Kitchen floor decision

Doozergirl

Rosa_Damascena said:

Doozergirl said:

It's going to depend on the individual product, but yes, they definitely can look like I real wood. 

We've not had many people in the house 🙄 but three people have spoken assuming that ours is a real wood parquet.  I wouldn't have bought it if it looked fake.  I have expensive taste, I just have to look harder for the relative bargains.    Ours is from the Amtico Spacia range.  

Thanks! Royal Oak for me

You can get little free samples direct from Amtico. 🙂

Jeepers_Creepers

Rosa_Damascena said:

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Another very attractive finish.

But I have an aversion to ceramic floor tiles too, for the same reasons as Doozer - their coldness, hardness, clackiness.

There are surely better options out there that'll give you the same appearance? Allura by Forbo is amazing quality - far better than, say, Karndean from my experience - and is proper commercial grade; I don't think you'll have any issues with longevity. Whether they have a finish that'll match your current choices, I'm afraid I don't know.

I'm gonna do the British thing and ask: £ / sq m?

Sis got it at a large discount from Remland Carpets - cheaper than the Karndean she compared it with, and far superior in both durability and finish. It was also the first 'pretend' wood I'd seen with an authentic grain finish that actually followed the pattern (the Karn at the time didn't have this).

It was, tho', their stick-down vinyl tile, something like 2.7mm thick, so was laid on her solid floor. It therefore doesn't have the 'give' or softness of cushioned vinyl or laminates. 0.7mm wear thickness - it'll last decades.

She chose the 'raw timber' style, and the textured grain even had the 'cross' lines as would have been made by the bandsaw which sliced the timber - I was mightily impressed.

Forbo also make other types of floor covering, but I don't know if there's a style that would suit you or the OP. All I can from 'my' experience is 'great quality'.

Ashworks

We lived with white (!!!!) ceramic tiles in our kitchen for a few years which we inherited from the previous owner who clearly had no kids or dogs (and possibly never cooked either). Apart from the colour, they were noisy, the grout got stained easily and anything that landed on them broke into a gazillion pieces and flew across the whole floor. I would never have ceramic tiles again and we covered them with wood effect vinyl when we re-did the kitchen. We were on a budget as we are selling the house, but my neighbour has fabulous Karndean vinyl which looks just like tiles but without the hardness. I will go for this in the next house.

rach_k

Another vote for LVT here.

We have a completely unheated kitchen (by choice!) that used to have a tiled floor and it was always horribly cold.  We went for Amtico Spacia when we redid it and it's so much warmer now; it keeps your feet warm instead of feeling like the floor is trying to suck all of your body heat plus your soul out through your feet

I personally don't like anything pretending to be something it's not so fake stone, wood etc are a big no for me, but I think vinyl manages as well as anything else at looking like wood, if that's what you like.  

Some of the ranges come in large tiles - I think ours are 45cm square - so that might reduce the labour cost.  I know you can get small fiddly patterns that I assume would take a lot longer to lay.  To be honest, with ours, the majority of the work seemed to be making sure the floor was completely level underneath.  

As for being waterproof, well we have the same tiles in our bathroom so I hope it's waterproof!  The plumber and flooring guy both said it would be fine and it's been a year with no problems so far, and it must be 4 or 5 years in the kitchen with no problems.  

pollypenny

18 months ago we covered our tiled floor with thick vinyl, not Karndean, but similar.  It looks like wood and feels like wood.  Most of all it looks clean with a sweep, unlike the  cream, speckled tiles which looked clean for a few hours after I'd washed or steamed them.   Moreover, it's warm underfoot and quiet. . 

bargainhunter121

Thanks everyone. I’m going to order a few vinyl samples online and see what they’re like for quality. 

bargainhunter121

We are nearing the end of the project (thankfully) but I had queried today if the floor between the living area and old kitchen would be levelled as there was a 10mm difference. The builder said he had tried to grind the edges down as best he could but for it to be perfectly levelled the existing laminate in the living area would need to come up and the area latexed. Prior to asking this, we had hoped to put down lvt in a few months. Once again though the builder is recommending if we are latexing and levelling to go with tiles as they are more water proof. My query is can a laminate/lvt be continued if there is a level difference albeit grounded down? Does it require lifting the laminate and latexing throughout to put any future floor down if it was to be all the same? I had assumed that the floor wouldve been levelled as a basic but apparently not...
I did want the same floor throughout which is costing a fortune, especially if we were to go with tiles as there will be thr cost of latexing/matting/adhesive and grout. We do feel a bit forced to go with tiles for some reason by him. Should we just ask them to lift the laminate and latex to prep for lvt in a few months? Assuming this is required (sorry I haven't a clue on these things)

longwalks1

We recently renovated our bathroom and I laid large 65cm x 65cm porcelain tiles from tilemountain. Think they were about £19 or £20 per m2.  We love them so will be using the same in our kitchen when we do it later this year (garden and internal doors to do first) 

we plan to fit wet underfloor heating as Doozergirl says, tiles will always draw heat away 

frogglet

bargainhunter121 said:

We are nearing the end of the project (thankfully) but I had queried today if the floor between the living area and old kitchen would be levelled as there was a 10mm difference. The builder said he had tried to grind the edges down as best he could but for it to be perfectly levelled the existing laminate in the living area would need to come up and the area latexed. Prior to asking this, we had hoped to put down lvt in a few months. Once again though the builder is recommending if we are latexing and levelling to go with tiles as they are more water proof. My query is can a laminate/lvt be continued if there is a level difference albeit grounded down? Does it require lifting the laminate and latexing throughout to put any future floor down if it was to be all the same? I had assumed that the floor wouldve been levelled as a basic but apparently not...
I did want the same floor throughout which is costing a fortune, especially if we were to go with tiles as there will be thr cost of latexing/matting/adhesive and grout. We do feel a bit forced to go with tiles for some reason by him. Should we just ask them to lift the laminate and latex to prep for lvt in a few months? Assuming this is required (sorry I haven't a clue on these things)

We had about a 10mm step between rooms. 
The guys who fitted the LVT tapered it with levelling compound when they were preparing the floors.