Karndean Art Select fitting

bigpappa

We have a smallish kitchen about 2.1m x 6.2m and had a quote for fitting Karndean Art select canberra which retails about £37-40 psqm online.

Was quoted £1060 inc supply and fit.

Current kitchen is half floorboards and half concerete so will put down flooring grade ply first and then glue the Karndean down. Kitchen will be empty with all skirting removed.

Art Select has a 0.7mm wear layer and he said its the best LVT for a kitchen - but then mentioned need to have cushion pads under the tables and chairs or it will scratch through Karndean.

Currentl we have some tough old laminate thats not scratched but is looking a bit tired and we have never used cusions on the feet of the chairs or table legs.

Any suggestions - don't want porcelain tiles.

Liverpool85

We have LVT tiles (Luvanto) in our kitchen. They are great for keeping clean and warmer than tiles.

They do scratch though and we picked a design with enough variation in texture and colour not to make it too obvious. We use furniture pads, most scratches are from little bit of grit from outside getting in (by the doorways) or occasionally furniture. There’s the odd chip when something heavy is dropped but obviously they don’t crack. You can strip and recoat the top layer, ours is now nearly 5 years old so will do this soon and see how it comes up.

We had laminate in a house before and it scratched less, though there’s less opportunity to repair scratches. Its easier to replace and cheaper. Our floor was concrete before and needed old tiles and laminate up, grinding off old glue, re damproof and rescreed.

There wasn’t at that time any tile effect laminate I liked though. There are lots more now though!

Doozergirl

I wouldn't be paying that much for something that looks like a generic LVT tile. At that price I'd want a pretty special pattern.

Even Amtico Spacia is nearly half the price at £25 or less, but there are other, cheaper brands for less than £20 a metre. Even Howdens are producing one.

We have a couple of scratches in our Polyfloor, from clearly moving something heavy, but day to day, the furniture doesn't affect it much.

Silvertabby

We have Karndean in the kitchen and both bathrooms, and it's great.

From memory, fitting (including the ply bases) cost more than the actual karndean - but we put that down to the time involved ( a lot longer than just laying a sheet of lino). In the case of the kitchen, in particular, it wasn't just a simple square - it was kitchen/utility room/downstairs cloakroom.

Our kitchen karndean is one of the 20 year warranty ones. It's currently over 6 years old and hasn't a scratch on it. Mind you, we do use felt pads on the kitchen chair legs and we don't have any children/dogs rampaging around ! I also only use kardean's own cleaner, just in case anything else invalidates the warranty/affects the little grouting strips.

P.S. Don't buy the 750ml bottles of cleaner from your supplier - I buy 5 ltr containers from e-bay for a lot less ml for ml.

no1catman

Have Karn Dean tiling on the kitchen floor, chose the mid-spec range. Very pleased with how it looked with the pattern grouting strips.

When it was laid, the local installer put down a rubberised waterproof membrane first, before the next day putting down the tiles.

bigpappa

Doozergirl wrote: »

I wouldn't be paying that much for something that looks like a generic LVT tile. At that price I'd want a pretty special pattern.

Even Amtico Spacia is nearly half the price at £25 or less, but there are other, cheaper brands for less than £20 a metre. Even Howdens are producing one.

We have a couple of scratches in our Polyfloor, from clearly moving something heavy, but day to day, the furniture doesn't affect it much.

Thank you for your advice. I have decided to go down the non Karndean route but it's a minefield.

I found some good makes of LVT - mFlor - but it's hard to find a supplier, Polyflor and Project Floors.

However the most important aspect is finding a good fitter - and it's best to get themt to supply and fit, so if they are not stocking what you are after it's a bit of a nightmare.

How can a Kitchen fitter / Carpenter lay glue down LVT which Howdens now sells.