Floor dilemmas. Get your gavels out.

[MaryMotherOfCheeses]

DH and I disagree. Get your judging pants on and tell me what you think.

We've had a wall knocked down and now have a lovely open plan kitchen / conservatory / dining room.

The kitchen / conservatory currently have crappy laminate, which we have to get rid of anyway.

The dining room has the original parquet flooring, which has been sanded and is basically pine, but we like it.

Choices for the new kitchen floor are:

Tiles - in brown, to match walnut kitchen worksurface.

Or wood - don't know what exactly, we'd have to look.

We can't get more parquet, would cost a fortune.

One of us says that the theory is that with a big open space we should have something very similar to the parquet to make it feel big and open.

The other says more wood would make it look like a swedish sauna and that it needs to be different.

MN Verdict please.

We have open plan kitchen diner lounge thing and it's all same wooden floor.

What are kitchen cupboard doors?

I like the look of stone floors but v. cold under foot unless you have under floor heating.

hello again! not stalking you ... just got my DIY / property hat on today! What about getting the wooden floor sanded, filled and polished? you can get it oiled and painted a new colour too so could make it pretty much any shade you want to fit in. I'm using these people: www.waxedfloors.co.uk/sanding01.htm

Then the wood wouldn't be yellow / sauna feel. Tiles can be very cold (unless you take the opportunity to put down underfloor heating .. mmmm).

Hey foxy! No, the kitchen floor doesn't have wood, it's currently got the crappy laminate.

Cupboards will be white / cream.

We don't have the budget for underfloor heating, sadly.

oh sorry, thought you already had wooden floor beneath laminate for some reason.

have a look here for a few ideas - rubber, resin or polished concrete anyone?

probably all vastly expensive though!

if it's still tiles or wood, then unless you can get something that really matches the dining room then tiles might be better - demarcate the kitchen a bit, could put them in with a curved edge perhaps?

Oooh, you have done your research haven't you. Good website, thanks.

Glass floors!!

We have open plan kitchen and dining room and have Kardean

in spring oak

our kitchen units are cream

it is warm and has a guarentee for 20 yrs.

What is Karndean?

I'm just having a look at that website and they do tiles as well. Is it like laminate only nicer? (certainly looks nice)

And is it ££££?

If you can't have the same floor throughout (which would be the ideal) I really wouldn't bother trying to get it to match, it won't work. Two different kinds of wood would look odd, unless they were totally different colours, I think.
Use something that contrasts, it will also help define the different areas.

Kardean - is a vinyl flooring but with a texture look. So I suppose nicer than laminate.
(We had lamnate before in our back room before the extension)

Our floor is supposed to look like wood flooring - it comes in separte 'planks' each ine is different so therefore like wood.

Kardean have quite a range so price varies - I will say that the ine we had was at the top of the price range but has been worth it .

It is similar to Amtico flooring which apparently is expensive.

Most good floor shops should have Kardean examples - Kardeans own show room with all their products on big display is in Evesham , Worcestershire.

I agree - if it isn't actually going to match, you should have it looking deliberately different.

Karndean - you can get in planks or tiles and load sof finishes. Basically you glue it down to a good sub floor. Can be laid onto plywood sheets or cncrete that has been levelled out. If you are reasonably competent DIYer you can do it. They do loads of inlays / borders all sorts of stuff. Amtico is very similar but a bit pricier. Its like a hard thin sheet of vinyl but also in various finishes - can look like wood / stone but warmer and stuf doesn't break when you drop it on it!!

I cannot recommend what to have, but I would defo not have softwood floor (pine). I have these now it my kitchen/diner and it is terrible. Every sharp thing that drops leaves a mark. It was just varnished 2 months ago with 6 layers of varnish, and where the thing dropped the varnish wants to come out. If change the floor, I would put laminate which I can wipe 5 times a day and be not afraid to damage it.