Where's good for wood flooring?

[User]

 

[Dave 123]

We got ours from Howdens, we had a washing machine leak. It wasn't very good.

We replaced it with Quickstep flooring (of cycling team fame) A world of difference.

 

[Mugshot]

[QUOTE 5268596, member: 45"]Other than Wickes, B&Q and the main places, where else should I be looking for decent wood flooring? There are all kinds of online and cheap looking alternatives but I have no experience of them so I'm a bit hesitant and looking for recommendations.

Thanks.[/QUOTE]
What are you looking to spend PSM? My honest opinion is that the current generation of wood effect porcelain tiles is so good that aside from it being warmer under foot there is no reason to choose wood. Good examples have a massive range of patterns, colours, tones etc and look incredibly natural when they are down. You wont wear them out, you can bleach them, scrub them, mop them, steam them, you don't need to worry about washing machine leaks and you can even drop burning coals on them if you so wish, none of which you can do with impunity with a wood floor. If you're concerned about the temperature you could consider investing in underfloor heating (electric cable type) or a pair of slippers.
Here's some pics of a hallway and kitchen that I supplied the stuff for, it looks even more impressive in the flesh;

 

[Mugshot]

And some more:

 

[Levo-Lon]

What are you looking to spend PSM? My honest opinion is that the current generation of wood effect porcelain tiles is so good that aside from it being warmer under foot there is no reason to choose wood. Good examples have a massive range of patterns, colours, tones etc and look incredibly natural when they are down. You wont wear them out, you can bleach them, scrub them, mop them, steam them, you don't need to worry about washing machine leaks and you can even drop burning coals on them if you so wish, none of which you can do with impunity with a wood floor. If you're concerned about the temperature you could consider investing in underfloor heating (electric cable type) or a pair of slippers.
Here's some pics of a hallway and kitchen that I supplied the stuff for, it looks even more impressive in the flesh;
View attachment 412832 View attachment 412833 View attachment 412834 View attachment 412835 View attachment 412836

Fabulous flooring,I love that

 

[Mugshot]

Fabulous flooring,I love that

Some of them are amazing. I've done it few times where people have put it through the whole of the downstairs of the house, they have come back and told me that visitors will get on their hands and knees to feel it as they don't believe the customers when they tell them it's not real wood.

 

[Globalti]

Yebbut one thing people forget when fitting out houses (and cafes and restaurants) is the acoustic quality of the room. Lack of sound-absorbing materials means that rooms with hard tiled floors, solid worktops and especially sloping ceilings are reflective to sound, meaning kitchen clatter and conversation are loud and even painful, especially to older folk whose ears are less able to filter out background noise. I recently revisited a large cafe to find that they had understood this and hung sound-absorbing panels from the ceiling; the effect was astonishing as even when the cafe was full including with a big family group, the sound was bearable and normal conversation possible.

 

[Mugshot]

How does it compare price wise?

I'm looking for about 9 Sq Mtr and was quoted £650.00 for the waterproof Quickstep fitted.

The stuff in my pics is Vancouver Miel, it's from a company called Waxman, they pretty much only supply independents like myself. With VAT the RRP is £52.49, you'd need some adhesive and grout plus add fitting as well.

 

[Mugshot]

[QUOTE 5268771, member: 45"]Yeah, I've Ben thinking about this. It's for a small, new conservatory with a solid gable roof. So plenty of hard, flat surfaces.[/QUOTE]
Very high traffic, plus all the shoot getting tramped in and out, I'd rule wood right out. Karndean and the equivalents are pretty good and effective too, I'm a tile fan so I'd always recommend them before anything else, but some of the good vinyl clicks are decent enough.

 

[Globalti]

I would disagree; we have engineered wood in our hallway and after 7 years it's looking as good as new. It is coated with some kind of polymer, which makes it impermeable.

 

[C R]

If going for wood I would go for engineered. We went for natural wood, and have had some issues with expansion/contraction due to humidity changes, though it does look good. If we had to do it again we would go for engineered, which is supposed to be more dimensionaly stable, and looks the same as natural.

 

[Spiderweb]

I can recommend the ‘wood look’ ceramic tiles, looks good on walls too, we have it in our bathroom and shower.

 

[Spiderweb]

[QUOTE 5268889, member: 45"]Thanks.

What exactly did you do at the edge of that step? We have similar out of the conservatory into the house and I want to make it tidy and resilient.[/QUOTE]
The flooring is solid oak which I layed some years ago, we live in a really old house and the original floor was so uneven that it was easier to lay the floor on two levels. The step is just a piece of flooring with the tongue ripped off and the edges rounded. It is screwed directly into the softwood framework, the holes are then plugged with oak plugs, you can make plugs yourself (Google plug cutter) I think mine were from screwfix. The riser is clad with another piece of flooring. I rented a sander, sanded the floor and finished off with 5 or 6 coats of Danish oil.

 

[Drago]

Those ceramic tiles look awesome.

Have you considered Amtico? Very high quality, hard wearing vinyl wood effect. Like ceramic, it's ideal for kitchen or bathroom applications where it might get wet.

 

[welsh dragon]

We have just done the living room. We went for laminate from flooring direct. We still have to do the edging.