Engineered wood or LVT?

[arabellaL]

I know I know, this has been discussed to death but I need a final canvassing of opinions.

Need to screed and lay floor on a large hallway and open plan kitchen/diner (we'll carpet the living room) but can't decide between engineered wood and LVT.

Prefer the look of real wood but don't love the idea of having to reoil such a huge area and it scratching more easily.

LVT feels more soulless to me but the warmth of it appeals as we're not going for underfloor heating and the fact it's virtually maintenance free.

Is there actually any LVT that is both affordable and looks like real wood?

Thanks @ChewyYetDelicious , I was looking at the LVT, but maybe it is similar in terms of construction.

The laminate version looks very nice, but I see it is glued down and doesn't say anything (that I could find) about water resistance, so I assume it is the same as a standard laminate, so not totally waterproof. I might get a sample though, so thanks for highlighting.

Have you considered engineered bamboo flooring? We’re looking at it now, my only concern is to get one that’s low voc as it will be over underfloor heating

@ClematisBlue49 lvt is completely waterproof, we have it in the children's bathroom, had it down 6 years, it was Quickstep and still looks really good.

Waterproof laminate does exist, you just have to look for it, https://flooringvillage.co.uk/waterproof-laminate-flooring-for-kitchens-bathrooms-utility/

I assume instead of the backing layer being an MDF or such it is a different material that is waterproof

Engineered wood is wood! It’s just been engineered to make it more hardwearing. I have it in my kitchen and it’s great. Unlike real wooden flooring which I have elsewhere, it doesn’t warp and you don’t have to rush to mop up spills in case they damage the wood. So it’s ideal for kitchen. Get the right one and it looks indistinguishable from the real wood flooring we have in other rooms.

I don’t like LVT at all. Previous owner put it in the living room and a couple of bedrooms and I hate it. It looks fake and overly shiny and it’s weirdly slippery so I don’t like to walk on it in socks or tights. DD has slipped on it a couple of times. Currently saving money to have it replaced!

Thank you so much for all your posts and the hushed oak idea. Very grateful.

I thought glue down is better as can easily be replaced rather than click down,

I am so confused. I thought glue down rather than click down was the way to go with LVT.

I'm mostly talking about laminate, but the same probably applies to LVT. From my understanding, the click version is easier to install, which may mean cost savings, in terms of fitting and adhesives. Plus I think the underlay is better with the click versions. Some suppliers seem to recommend glued down for heavy traffic areas, but I don't see that being an issue in my situation.

My subfloors are made of insulation panels, so I'm wary of having flooring glued down, as if I ever needed to lift the floor, the insulation would be wrecked. I won't be totally sure of the pros and cons until I get advice at the showroom though.

I think then choosing between stick down or click applies to both LVT and laminate. When I have visited showrooms recently when I was just looking at LVT then I was advised not to go for Click but go for stick down. I am lucky that cost isn’t really an issue for me just want something that is waterproof, looks realistically like wood and is easier to lay.

when I was looking at Amtico recently I just looked at their Spacia range as that is their budget range which my neighbour has and it looks good but she has gone for grey and i want wood effect. Thinknanother visit to showroom is required.

I have had both. I absolutely loved my engineered wood floor in my old house. It still looked beautiful years later and all I used to do to it was spray it and wipe over it with this dry mop thing. It gave me real pleasure though, just looking at it, feeling it, and sliding on it just after I'd polished it 🤣. It wasn't cheap though, and wasn't in a kitchen.

We've just had a new kitchen in our new (ish) house. This time we went for LVT for ease of mopping up spills and because of the cost. And because it's a bit softer and things kept being dropped and broken. We went for Karndean. The fitter (not who sold it to us) told us it was just like Amtico but without the price tag. It's fine. It's obviously not real wood, but it looks nice enough, does the job and I'm happy with it. If I was planning on staying somewhere very long term I would go for engineered wood again (there's no comparison really), but for something functional that looks pretty, it's perfectly fine. Although we have yet to see how well it wears. It's only been down a fortnight!

It depends on the thickness of the veneer - you ‘minus 1’ from its thickness in mm and that’s how many times it can be resurfaced.

May I ask which colour and range akardean would effect you went with please?

@LindaDawn We went for 'cheap' in the end (although in the showroom I preferred the more expensive ranges). But we had mid worn oak from the Knight Tile range because it's less than £30/m2. The kitchen company convinced me that it was fine, and that many of their customers had it. I am happy with the way it looks, and there is a slight texture to it, but it's obviously not real wood. If you google it I'd say the pictures online are a fair representation. We chose to have the individual 'planks' laid right up to each other, but you can choose to have thin decorative strips laid between each plank and you can see this on some pictures online. I'll try and post a pic of mine (excuse the bits on the floor, I need to sweep it but I'm still moving boxes around!)

Had engineered wood in last house and karndean in new one - I do prefer the look of the engineered but so far the lvt has scratched less

We have Amtico in Honey Oak, laid as trad parquet, across our whole ground floor. We chose Form (not the most expensive) as we wanted a textured finish (dog doesn't do well on smooth floors). It's incredible. Since having it laid, we changed our minds and swapped the sitting room and kitchen round, and knocked a wall through to the utility and there was only 1 damaged tile! That was replaced in minutes. The fitter redid the borders where necessary, and door thresholds. You'd never know we'd had a huge project done with it in place. It's so hard-wearing, far more than real wood in our experience. Wood floor in our last house was ruined by the dogs claws (just walking around, not scratching at it).
It's really easy to keep clean if you have dogs or children. Our last house had flagstones in the kitchen, with grey grout. The grout was the bane of my life and required regular scrubbing on hands and knees. Never again.
I'm not sure the Amtico looks exactly like wood, but it certainly does at first glance, and their range has so many different variations you're pushed to notice repeats in the tiles. Honestly, I'd never have anything else. It's an investment, but worth it if you can afford it.

We have Karndean in the kitchen which is easy to clean and hard wearing. We have engineered oak in the dining room which seems fine - doesn't scratch, seems to cope with modest traffic and we never oil it. Vacuum cleaned every fortnight or so. Looks good.

Just to update... Some laminate samples arrived today from Quickstep. (I already had some LVT samples from Amtico.) The laminate is so much nicer and more realistic than the vinyl. I couldn't tell one of them apart from an old EW sample. It's also cheaper than the vinyl, apparently waterproof, and 10 times more scratch-proof than standard laminate.

The one I like is Soft Oak Medium, and I'm tempted to have it everywhere, rather than just the hall and kitchen, although not having carpet would be a big adjustment for me (rugs just aren't the same for some reason).

What does it feel like? Also update, I've discovered waterproof oak - could it be the best of both worlds?? www.luxuryflooringandfurnishings.co.uk/waterproof-quayside-oak.html

Thanks for update. Will take a look.

I've got engineered bamboo flooring. Very durable.

@arabellaL , I had the opportunity to test out temperature as I was out most of the day and left all of the samples on the floor in a cold room. I honestly couldn't tell the difference between the EW, laminate and vinyl in terms of how cold they feel on bare feet. The EW is slightly smoother to the touch, whereas the laminate and vinyl have the feel of a slight grain to them, but that might just be different design choices. The laminate feels more like wood than the vinyl. The vinyl is slightly quieter than both the EW and laminate when you tap it with your fingernails, but it has an inbuilt underlay, so the laminate might be quieter if fitted well with a decent underlay. (Noise isn't a primary issue for me as I am almost always in slippers at home.)

I might try some testing in terms of staining, scratching and water resistance over the next day or so.

NB the link to the waterproof oak didn't work for me.

I loooove engineered wood and have some in our bedroom, but I wouldn't put it in a kitchen due to all the spills.

We had some older engineered wood in our old house and there was an accident where we had a cooler bag that melted on the wood overnight, creating a puddle. The engineered wood /came apart/ (top real wood layer 'peeled' off) and also the planks moved upwards creating a peak type shape, distorted by the water! I know it's a pretty extreme example but it put me off having wood anywhere near water 😆

Please can you report back on this thread re your further tests. Many many thanks.