Laminate vs engineered & underlay questions

princeofpounds

Hi OP, please don't get too annoyed at people suggesting LVT. We get a lot of people on here asking questions who aren't aware of what they don't know, and they would get better answers to their real issue if they considered a wider solution set. In particular, many people confuse vinyl with modern LVT but the product quality is incomparable and people sometimes need to be shaken out of their preconceptions.

Anyway, onto your desired topic - engineered wood. In terms of the surface, it has all the positives and negatives of real wood. It looks great, and have a good feel. Like any wood floor, it can get scratched and dinged relatively easily. However, those issues often look more characterful than bad, unless they get too intense, and it is relatively easy to refresh the floor with a sand and surface finish. 

Does the price bracket make a difference? It can. You can get a thicker top layer, which means the surface has more very long-term durability. The cheap stuff you can probably heavy sand and refinish 2-3 times, the better stuff many more times. The other difference I have found is in the quality of the joints - expensive stuff tends to have better tolerances that means easier and better fitting. But to be honest, the correlation between price and joint quality isn't reliable. I've used more expensive stuff that was a pain and cheaper stuff that went together well. But in general, I think it holds.

I would happily use engineered wood in most places in my property, except kitchens, bathrooms and mud rooms. 

ariarnia

princeofpounds said:

Hi OP, please don't get too annoyed at people suggesting LVT. We get a lot of people on here asking questions who aren't aware of what they don't know, and they would get better answers to their real issue if they considered a wider solution set. In particular, many people confuse vinyl with modern LVT but the product quality is incomparable and people sometimes need to be shaken out of their preconceptions.
 

thanks and sorry if Ive been coming across as irritated. i appreciate the comments. im just very focused on specific info. your response has been helpful thank you. 

the different price brackets are the thing I'm asking about really. the floor is about 16.5 square meters and my max budget for the flooring and underlay would be around 3k but id be reluctant to spend more than around 1k unless its definitely good value for money. 1k would get me the stuff that's about 50 per square meter.

engineered wood from b&q starts at £21 per meter with a 2.5mm top layer
https://www.diy.com/departments/goodhome-bishorn-natural-oak-real-wood-top-layer-flooring-2-03m-pack/3663602537038_BQ.prd

b&q £27 per meter with a 3.2mm top layer 
https://www.diy.com/departments/goodhome-elkins-natural-oak-real-wood-top-layer-flooring-1-58m-pack/3663602537052_BQ.prd

b&qs £42 per meter stuff says its 3mm 
https://www.diy.com/departments/goodhome-eslov-natural-oak-real-wood-top-layer-flooring-1-75m-pack/3663602568834_BQ.prd

£50 per meter stuff from kahar doesn't give at top layer thickness at all (if anyone can see it?)
https://www.onestopflooring.co.uk/shop/product/lushwood-oak-london-matt-lacquer/ 

£100 per meter stuff from kahar has 3.5mm 
https://www.onestopflooring.co.uk/shop/product/kahrs-oak-prague/

that suggests to me the 27 per meter stuff is best value re price per top layer (and reviews suggest to order more than needed and open packs to check planks and return any with flaws which i can do because b&q isnt far away), but idk if the extra 0.5 mm important for domestic use and worth double the price or is there something else in the construction i should be looking at?

shiraz99

ariarnia said:

£50 per meter stuff from kahar doesn't give at top layer thickness at all (if anyone can see it?)
https://www.onestopflooring.co.uk/shop/product/lushwood-oak-london-matt-lacquer/ 

The Kahrs 14mm flooring usually comes with a 3.5mm wear layer

Kährs makes flooring the easy choice | Kährs (kahrs.com)

ariarnia

shiraz99 said:

ariarnia said:

£50 per meter stuff from kahar doesn't give at top layer thickness at all (if anyone can see it?)
https://www.onestopflooring.co.uk/shop/product/lushwood-oak-london-matt-lacquer/ 

The Kahrs 14mm flooring usually comes with a 3.5mm wear layer

Kährs makes flooring the easy choice | Kährs (kahrs.com)

thanks. so the difference between that and the £27 stuff from b&q is 0.3mm and the difference between the £50 and £100 is cosmetic?

shiraz99

ariarnia said:

shiraz99 said:

ariarnia said:

£50 per meter stuff from kahar doesn't give at top layer thickness at all (if anyone can see it?)
https://www.onestopflooring.co.uk/shop/product/lushwood-oak-london-matt-lacquer/ 

The Kahrs 14mm flooring usually comes with a 3.5mm wear layer

Kährs makes flooring the easy choice | Kährs (kahrs.com)

thanks. so the difference between that and the £27 stuff from b&q is 0.3mm and the difference between the £50 and £100 is cosmetic?

I don't know anything about Lushwood, other than what I can see online, or and whether it's owned by Kahrs or not but the difference in price might be down to the fact that it's manufactured in China according to their own website.

Lushwood Natural Wood Flooring UK

I suspect Kahrs original flooring is (or at least was) manufactured in Europe.

ariarnia

shiraz99 said:

ariarnia said:

shiraz99 said:

ariarnia said:

£50 per meter stuff from kahar doesn't give at top layer thickness at all (if anyone can see it?)
https://www.onestopflooring.co.uk/shop/product/lushwood-oak-london-matt-lacquer/ 

The Kahrs 14mm flooring usually comes with a 3.5mm wear layer

Kährs makes flooring the easy choice | Kährs (kahrs.com)

thanks. so the difference between that and the £27 stuff from b&q is 0.3mm and the difference between the £50 and £100 is cosmetic?

I don't know anything about Lushwood, other than what I can see online, or and whether it's owned by Kahrs or not but the difference in price might be down to the fact that it's manufactured in China according to their own website.

Lushwood Natural Wood Flooring UK

I suspect Kahrs original flooring is (or at least was) manufactured in Europe.

thanks i might email them but the link picture and in the detail both say its kahrs. honestly i dont really care about a particular brand or where its made if theres a difference in quality that makes one better value for money. im just trying to understand what the actual difference is between the different options and if its cosmetic or if i should be looking at something other than the 0.3mm difference in top layer. 

shiraz99

ariarnia said:

shiraz99 said:

ariarnia said:

shiraz99 said:

ariarnia said:

£50 per meter stuff from kahar doesn't give at top layer thickness at all (if anyone can see it?)
https://www.onestopflooring.co.uk/shop/product/lushwood-oak-london-matt-lacquer/ 

The Kahrs 14mm flooring usually comes with a 3.5mm wear layer

Kährs makes flooring the easy choice | Kährs (kahrs.com)

thanks. so the difference between that and the £27 stuff from b&q is 0.3mm and the difference between the £50 and £100 is cosmetic?

I don't know anything about Lushwood, other than what I can see online, or and whether it's owned by Kahrs or not but the difference in price might be down to the fact that it's manufactured in China according to their own website.

Lushwood Natural Wood Flooring UK

I suspect Kahrs original flooring is (or at least was) manufactured in Europe.

thanks i might email them but the link picture and in the detail both say its kahrs. honestly i dont really care about a particular brand or where its made if theres a difference in quality that makes one better value for money. im just trying to understand what the actual difference is between the different options and if its cosmetic or if i should be looking at something other than the 0.3mm difference in top layer. 

The marginal difference in the wear layer will have no affect to you over the lifetime of the floor, not unless you decide to sand the floor down multiple times.

benson1980

If it is scratch resistance that you are after, it may be worth considering strand woven bamboo flooring. We had this down in one of our previous houses with two young kids running toys over it all day and a lively dog….was very hard wearing.

Obviously depends whether you like the look of it but may be worth considering.

ariarnia

benson1980 said:

If it is scratch resistance that you are after, it may be worth considering strand woven bamboo flooring. We had this down in one of our previous houses with two young kids running toys over it all day and a lively dog….was very hard wearing.

Obviously depends whether you like the look of it but may be worth considering.

hmmmm thanks. slightly sus that theres apparently no negatives to the flooring other than if you like the look. did you find it had any downsides at all for you?

https://www.ambientbp.com/blog/classic-engineered-strand-woven-bamboo

benson1980

ariarnia said:

benson1980 said:

If it is scratch resistance that you are after, it may be worth considering strand woven bamboo flooring. We had this down in one of our previous houses with two young kids running toys over it all day and a lively dog….was very hard wearing.

Obviously depends whether you like the look of it but may be worth considering.

hmmmm thanks. slightly sus that theres apparently no negatives to the flooring other than if you like the look. did you find it had any downsides at all for you?

https://www.ambientbp.com/blog/classic-engineered-strand-woven-bamboo

Not really. It's significantly harder than oak as the article states. We had it in the hallway and lounge- we had people walking around with their muddy shoes on it/spilling coffee on it. Kids as said doing their best to wreck it. Dog constantly running around. No marks or scratches. I floated it on a concrete subfloor with suitable underlay- no issues.

I've gone for oak this time around as kids are a bit older, dog calmed down a bit, and it looks a bit warmer than bamboo which is more what we're after to go with our current decor. We bought from ambience hardwood flooring who had a good selection, had very good reviews and were helpful on the phone when I asked for advice. They also sent out samples rapidly, plus I didn't realise at the time of ordering but their sister company is the bamboo flooring company, who we got our bamboo flooring from several years ago. If nothing else they could probably offer some further advice around engineered vs bamboo, plus they had some good guides around pros and cons of different finishes such as lacquered/oiled etc.