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.

@Morred we had that situation in our kitchen. We pulled up the floorboards and the builders laid a concrete base and underfloor heating, then laid stone tiles over the top.

We've just had LVT laid. Got it from Howdens. Went down easily and is nice and warm

We had Karndean LVT put in throughout downstairs last year a super happy with it. Looks smart, easy to clean, nice to walk on, no marks as yet. Have small children and it's very practical.
Went with Karndean over other options as lots of people I know had recommended it and got quite a reasonable price buying online, plus liked the range of finishes/wood effects.
Used professional floor fitters, would never have attempted it ourselves, especially as we needed a lot of work done to the sub floor ahead of lvt being laid.
@Morred in the old part of our house downstairs (2 rooms) we had rotten old floorboards taken up and then thick plyboard laid over the void. As I recall, there was then a layer of thinner plyboard laid before the LVt (whereas in the newer extension part of house, self levelling latex was used on top of the existing concrete/screed).
We did have to have some work done to the joists in the old part of the house, but didn't have floorboards themselves replaced as there is no need.
Happy with end result altho we do find it can be quite noisy in one particular part of the old bit of the house when someone is walking through - bit like a drum! Must be a particularly voidy bit there or something!

Following with interest - we've got a bit of a conundrum of a poorly laid LVT floating floor combo - gives as you walk across it and poorly finished. As we plan to redecorate the whole room it makes sense to replace. We've seen some good deals for both solid and engineered. Given solid can be refinished a few times I am leaning towards this but do have DS2 to consider.

Had carpet recently and much prefer this for ease to clean but suspect I'll be buying a large rug for the sitting area defeating the whole objective!

Has anyone had different wooden flooring downstairs Vs upstairs? Hallway will be tiled so there's a natural break.

We’ve got engineered oak through our living room, hall and kitchen (a flat). I would never get it again, esp not in the kitchen. It’s only been 3 years and looks so tatty already. It dents and scratches so easily! My father in law led all the renovations and chose it without really asking us. It’s also creaky!

LVT all the way. We had our whole lower floor done. Practical, warm, hard wearing.

@ILoveAllRainbowsx

Just a regular floor cleaner and hot water.

we've got click LVT - it's been down 6 months on concrete in new extension and there's no crackle sound - it's very solid.

TBH it was the last choice we made at the end of a long build and we didn't put a whole lot of thought into it - But it looks good, very easy to look after and we are quite happy with it. The rest of the ground floor is 1908 original pine parquet and mahagony planks. Just had it sanded and varnished - probably the first time it had been done in decades and it's come up well.

Another big fan of lvt stick down here. We have wood in our hall and lvt is noticeably warmer, doesn’t creak, looks fabulous etc, compared to the wood which is cold and noisy!! 😊

I’ve just had stick down LVT Karndean laid and really happy with it. Excuse the wall colour, this is still be to be changed/decorated next week. I would have loved real wood, but wasn’t practical for the space and how we will be using it. I was a bit sceptical but it does look and feel great.

I have `"floating" engineered Kahrs flooring throughout the downstairs. It's been down 20 years now, and yes, it is a bit scratched here and there, but that shows its real! Other than that, it is warm, doesn't creak, and has been very good and hard wearing even in the kitchen. We had it laid by a specialist though, who also does hard wood flooring, so he was a traditional craftsman. He would only do solid or Kahrs. Fantastic job.

@ILoveAllRainbowsx

Whichever one DH buys 🤷🏼‍♀️ flash, dettol, Tesco generic any really.

Yes, it would. Mine is laid on concrete with underlay and is totally silent. It looks like real floorboards too.

We have amtico throughout the house, it's amazing stuff.

I don't think you can get more practical than LVT. We've had it in the hall despite being real wood kind of folks, because of all the issues you highlighted. The hall is our highest traffic area. Between the dog, prams, hockey shoes (and associated sand) I needed something that wouldn't scratch, mark, stain or ruin in a week. 4 years later and it looks as new as the day it was laid.

That is gorgeous - do you know the name of the product?

Lvt stuck down on a concrete subfloor should be bombproof. You could investigate non slip/commercial spec ones.

I think that's cobblers about the cleaning, ours (Karndean) is fine with Flash etc.

I love floorboards but it feels a bit fake adding them over concrete. Stick down parquet maybe, but that really needs to be polished.

Whatever floor cleaner is on offer ….always something cheap….we’ve had ours down 6 years….when it’s clean it look like it was laid yesterday….not a mark on it

@ILoveAllRainbowsx

Well our floor has been down for 4yrs now, it gets swept everyday and mopped once a week. Any spills are just wiped up with a damp cloth. It really is very easy to look after. No marks, no scratches, no gouges.

I guess if you dumped a load of bleach or other harsh chemicals on it you could have problems. When I've had no flash etc sometimes I just use a squirt of fairy liquid in the water.

I'm looking to get this put down. Do you get what you pay for? Are the cheaper ones really bad in comparison to karndean and amtico?

It’s the fitting which makes a difference not particularly the product….I paid as much for fitting as I did for the LVT …..get it done on the cheap and you will live to regret it

I have moduleo…by the way

@nokidshere I'm after that colour floor exactly, can I ask what make it is?