Wooden flooring

Engineered wood is strips of wood laid over other strips of wood, exact depth varies.
The point is that it doesn't warp. Some of us remember old floorboards that warped and cracked over the years.
I think of engineered wood as being the modern equivalent of those wonderful old parquet floors that are unaffordable these days, other than by the super-rich. You still occasionally see them in old buildings.

I would have wood in a hallway but not in a sitting room, not mine anyway. There is always a tendency to introduce rugs where there is a wooden floor. That to me is a disaster when getting on in years as they are trip hazards. Hard floors upstairs a nightmare for noise transference even next door. Carpets upstairs and selected hardwood downstairs.

Rubysong, I just googled engineered wood flooring, Wikipedia says it’s composite wood, so chewed up wood glued together.

We have just swapped carpet for laminate in the lounge and keep saying why didn’t we do this years ago ! I might get a nice rug in the winter it is a bit more noisy? But it’s so much cleaner with the dog and grandkids.As others have said it’s so much easier to move the furniture as well. I do have carpet on the stairs and loft rooms but that’s all .

My daughter has a recycled sports hall floor, the random colours look great, (from the lines and circles).
The dogs nails do click and I am not a fan of the noise!

We have tiles in the hall which extend into the kitchen. Best thing ever. I never worry about dirt and mud on people's shoes. I mop the tiles once a week. We've got engineered oak in the lounge and dining room. Again I love it. SO easy to keep clean. When I see our neighbour's dog drooling into their carpet - yuck.

I will not go back to carpets and have my wood flooring for over 10 years. The only place I have carpet is on the stairs and along the landing at the top. It is easy to vacuum and mop over
and keeps clean.

I have two dogs and there is no scratching over the floor.
One thing to remember if you have a dog that likes to have a snooze on the bed which mine does then put a good rug near to the bed as the wood floor can be slippery to a pet when jumping from the bed and could easily result in accidents to the dogs legs.

We have engineered oak flooring in our living/dining rooms and hallway, (so much more hygienic and easier to clean than carpet, by vacuuming and mopping with a squirt of Method), tiles in the kitchen/laundry room, Karndean in the downstairs shower, laminate in 2 bedrooms and bathroom and the original pine floorboards in another bedroom. We have carpet on the stairs and landing only. There is a rug in front of the fire and one of the bedrooms. I find the wooden flooring warm and it always looks good. Our dog doesn’t scratch it at all, neither do our visiting dogs. I would heartily recommend losing the carpets!

I live in Germany, where tiled floors are commonplace. I don't think I have actually seen a carpet since I've lived here! Tiles are very practical, a quick vacuum and mop and they are clean in no time. The only downside.. you have to do it quite frequently or the dust bunnies breed very quickly!

Do not forget that with a good laminate flooring (Amtico or Karndean), it can look like anything you wish. Not necessarily wood. Good idea to have a look at their brochures - they are all just as easy to look after and to keep clean, and can add so much character to rooms.

This is the place to ask what is probably a daft question. What exactly is engineered wood flooring and how is it different from other wood flooring?

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

We have solid oak flooring in hall, lounge, kitchen and dining area, (all open plan), but carpet in bedrooms, landing and on stairs. Natural wood flooring is warm underfoot and easy to clean. We have a dog and his nails do 'click' on the floor and scratch it, and I have scratched it moving furniture around, but that's just life. Some people pay a small fortune for old, worn flooring with a patina. It's everyday life that created that patina. I'm not precious about my flooring, it's just a floor! In our previous house we had laminate flooring and bare wooden stairs. If something heavy was dropped on the laminate it chipped and the chipped areas were razor sharp. I loved our wooden stairs but it was noisy when the children were there.

My daughter is thrilled with her laminate flooring as she has been homeschooling her 3 grandchildren and paints and crafts are so much easier to clean up.

I've come back to this thread for a few reasons -one is that I realised (thanks to looking afresh) that we do have a few scratches & marks - but somehow to us, they seem part of the character of the floor - a bit like our wooden table - it seems to be part of the character, rather than 'a mark'. I know this won't suit everyone.
Also, thinking about dogs - we have not owned a dog since putting down this floor, but we did previously and we have visiting dogs (usually!). I genuinely think that a well cared for dog would not normally mark a well cared for floor (of cats I have no experience!)

We have Kardean flooring and we are very pleased. In the lounge we have put a large rug which gives the room a cosy and inviting look. We have concrete floors. Would recommend Kardean. Easy to maintain, cleaning or vacuuming.

diygran you can get engineered wood sanded and resealed.

We have wood floors throughout, variously; floorboards upstairs, wood block everywhere downstairs except in the hall and study where we have engineered wood . The engineered wood has been down about 15 years and even though it must be the most walked on floor in the house with people coming in and out the front door, all I ever do is run the vacuum cleaner over it and very occasionally run a wet mop over it. But we do not have any domestic animals.

The woodblock floor in the kitchen we have had sanded and resealed, because that was suffering from constant walking in and out of the garden

Thanks Franbearn.

We have only one scratch - from an accident (!) - we have visiting dogs, but not the same as having our own. However, I am astonished that the veneer was bare after only 3 years and wonder what on earth the previous owner had been doing.

Well, wooden floors seem to everyone's preference, bar 1.
Notspaghetti, unfortunately I have concrete floors.
Thanks everyone for your input, I will have a look at some of the manufacturers named.

When we moved to a 3yr old new build there was engineered wood throughout downstairs. The owners dog had already caused scratches and surface was going bare in places. Ten yrs on I hate the floor. With our dogs making more scratches, and general wear it's a nightmare to maintain.
I'm thinking of putting down tiles in hall and kitchen/diner. Wood never again!

Nannarose, just to say that when i moved out of my house, the Amtico Laminate flooring in the through lounge was sixteen years old. Looked just as wonderful as when first laid. Was a real selling point for my house.

I have heard people say about worrying about scratches on Laminate and can only say, that I have never had any problems in this regard.

At least with laminate I can easily move furniture such as my TV table and my electric sofa and armchair. On the carpet I was totally unable to move these at all, which meant I could never clean under them.

We have wooden flooring in lounge and hall, really like it. Our only carpets are in the bedrooms, DH wanted carpets, I didn’t. Would much prefer laminate, easier to clean, looks smarter, and more modern.

We have engineered wood. It was expensive and is wonderful. It is lovely underfoot (but we also have underfloor heating) and looks great (our build is 10 years old and we laid it ourselves as part of that)
www.kahrs.com/en-gb/

I think if you don't want to spend on engineered wood (I am not as obsessed about wood as DH!) then look carefully at laminate. Although it has come on a lot, I would have said that it is much less forgiving of scratches than real wood (though see Franbearn)
I also think that you can do a cost-benefit around how long you expect it to last, compared to carpet.
Franbearn - I am interested in your experience of Karndean Laminate. Although we are unlikely to replace our wood, people often ask us how it compares to laminate.

At my house I had Amtico laminate flooring in the Through Lounge. This made life so much easier when my g.children were smaller, as the rear of that was the dining area. and the doors to the garden. I was able to relax, not worry about anything being spilt or brought in from the garden, as laminate was so very easy to keep clean

When I moved at end of 2019 into my flat, it had fitted carpet throughout (I mean, throughout) had to remove that from both bathrooms!!). I said I would give myself a year there to decide if I wanted to re-carpet the large Living/Dining room or go with laminate again, By half way through that year I had decided to go with Laminate again. I found carpet was difficult to keep really clean, and when I spilt a milkshake on it, it took me over a week with daily cleanings to get the smell of stale milk out. It never felt really clean to me.

Had a beautiful Karndean Laminate flooring laid in there and in the spacious hallway,. So very much happier with that. I do have one rug on it, in the Lounge part of the room. This has a lifetime (its - not mine) guarantee with a certificate which can pass on to whoever lives in the flat after me).

Carpets for me are something only required in the bedrooms, no where else.

We moved to a new house 12 years ago and had a wooden floor fitted in lounge and dining room. We have a lot of insulation in the floor (new building regs) and the wood isn’t cold or noisy to walk on.

Some tips. Get an experienced wood floor layer to do this. We did in our previous house, but here the company that did it here didn’t have much idea ?. Don’t have a varnished finish but have oiled wood, that you can re-oil every few years. Varnish wears off and is a faff to sand and redo. For preference now I would choose engineered wood, won’t warp or shrink in central heating.

We have largish Turkish heavy rugs in centre of room, not slip hazard and doesn’t look bare. All very easy to clean.