Hall Floor - Lifestyle Floors Chelsea Country Oak

Grumpy_chap

Hello all, I wonder if there is anyone that can give advice on a good floor for a hall way? 

We have a wooden floor, engineered wood with real wood top layer oak.  It was expensive, we really like it and it looked really good when first laid.  Unfortunately, the edge trims have worn very poorly (but could be replaced) and a water leak caused the boards to move, the underlay to rot and some of the panels cracked.  It has been mentioned that the floor could be re-lifted, sanded and re-laid and made to look like new.  Indeed, when we first bought the flooring, the place that sold it offered that as a "strength" or "added benefit" of the selection but when we went back to say that we might be interested in that, they had no interest and just proposed an entirely new floor.

Anyway, we went out to order a new floor for our bathroom today and the shop had a really nice floor on display:
https://www.lifestyle-floors.co.uk/product-detail/chelsea-(new)/country-oak
It seems hard to establish what this actually is and all the shop described it as was "laminate".  I've always been anti-laminate and, particularly from what my Mum has which was there when she moved in but is a really poor product "laminate floor".  I think what she has was self-lay from a DIY chain store and probably quite "budget".  What does "laminate" really mean?

Does anyone have any experience of this type of floor and is it a good quality product?  What exactly is the specification of this Lifestyle Floors product?  Their website does not really seem to say, unless I am being daft and not looking in he correct place.

shinytop

https://www.floordepot.co.uk/item/24122008/chelsea-country-oak-8mm?gclid=Cj0KCQjw16KFBhCgARIsALB0g8L5ulsdLnvQnLYO9piJ4dDxa8yPdn_fC-YD6boMqj512vJDgASo9QsaAp3KEALw_wcB
It's a budget 8mm click laminate; OK for what it is but at about £12/m2 it won't be as nice as your engineered floor.  If it's laid properly it will look OK.  I assume you weren't looking this for your bathroom as I don't think it is suitable.

Rosa_Damascena

£12/m is a very cheap laminate floor and if you are used to engineered wood I can confidently predict you ain't gonna like it.

shinytop

Grumpy_chap said:

Hello all, I wonder if there is anyone that can give advice on a good floor for a hall way? 

We have a wooden floor, engineered wood with real wood top layer oak.  It was expensive, we really like it and it looked really good when first laid.  Unfortunately, the edge trims have worn very poorly (but could be replaced) and a water leak caused the boards to move, the underlay to rot and some of the panels cracked.  It has been mentioned that the floor could be re-lifted, sanded and re-laid and made to look like new.  Indeed, when we first bought the flooring, the place that sold it offered that as a "strength" or "added benefit" of the selection but when we went back to say that we might be interested in that, they had no interest and just proposed an entirely new floor.

Anyway, we went out to order a new floor for our bathroom today and the shop had a really nice floor on display:
https://www.lifestyle-floors.co.uk/product-detail/chelsea-(new)/country-oak
It seems hard to establish what this actually is and all the shop described it as was "laminate".  I've always been anti-laminate and, particularly from what my Mum has which was there when she moved in but is a really poor product "laminate floor".  I think what she has was self-lay from a DIY chain store and probably quite "budget".  What does "laminate" really mean?

Does anyone have any experience of this type of floor and is it a good quality product?  What exactly is the specification of this Lifestyle Floors product?  Their website does not really seem to say, unless I am being daft and not looking in he correct place.

Only the damaged bits need to be relaid.  But the wear layer needs to be quite thick (4mm?) and the floor has to be very flat (no bows or dips) otherwise you'll sand through into the ply underneath.  Unless you are DiYing, the hardest bit will be finding someone to do the job.

Grumpy_chap

Thank you for the comments.
We have not done too well with flooring products.
The hall floor damaged by water.
Karndean elsewhere was awful.
Anyway, looks like this option is one to avoid.

Rosa_Damascena

Grumpy_chap said:

Thank you for the comments.
We have not done too well with flooring products.
The hall floor damaged by water.
Karndean elsewhere was awful.
Anyway, looks like this option is one to avoid.

Are you averse to tiling instead? Porcelain tiles will withstand water damage and you can get wood effect ones (although it wiull take some searching to get a match).

Grumpy_chap

Thank everyone for the comments.

I am not averse to tiles, and "victorian" style tiles would look good IMO, bringing the property back to original period or thereabouts - many of the houses in the street do still have the original tiled floors and they look fab.  Sadly ours were removed probably at some point in the 1970's.  Mrs G-C is less keen because tiles floor is not nice and warm under foot.

Anyway, we have found an alternative wood product that we both like, Kahrs Harmony Oak Smoke Town:
https://www.kahrs.com/en-GB/wood-floors/oak-smoke 

This seems to be a higher quality so hopefully we'll be very pleased with it.

Grumpy_chap

Goodness me - doesn't time fly!
Various things of "life" meant we never got the new wooden floor.  Anyway, we are half way through painting the hall and a new wood floor is back on the agenda.

The Kahrs Oak Smoke is still an option and there is an alternative Kahrs we are considering.  They all seem much of a muchness.

We have also seen an alternative Ted Todd Kennet Wide Plank:
https://www.tedtodd.co.uk/product/kennet/

This is slightly thinner engineered wood, but the same 3mm wear layer (which I suppose is the most important).  The colour is absolutely spot-on for the colour we have done the walls.

Does anyone know whether the Ted Todd is as good or better than the Kahrs?  Ted is the slightly pricier, but price and quality may not be wholly aligned.