Flooring Advice.

WB91

WB91

WB91

Associate
Joined
26 Apr 2019
Posts
14
Hello.

Just recently moved into a new house and we are going to change the flooring downstairs but not sure what to put down.

Currently it has carpet in the hallway & living room. Lino in the kitchen and downstairs toilet.

Young family. 2 kids. What would you recommended? This is our first house and have never been through this process before.

Initially we was thinking engineered oak throughout with carpet all upstairs but not sure it will last with young children and potentiality pets in the future.

Now we are thinking either tiles, wood effect tiles or LVT in the hallway kitchen and toilet with carpet in the living room.

Advice please

Thanks!
 
Amtico might be worth a look, or Karndean. Amtico is made in the UK though and I preferred it over Karndean when I was looking. Either one does need a nice level floor to work on though.

Tiled flooring really works best in bathrooms/kitchen areas really, I wouldn't tile much else, maybe the downstairs hallway. The main downside to tiling is cold in the winter if on a concrete floor.

For upstairs rooms in general I'd say carpet is probably the best, you can get man made carpet that can even survive bleaching to clean it I think.
 
I don't know the answer to this - we're going to be replacing all our flooring soon and have kids and will be thinking the same.

Thoughts - we put a carpet in the play room about a year ago and it's been kept clean and fine without issues, but we don't allow food or drinks in there (for kids).

Anything super hard like tiles would mean broken glasses, bruised knees and toys smashed I fear.

Wife is unconvinced by LVT, so no idea what we'll do.
 
We've just gone for carpet in the hallway, stairs and landing as we've got the original floorboards down from the 1950s and getting a level floor would be quite a big job.

Also, a lot of wiring and pipework is under both hallway and landing and the thought of having to remove wooden flooring to access it puts me off.

As has been said, a lot of carpet nowadays can be cleaned with bleach without staining. We've had a similar carpet in the living room for 2 years and it hasn't stained or worn at all. This is with a 3 year old and 2 dogs.

Plus, carpet was about 1/3 of the price of karndean!
 
The main negative of the cheaper carpet that can be cleaned of almost anything is it doesn't feel as nice to the feet, but I don't think it's a huge issue, and with a lot of foot traffic it's better than carpet you can't clean.

For bathrooms for sure I'd always go tiling, but some sort of vinyl tiles can work as well, depends on tastes I guess!
 
Upstairs was always going to be carpet ( not the bathroom ) - So would you recommend a 100% poly carpet over a wool mix 80/20?

Yes the downside to tiles is that they can feel pretty cold in the winter, but can easily be cleaned.
The floor is level downstairs so i shouldn't have any problems with that.

We could replace and keep the carpet in the same areas but i thought it might be best to not have it in the downstairs hallway?
 
WB91 said:
Upstairs was always going to be carpet ( not the bathroom ) - So would you recommend a 100% poly carpet over a wool mix 80/20?

Yes the downside to tiles is that they can feel pretty cold in the winter, but can easily be cleaned.
The floor is level downstairs so i shouldn't have any problems with that.

We could replace and keep the carpet in the same areas but i thought it might be best to not have it in the downstairs hallway?
Click to expand...

I think I would if you are worried about spillages and stains and stuff. I have 80/20 but it's just me and I know I will look after it OK :)

For tiles, if the rooms are adjoining you could have the same throughout downstairs WC, hallway, kitchen, that can work well, but it will be cold underfoot for sure if on a concrete base in weather like we have right now. I would get matte tiles over shiny ones btw, shiny = pain to keep clean.

You can get wood effect porcelain tiles which could be interesting to use, kind of a mix of your want of wooden flooring with the hardiness of tiling.

I do think carpet in lounge is nicer though, so I'd probably carpet lounge + stairs + upstairs bits.

Some of my various flooring shots in my before/after bits on my house here: https://imgur.com/a/sUv6y0p

I kept the wooden flooring in downstairs hallway from previous owners because it's oak, and changing it would probably mean messing around with the skirting which I didn't want to tackle.
 
HungryHippos said:
Amtico might be worth a look, or Karndean. Amtico is made in the UK though and I preferred it over Karndean when I was looking. Either one does need a nice level floor to work on though.

Tiled flooring really works best in bathrooms/kitchen areas really, I wouldn't tile much else, maybe the downstairs hallway. The main downside to tiling is cold in the winter if on a concrete floor.

For upstairs rooms in general I'd say carpet is probably the best, you can get man made carpet that can even survive bleaching to clean it I think.
Click to expand...

Our Karndean we had fitted this year has been utterly rubbish, its meant to be hard wearing but it is scratched by furniture, anything dropped on it marks, we've even got a few chunks right through to the base layers. Where tiles have been replaced they never sit right. I'd not bother again and just go for wooden flooring, either hardwood or engineered.

We actually removed some hardwood flooring to do the entire hall/kitchen/utility in Karndean which was a shame as the old wooden floor was indestructible.
 
I have amtico in my hall, kitchen, cloakroom and both bathrooms. Almost looks as good as the day it was fitted and that was 20 years ago. Living room, dining room and bedrooms are all carpeted, same colour throughout.
 
We installed engineered oak downstairs about 3 years ago, have got quite young kids (now 10 & 7), and it's holding up very well.

I've put a top coat of maintenance oil on it once a year to keep it nice. I'm at the 1-year anniversary of last doing it right now, and will probably give it another month or two before doing it again.

The fake wood stuff is nowhere near as nice, no matter what people say. I tried to convince myself it was OK, when we were browsing, but it just isn't.
 
Tile for kitchen certainly, I prefer tile in bathrooms as well. Tiled entrance perhaps but I have engineered oak there as well as the dining / lounge. You can then use rugs to add interest.
 
Hard flooring in the kitchen, hallway and bathroom. Carpet everywhere else.

If you have young kids or planning on having cats or dogs then get a fully synthetic carpet that can be bleached and a decent underlay.

As for hard flooring, just put down what you like, be that tile, laminate, vinyl click flooring (kardeen etc) or wood. I would stick to the same thing on the ground floor and avoid wood in the bathroom upstairs.
 
Thanks everyone.

Leaning towards carpet in the living room and then using the same hard floor for the entrance hall, kitchen and toilet.

Initially i was going to put solid/eng oak down in the entrance hall and living room. Keep the lino in the toilet and change the kitchen to tiles.


These are the wood effect porcelain/ceramic tiles i mentioned earlier. What do you think? I'm thinking either these or similar or looking at the Amtico as suggested.

Entrance Hall way - Kitchen - Downstairs toilet
original.jpg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom