Flooring for hall, sitting room, dining room

Annie1960

I'm interested in getting wooden flooring for the hallway, sitting room and dining room. I've always had carpet before, and don't know much about the different quality of wooden floors.

Are there any particular brands or things to look out for? I'm interested in the mid to top of the range, not the lower end of the range. I've seen some fairly cheap floors, and they look terrible after a couple of years.

What sort of underlay, if any, should I use? The floors downstairs are solid concrete, not wood.

Also, will I need all the skirting boards to be removed to fit the floor? I dislike those beading strips that run around the edges to hide the join, and can't think of any other way other than removing the skirtings to fit the floor underneath.

happy35

I would be conscious that your rooms will be colder than they are with carpets, I have gone the other way and lifted mine and replaced by carpets in my sitting and dining room as i was always cold.

yes you will have to remove and replace skirting boards for a good finish

You can get laminate,engineered wood or solid wood, various finsihes and prices.

If you have concrete floors I would be looking for the thickest underlay you can get to stop the floor being cold

Jonesya

There's a lot of options, not only for the flooring but also for the fixing methods and the underlay, then to complicate things further, the flooring, fixing method and underlay are all related - some work together, some don't.

Personally, I've fitted 18mm thick solid oak in my living room but as solid flooring is subject to movement I opted to screw it down, using blind screws through the tongue, onto 18mm plywood battens fixed to the concrete floor, with polystyrene insulation between the battens. Pluses is that with 18mm of insulation under it, it's lovely and warm, negatives was it was hard work and it raised the final floor level by 36mm, so needed the skirting replacing.

That said, it was a job well done and realistically I can't see myself ever replacing the floor for as long as I live in the house. At most it might get a sand and varnish in a decade or two.

PheoUK

We have engineered oak in our lounge. Looks great. Wasn't overly expensive (approx £20m2) and we fitted it (floated) ourselves.

andrewf75

floating or fixed is the big consideration.

We have similar concrete slab floors and went with floating engineered wood as advised. The floor looks great and we're basically happy with it, but the feel of it takes getting used to, it doesn't feel quite like a proper solid wooden floor. There are slight movements where the concrete slab underneath isn't quite level. If I was doing it again I would probably look to options for fixing rather than floating it, although whether you can do this easily depends on various factors.

benson1980

andrewf75 wrote: »

floating or fixed is the big consideration.

We have similar concrete slab floors and went with floating engineered wood as advised. The floor looks great and we're basically happy with it, but the feel of it takes getting used to, it doesn't feel quite like a proper solid wooden floor. There are slight movements where the concrete slab underneath isn't quite level. If I was doing it again I would probably look to options for fixing rather than floating it, although whether you can do this easily depends on various factors.

Floating is fine; you just need to level the floor with levelling compound before laying it on concrete, otherwise it will flex in places.

Annie1960

A number of people have mentioned engineered wood. What is this? How is it different from normal wood?

Also, if I have a wood floor, would I need to put anything underneath the furniture to stop it scratching? I remember when I was a child we had casters underneath everything, and chairs had some sort of felt under the legs to avoid scratching the floor.

andrewf75

Annie1960 wrote: »

A number of people have mentioned engineered wood. What is this? How is it different from normal wood?

only the top few mm is solid wood. The rest is like plywood. They are easier to fit and have some structural advantages over solid.

penguine

We had Balterio laminate installed in our entire house (except bathrooms and stairs) last November before we moved in. It looks very nice and is more durable than the laminate we had in our rental house previously. Even that didn't look too bad, but it scratched easily. The Balterio seems much more durable. I was worried at first and was thinking about putting down casters under the heaviest furniture but didn't get around to it in the end and it looks fine.

Jonesya

Annie1960 wrote: »

A number of people have mentioned engineered wood. What is this? How is it different from normal wood?

As andrewf75 said but to add to that, the main advantage is stability, so solid wood being a natural material will move with the seasons - expanding and shrinking slightly with changes in humidity. You have to be careful about moisture levels in the wood and in the subfloor when laying it Because of this movement and effects on the floor, most fitters recommend using a way of solidly fixing it in place either screwing or nailing(hidden - blind through the tongue) or gluing it down.

Engineered flooring, using a layer of plywood, is much more stable and shouldn't move so doesn't need such secure fixing - so tends to be installed as a floating floor, sat but not fixed to the floor below.

Oh and for protecting it - yes I'd put something under furniture feet. You can get solid felt pads that stick onto the furniture base - Home bargains sell therm very cheaply.

AubreyMac

I too need to consider wooden flooring for my lounge and hall.

What exactly does floating mean?