stick down?

Hey we just did our dining room floor (admittedly, on a v tight budget) but went with click laminate (b&q heanor laminate if you want to see) and fitted ourselves - was actually straight forward and we had the tools needed (circular saw, tape measure, tent hammer were the main ones) . we went with really good underlay and the room
is noticeably warmer and quieter.

I’ve got to say it looks great and we saved money. It’s seems hard wearing for the price.

I was put off by the price of wood, but LVT looked really nice too. I’m sure you could fit that quite easily.

good luck.

@VenusClapTrap yes. They lay a self levelling screed then stick on top. I had 5 rooms and the hallway done in 3 days.

LVT every time. I have solid oak flooring throughout the whole downstairs except the kitchen which had very badly cracked tiles and we recently had it screeded and laid over with an Invictus wood-effect tile (I chose the one that most closely resembled our oak flooring) and I love it! It looks great, is warm underfoot and so easy to look after - I’d get rid of all the solid wood (gappy, squeaky, easily scratches) and have LVT everywhere if I could.

Bloody hell! That’s a lot. I paid about £6000 for laying and finishing in a living room, hall and kitchen, not including the wood itself. The people who I went with were not the absolute top notch parquetry floor guys, but still very skilled.

Things I found out along the way in case of any use: engineered wood has most of the same drawbacks as solid wood, it dents, scratches etc. sanding it back is a risk. I think LVT looks nice and is hard-wearing, to me it doesn’t look ‘real’ though, it’s too perfect, this may be because I’ve spent far too long staring at floors. I’d probably go with this option tbh. Concrete with underfloor heating and tiles is a great option in the right situation. Not sure how it stacks up now with energy. I would rule out laminate unless you need it on cost grounds. I found that most ‘quality’ floors are stuck down rather than floating. My previous floor was floating, it was well done but just didn’t feel ‘solid’ underfoot. Easy to take out if you want a change though.

Yeah the trouble with my own existing wooden floors is they are original Georgian, so we’ve got the whole listed building heritage ballsache going on. It’s also a v large floor area. I’ve told myself that the cat vomit stains just add to the existing ‘characterful patina of 300 years’…

Doing a little 60s bungalow with complete free reign is an absolute joy in comparison (well it would be if df and I didn’t have very very different ideas about everything 🤯)

Unfortunately we can’t do underfloor heating for various reasons (mostly obstinate old Yorkshireman ones), but I do think LVT is looking like the most practical option.

I’ve got karndean throughout downstairs- sorry- not sure what the term is. I love it. You can hoover it and mop it. Works well with underfloor heating. Doesn’t stain, buckle or warp. I dropped a can of blue paint on it and it didn’t stain it.

I've laid click engineered wood over concrete before but it was so cold even with an insulated layer I changed it for carpet.
I have LVT in my current high traffic kitchen but would not do it again 7 years in much is scratched and has gouges in it.
In my hallway I nded up going with a waterproof bathroom laminate. It's really tough and definitely waterproof.
If I was going to do it again I'd go for traditional parquet

The lvt is layer over a 2/3 days and there's several steps to it. It's done very well, we paid about 2k for kitchen/dining area, hall, and toilet

Underfloor heating sounds good but an elderly person will want to top up the heating. Would carpeting not be easier, cheaper and warmer?

Carpet would be easier and probably warmer, but we are rural and it’s always here muddy, and df never takes his shoes off inside.

We have glue down LVT throughout downstairs and love it. We went with Karndean and chose a style with lots of wood detailing and it looks great and is really easy to clean and feels warm. There are a couple of small scratches but honestly only where we scraped large furniture over it. The advantage of glue down planks is they can be replaced if needed relatively easily whereas that's impossible with a click system.

Lvt. Easy to clean and stays looking new. Lots of cheaper options than Amtico.

Can I intrude on the flooring chat and ask if anyone has redone floors that are (we think) just boards over a void? The boards are not worth restoring and in a bad way - do we need a joiner to do a new solid wood floor, or could a builder put some down a base for us to then choose what “surface” we have (LVT, engineered wood, etc)