What To Do About Hall Flooring?!

never_enough

There have been a few threads lately about flooring, it might be worth having a look for those as there's lots of good info.

donna-j_2

We had an Edinburgh tenement flat and our boards had been trashed too, when the central heating was put in. We put down Kahrs Linnea flooring in oak throughout the kitchen and hall. It's only 7mm thick so shouldn't affect the floor height too much.

It looked lovely:

http://www.flooringsupplies.co.uk/linnea.cfm

mleonard79

Hi donna-j - thanks for the link. The wood does look nice.

I went to look at some real hard wood flooring today and although it looked nice the guy in the store really put me off getting it. He said that it marks really easily and is soft so anything like heeled shoes or the cats claws could damage it whereas laminate is more hard-wearing. I know he wasn't saying it in order to get a sale as the laminate is obviously cheaper than the real wood. I'd decided on real wood as I felt laminate wouldn't look nice in such an old flat with high ceilings and I wanted the authentic look. Now I'm thinking I may have to look for authentic looking laminate instead - he showed us some Vitality Laminate and it looked ok. Anyone got this? What should I do? Thanks for all the help.

Regards

Michelle

mleonard79

Hi Everyone,

Just to update - I spent a few weeks looking at real wood and laminate but didn't find anything I really liked and it was pricey. I was just about to settle on getting some quick step laminate but thought I'd ask the joiner who'd said he'd fit it what he thought of it and I was a little shocked to find he didn't have a clue what quick step was! This made me feel dubious about getting him to do the flooring and since he was the one that had said the floorboards weren't good enough to be fixed and sanded I thought I'd get a second opinion. So I phoned a sanding/restoration expert that I found in the phone book and he says that they can be fixed and will look fine once sanded. He's offered to do the hall and the living room for £600 all in including the varnish as if his company do it all together they can get it done in a day. Is this a reasonable price? I remember us getting a quote to get both done about 10 years ago and the guy quoted us £500 then. It'll be a big job as it's just over 40m2 of flooring as the living room is 24 m2 and the hall is 16.5m2. What do all of you think? Thanks.

Regards

Michelle

tawnyowls

[QUOTE=mleonard79
I went to look at some real hard wood flooring today and although it looked nice the guy in the store really put me off getting it. He said that it marks really easily and is soft so anything like heeled shoes or the cats claws could damage it whereas laminate is more hard-wearing. I know he wasn't saying it in order to get a sale as the laminate is obviously cheaper than the real wood. [/QUOTE]

As I pointed out to someone in another thread (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=322820), this notion of hardwood marking very easily is a bit of a new one on me, and makes me suspect that the wood isn't 'hardwood' (eg oak, ash, beech, teak, merbau), but softer woods. I've had wood flooring in various houses over the years - always oak or teak in heavy wear areas - and with just the addition of a doormat/runner, felt pads on the furniture,and taking shoes off at the door, I've never had any problems with it (including form visiting cats, dogs and children). Engineered wood (i.e. cheaper wood with a thick veneer of real wood on the surface) seems to have fewer problems than solid wood.

The price for sanding seems pretty good to me, if that's what you're happy to go with, but obviously, the same difficulties with wet and dirt will apply. A small bit of care, though, should keep it looking good for years, and you can always sand down and revarnish if necessary.

mleonard79

Hi Tawnyowls,

Thanks for the benefit of your experience. I have the real floorboards sanded and varnished in one of the bedrooms so I know how it reacts from that. It's apparently good american pine wood. It's pretty hard wearing in the bedroom but it can get scratched if moving furniture etc so I do know that you have to be more careful in looking after it. I'm not sure what the real hardwood flooring being softer is all about either but I heard it in several different places. I did think £600 sounds pretty reasonable so they're coming to do it on Monday. I'll let you know how it looks!

Regards

Michelle

mleonard79

Just to update everyone - we got the floorboards saneded and varnished on Monday and I'm very pleased with them. The Living Room looks great and there's so much character in the wood. The boards in the Living Room were almost perfect. The only thing that's a little disappointing is that they couldn't properly renovate the holes and stuff on the boards that have been dragged up for the central heating in the hall but it's not too bad overall. Thanks to all who helped.

Regards

Michelle