Wood flooring

Grouchy

Am buying a new place and the bedrooms all have pretty manky carpet so going for wood flooring, I also have allergies so this is another reason.

I've done some research on options and think Engineered Wood is what I'll go for which I think will be suitable and good enough quality for bedrooms. I have not totally ruled out laminate.

I'm thinking of going with JohnLewis and will get a local company to provide a quote for comparison, but I really want a good job and no short-cuts.

JL do Kahrs Linnea and Living Collection at an affordable rate (£27-32 SQ M), I'd also hope to keep an eye out for sales that they have occasionally on engineered flooring to keep costs to a minimum. They are the cheaper end of the engineered range. Does anyone have these types in their homes and can give a review one way or another? Has anyone had JL to do their floors?

Though I've read a fair bit, I'm still unsure about a few things.

Is removing the skirting boards standard practice? I don't really want the flooring butted up to the skirting with extra trim put down.

What is the difference with laquered, is it just looks? And satin?

I've seen the underlay they use at JL and while not cheap it looks good quality. Another apparently well renowned local place I checked out uses a foam underlay.

Any pointers appreciated as I've not had this done before.

Edit: forgot to mention that I know I also need to compare installation costs.

G

Aylesbury_Duck

I've laid laminate, engineered and solid wood in two houses over the years. My tips?

I prefer solid over engineered over laminate, other than in wet areas such as kitchens and utility rooms, where I'd go engineered. Solid feels much better than the other two but good quality engineered is still very good. If your bedrooms are adjacent to bathrooms and you think people might be walking around with wet feet, go for engineered.

Go for the best quality underlay product you can afford. It will make the world of difference to the perceived warmth of the floor as well as making sure to minimise noise.

Ask the installer to remove the skirting so that the expansion gaps can be concealed under the replacements.

Make sure the flooring is acclimatised to the humidity and temperature of the rooms it's to be laid in, otherwise it will expand or contract unnecessarily after laying. Don't get it fitted in extreme temperatures. If laid in very warm and humid conditions, it may contract later on and your expansion gaps might become visible! If laid in very cold conditions, it may need more room for expansion than is practical under standard skirting.

A good installer will know all these things. Also, make sure to ask them how much excess to buy (there is inevitable wastage), and check that JL will allow you to return unused packs in the timescale you have in mind.

Work with your installer to ensure s/he has specific instructions as to the direction of the flooring as well as how you want them to run through rooms (or not). In our downstairs, there is a seamless run of flooring between rooms and through doorways. It involved sawing the bottoms off door frames and some tricky cutting, but the results look better than having thresholds between every room.

glasgowdan

Well we've had good engineered and a good laminate and I'd go for the laminate again every time. Not only does it really look the same, it's properly hard wearing and doesn't scratch up like engineered or real (a friend has had their house with good solid wood flooring and it's the bane of their lives!).

We got a trim, and it honestly looks great.

Keep_pedalling

glasgowdan wrote: »

Well we've had good engineered and a good laminate and I'd go for the laminate again every time. Not only does it really look the same, it's properly hard wearing and doesn't scratch up like engineered or real (a friend has had their house with good solid wood flooring and it's the bane of their lives!).

We got a trim, and it honestly looks great.

What the hell are they doing with it, walking around in stilettos, or dragging metal boxes over it? I have engineered in my hall and real wood in the living room, dining room and one bedroom, and all are looking good after a number of years use, felt pads on all the furnature makes sure things can be moved without damaging the floor.

lush_walrus

Personally I would avoid laminate. Solid is my preference and is what we have. As above the underlay is so important for sound transfer on upper floors and warmth at ground floor level. We have 3 children and ours is without a ding so far.

Engineered is fine, it's just a thin layer of real wood onto a composite board, so never quite sure what the gain is. Not sure if it's cheaper or not but both are cheaper than a good quality carpet.

Aylesbury_Duck

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

What the hell are they doing with it, walking around in stilettos, or dragging metal boxes over it? I have engineered in my hall and real wood in the living room, dining room and one bedroom, and all are looking good after a number of years use, felt pads on all the furnature makes sure things can be moved without damaging the floor.

Me too. Felt pads on furniture are a must for all wooden floors, laminate or real. I've got a few scratches on my real wood floor where little stones caught in shoe treads have done it, for example. They mellow down after a few days and aren't noticeable. I've had a dent where I dropped a piece of furniture I was manhandling down the stairs. That came out with a hot iron run over a damp towel over the spot to the point where it's so shallow it's not really noticeable. I had scratches on laminate in my old house and used one of those resin repair kits but it never looked great. The odd minor scratch and dent in real wood is part of the natural look of it.

Silvertabby

Engineered is fine, it's just a thin layer of real wood onto a composite board, so never quite sure what the gain is. Not sure if it's cheaper or not but both are cheaper than a good quality carpet. Posted by lush walrush

It depends on what you buy. We're having engineered oak flooring fitted soon, having seen our neighbour's - we were so impressed we bought the flooring from the same company, and will be using the same fitter.

Yes, you can get engineered flooring for as little as £15 per square metre - but have a look at the quality and thickness of the real wood. It's likely to be grainy, and just 2mm. We are paying £50 per square metre, but the 'veneer' is 6mm thick - so we have the advantage of a (almost) solid wood floor with the ease of fitting.

Grouchy

Thanks for all of these replies.

Aylesbury - one thing you mentioned is what I'd been thinking about and that is direction and where to have thresholds. Two of the bedrooms have a small hall in between, but the two bedrooms are on a different axis, both oblong, but one North-South the other East-West if you get my meaning, so no possibility of running the flooring continuously throughout as I think it always looks better the planks going the length of the room. I'd figured I'd discuss this with the fitter at time of estimate what the options were. I'm guessing a threshold at each of the doors would be the best solution and most symetrical.

Pity nobody has experience with the Kahrs more budget options as I am hoping that these will be adequate and nice for bedrooms where I don't want to spend a fortune on flooring.

I will have another look at the laminates though the ones I have looked at didn't quite look like wood somehow. Also I was wondering if laminate is as quiet underfoot as engineered (given the same underlay). It was a while ago I admit, but a friend had laminate (no idea what price range) and it had a hollowish echoey sound when walking on it with shoes.

Thanks again.

Aylesbury_Duck

Grouchy wrote: »

Thanks for all of these replies.

Aylesbury - one thing you mentioned is what I'd been thinking about and that is direction and where to have thresholds. Two of the bedrooms have a small hall in between, but the two bedrooms are on a different axis, both oblong, but one North-South the other East-West if you get my meaning, so no possibility of running the flooring continuously throughout as I think it always looks better the planks going the length of the room. I'd figured I'd discuss this with the fitter at time of estimate what the options were. I'm guessing a threshold at each of the doors would be the best solution and most symetrical.

Pity nobody has experience with the Kahrs more budget options as I am hoping that these will be adequate and nice for bedrooms where I don't want to spend a fortune on flooring.

I will have another look at the laminates though the ones I have looked at didn't quite look like wood somehow. Also I was wondering if laminate is as quiet underfoot as engineered (given the same underlay). It was a while ago I admit, but a friend had laminate (no idea what price range) and it had a hollowish echoey sound when walking on it with shoes.

Thanks again.

If the small hall is carpeted, I'd do as you suggest and run the planks the "right" way for each room and use thresholds. If the hall is to be laid with the same flooring, I'd go for a continuous sweep, making the direction compromise in whichever room it suits best. Otherwise you'll have a mish-mash of wood directions at the threshold.

I'd avoid laminate if you can afford to. It does have a plasticky feel and sound to it underfoot. Good quality laminate is good in some applications but I'd choose engineenered over it every time.

Grouchy

The hall and two bedrooms are currently carpetted but the carpet needs to come up whatever happens. The hall is quite small. I can't remember if the carpet in the hallway is salvagable, but I will look into that for a back up option.

I'd thought about the running it right through (compromising on having the planks across the short width of one room) but someone mentioned to me that if the angles are not spot on between the two rooms then one room would have planks that were slightly 'out' - not precisely parallel to the wall if you see what I mean. Bit of a conundrum really, but good to wrestle with it before making a decision. I suppose another possibility is to have thresholds on each doorway and run each room and the hallway in the same direction (but with thesholds in between), that way I guess, getting the angles correct for each room would be more precise.

Food for thought ...

I'll bear that in mind on the laminate. A pity I've not found a showroom where you can actually stand on floors in situ.

Thanks