Solid/Engineered wood flooring?

cuffie

We are looking at having quite a large area of our downstairs in wood flooring. I looked at Howden's solid oak flooring yesterday and the assistant in there said that as we have chipboard suspended floors the wood flooring could be glued directly onto that without any need for underlay.

Am I right in saying that because it is solid wood it is more prone to expansion than engineered flooring? We were hoping to have the skirting cut away so that the flooring would sit underneath it (can't stand beading, and I want to floor 4 rooms so don't want to remove and replace skirting)....is this feasible?

Would anyone recommend solid wood over engineered or vice versa? Its for hallway, lounge, study and downstairs bedroom so don't have to worry about kitchen/bathroom, but do have 3 children who have knocked drinks over in the past!!!

Thanks for any advice.
x

Doozergirl

I had the Howdens solid flooring in our last house. No complaints, and I thought the price was very good indeed. Because the ceiling height in our new dining room is low, I didn't want to put batons on the concrete floor again so we ended up going for engineered as we could lay it as a floating floor. I had heard that engineered wood isn't as prone to expansion as well.

The engineered wood we've bought looks almost identical to the Howdens solid oak, but a bit better. If you look closely at the Howdens stuff, it's slight seconds - has knots filled with sawdust, has some discolouration like water ingress in some planks but overall still looks good.

There's still variation in the colour of seperate engineered boards but there's no filling etc and the boards are wider and longer than the solid Howden's stuff. Wider and longer = looks more expensive It was cheaper than the solid and the best bit was that it was really easy to fit ourselves so we saved a fortune in fitting - our dining room was laid in an evening. Our friends will think it's exactly the same floor we had in the last house it's that similar looking.

I should get the camera out and show you both really.

oilit

Ive never used the howdens stuff - if they have wood filler in the imperfections then thats not so good. But I have used solid oak from a different supplier and it looks fine - no filling etc. I think it all comes down to price. Engineered is in theory more stable, but the only limitation is that you only have so many times that you can sand it back before you lose the 'veneer'. Having said all of that - my local pub had solid oak which got damaged in a flood. It now has engineered wide plank and it looks absolutely great - its been down a year and you woudlnt know.

cuffie

Do you mind me asking where you got your engineered wood from? And how wide are the planks? Howdens had 100mm, 120mm and 140mm. I was looking at the 140mm....

Doozergirl wrote: »

I should get the camera out and show you both really.

Please do....I'd love to see it.....
Thanks xx

helping_hubby

I'd like to see it too please, Doozergirl.

I just can't make my mind up on engineered, or normal laminate. I'm now steering toward laminate as this is our first home, and maybe laminate is good enough for that and we can go for solid wood in our forever home.

However, life is short and you never know what's around the corner. Maybe I should just get what I want if it's within budget.

Doozergirl

Here's the solid oak:



And here's the engineered oak:



The colour of the solid oak is too washed out in the photo (the contrast is also too high) and the engineered is coming out a bit too dark. In reality, they are virtually identical and more like the colour that my dining table is showing as!

cuffie, the engineered is 150mm from Floors2Go. It's advertised at £34.99 a metre plus they have 20% off it but we simply offered them a lot less than they were asking and they took it. It worked out at £19.forty something pence a metre and they said we can have as much as we like at that price. That was two weeks ago.

We paid £19 something plus VAT from Howdens for the solid oak plus a small fortune to have it fitted

cuffie

Thank you!
Wow - beautiful rooms! I don't suppose that is a Howdens Howarth Oak kitchen is it??? Looks v.similar to mine, and with granite worktops!
You are very kind to show the pictures. Thanks. x

Doozergirl

Nearly! I think it's Malton Oak from MFI but it does actually have some Howdens Hexham Oak mixed in with it when we changed the layout slightly at the last minute. The ranges were identical at the time.

Bungarm2001

Hi doozergirl...I notice you said you went for the engineered due to ceiling heights and because you didn't need battens. Does this mean that you do need battens for the solid oak? We'd be laying it on concrete.

My OH also wants to do away with the rads in the rooms we want the flooring in but wants to put a wet system underfloor heating in. I think (know...!) it can't be done because like you, we would have issues with the ceiling height being too low, doors having to be shortened etc etc. Would love your thoughts on this...great room by the way!!

To the OP; we tried tucking laminate under the skirtings in one of our properties and it was a total disaster. The previous owner had used 'no nails' to attach some of the skirtings and it was impossible to to cut off the bottom bit to make a slot. In the end, because it was going to be a rental, we just went with the beading. I refuse to have it in my own place because I too think it looks ghastly, no mtter how well it's done. We'll bite the bullet and rip off all skirtings and replace.

Lally

Doozergrl, that is absolutely gorgeous and you have made up my mind about which floor to get. There is a floors2go near me so I just need to get the measuring tape out!

Because the length is longer, is there less wasteage? If I take in my dimensions will they hep me with the number of packs needed?

Doozergirl

Lally wrote: »

Doozergrl, that is absolutely gorgeous and you have made up my mind about which floor to get. There is a floors2go near me so I just need to get the measuring tape out!

Because the length is longer, is there less wasteage? If I take in my dimensions will they hep me with the number of packs needed?

Thanks Lally, There was virtually no wasteage at all - only where my H cut one length wrong but we used it to help knock the other bits into place so it wasn't really wasted either. The cut you have to do at the end of one line becomes the start of another iyswim because both cuts hide under the new skirting (we ripped off the existing skirting and replaced that too). Not one piece was damaged or unusable.

If you take your dimensions, they'll help you. They must do it all day long!