My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Property/DIY

Kitchen Flooring - Engineered Wood or Tiles HELP

22 replies

Steffi85 · 23/07/2014 21:55

I desperately need help deciding on which flooring to have in a large open plan kitchen area that has large glass patios doors leading straight into the garden (no step or anything). I initially chose engineered wood flooring for warmth as our ceilings are too low to be able to install under floor heating (not to mention the additional cost). But with the recent bout of rain I am questioning whether it is more practical to have tiles now.
I warming welcome anyone's advise.
Is wood silly? Hard to clean? Not practical when so close to a large garden?
Are tiles too cold? Hard on your feet when standing and cooking or washing up? Hard for a little boy playing with his toys?

Such a big decision to make and I am really stuck

Thank you – I love this website.

OP posts:
Report
lessonsintightropes · 23/07/2014 22:07

We've got engineered wood and I love it - warm underfoot, dishes don't break if dropped, easy to clean, I'd recommend it.

Report
PeoplesFrontOfJudea · 23/07/2014 22:12

Tiles. You can mop them properly.

Report
PigletJohn · 23/07/2014 22:23

Kitchens contain water, which is bad for wood unless it is a tree.

Pets' water bowls are especially bad.

Report
Steffi85 · 23/07/2014 22:42

Hum.

lessonsintightropes does the engineered wood get dirty form outdoor'garden and peoples shoes?

PeoplesFrontOfJudea do you find the tiles cold to walk on?

Thank you!!!

OP posts:
Report
AngieM2 · 23/07/2014 22:46

Marking place. Interested to hear as were possibly changing our house flooring throughout and toying between tiles (big white shiny ones) and engineered oak. Currently have original floorboards. We have a large victorian house. I do have matt white tiles in the bathroom and they're a nightmare to keep clean so I'm not even sure why I'm considering shiny white tiles downstairs other than it looks good!

Report
PeoplesFrontOfJudea · 23/07/2014 23:36

Hi steffi. No, but we have underfloor heating throughout the ground floor of our house and so that helps. We do have tiled floors in all of our bathrooms though (not underfloor heated) and they are fine in winter.

Report
lessonsintightropes · 24/07/2014 00:35

Like PFJ, we have engineered wood throughout and a very large dining/family room people walk through first. Not dirty. We have a cat, and her bowls are on a mat at the kitchen end. I wouldn't go back to original floorboards now after this experience; they wear well with mopping and as long as you have a good mat in front of the French doors you should be fine. I think tiles are great but too cold underfoot for London.

Report
lessonsintightropes · 24/07/2014 00:36

PS we have underfloor heating too if that helps.

Report
Eastpoint · 24/07/2014 02:37

We have engineered wood & 2 dogs. It was put down in the autumn & already has scratch marks. We also have Portland stone & it too is difficult to keep clean. I would have bought a tile but my husband really doesn't like them.

Report
OliviaBenson · 24/07/2014 07:22

What about amtico or karndean? That's what we have- very practical. I've seen friends with engineered wood and it hasn't lasted in a kitchen after getting wet (washer leak).

Report
Tattypoo · 24/07/2014 10:35

Tiles look lovely but will be very cold underfoot in winter unless you have underfloor heating or at least have insulation under the floor (which depends on how old your house is). Of course cold tiles would be lovely at the moment though Smile. Engineered wood is warmer and is quite forgiving in terms of keeping clean but can definitely scratch. A good finish on the wood (Osmo) can get over the wood/water issue - we have 2 cats and a DS and our wood floor in the kitchen gets plenty thrown at it but no water damage as of yet. Agree with OliviaB, if you want a warmer feel without the issues of real wood then a good vinyl (ie Amtico/ Karndean) is an option. I've been converted having used it recently on a project and was very surprised how good it looked. You can get individual beveled planks that really do look like wood for example. Can be expensive though...

Report
UsedToBeAPaxmanFan · 25/07/2014 23:01

We had this dilemma and in the end went for engineered oak. Haven't regretted it at all. One of the things that put us off tiles was how cold it would be in winter. If you're going to have underfloor heating then that would be different.

Our kitchen had ceramic floor tiles prior to refit last year and it was truly horrible underfoot in autmun, winter and spring. Nice in summer though!

We'renot too worried about water on the wood floor as all our washing up and laundry is done in our utility room which has a tiled floor. Dh does mop the floor every week, and it looks great.

I should point out we have teens, not small dc, so no toys etc being pushed/scraped over the floor. We do have cats but not dogs, which also makes a difference. If I had dogs and toddlers I might have made a different flooring choice.

Report
bluevanman · 27/07/2014 23:08

As a floor fitter I would highly recommend against engineered!

  • Marks really easy, huge expansion gaps required, not great long term with water, unless you sand and varnish.


BUT saying that... if your subfloor is floorboards... avoid tiles too! They'll crack over time because the floorboards flex, the tiles won't (No matter how much "strenghtening" prep goes in)

If money is no object- amtico or karndean are best. Or you can get a decent sheet cushion floor for a third the price
Report
PigletJohn · 27/07/2014 23:20

I quite like the look of cushionfloor in, say, a bathroom, but in a kitchen, (unless I am unusually clumsy) it marks or scrapes when you drop sharp things on it, or move a kitchen appliance, or even a chairleg.

The staff kitchen in my commercial premises have a hard, non-cushioned sheet flooring which is very durable (it was professionally fitted as it comes up the walls a bit to accommodate wet-mopping). I don't know the correct name, though.

Report
PigletJohn · 27/07/2014 23:23

p.s. bluevanman

sorry off topic, but how can I remove old vinyl tiles from a concrete floor? I want to put down stone or porcelain with electric UFH.

Report
Only1scoop · 27/07/2014 23:24

We have Karndean love love it.

Report
burnishedsilver · 27/07/2014 23:42

A lot of mners talk about tiles being cold under foot. I'd never walk round my kitchen in my bare feet no matter what the flooring was. I find tiles very practical.

Report
bluevanman · 29/07/2014 08:14

Piglet: your commercial floor will be polyflor (or safety floor)
And there's no easy way of getting vinyl tiles up, get some big scrapers and some cheap labour Wink

Report
pigsinmud · 29/07/2014 09:39

Interesting subject as we are embarking on a kitchen/diner extension - the project manager has suggested engineered wood for the floor with underfloor heating. This thread is now making me nervous.

The price of our extension has suddenly sky rocketed from the original ballpark figure, so we have to go with the cheapest option. I'm assuming Amtico is more expensive than engineered wood? We had a quote for Amtico in our living room a few years ago, but I can't remember how much it was. We sanded down our floorboards in the end.

Report
Hooliesmoolies · 29/07/2014 09:58

We have engineered wood and love it. The scratches don't look bad because it has a living feel and the grain is very forgiving. Ours is onto our garden, and it is fine to keep clean.

Report
thekingfisher · 29/07/2014 10:09

We also have engineered wood in the kitchen. It's the second time we've had it installed in a kitchen entirely successfully. I would ditto other posters as it does scratch but it is in keeping with the wood. We have had no issue with water marking and it cleans very easily.

It is worth noting that we had tiles installed initially with all the prep in the world done and they lifted and split so had to replace with the wood. So would be v v cautious of tiles now regardless of the flexi grout used.

Amtico is great and we have it in our bathroom but is ÂŁÂŁÂŁÂŁ it also needs quite a bit of under floor prep.

Btw we used the best thickness engineered wood that we could afford

Report
VeryPunny · 29/07/2014 10:49

We're going for Karndean as I've seen too many engineered wood floors look really tatty quickly after water and scratch damage. We will have underfloor heating so real wood is out.

Karndea and Amtico can be expensive; we are buying it online ourselves and sorting out a fitter seperately rather than going to a flooring shop and getting them to supply and fit. Middle of the road Karndean is under ÂŁ30/m^2.

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.