Flooring advice please
 

Hi All,

We have about 25m^2 of recently built dining room/family
room to floor - it's currently just a screeded surface. I'm
having real difficulty deciding what to lay - too many
options!

Main concern is that whatever we lay copes with two children
(3yrs and 1yr) - not particularly destructive, but as messy
as any toddlers.

Options:

(1) Real wood blocks. Aesthetically preferable, but how
would they cope with wear/knocks/spills etc? Usually
can be resanded, but this is a big hassle. Colleague
says he took up his wood floor and replaced with
laminate because his children destroyed it!

(2) Wood-veneer engineered floor. Cheaper than (1), but
limited resanding options. Would it be more robust, or
just suffer the same problems?

(3) Laminate. Happy to shell-out for quality laminate.
Easy to lay. Durable. But is it possible to get
laminate that really looks woodish? Recommended brands?

Anything else I should consider?

Many thanks for any advice or experience!

Ben

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Ben Edgington
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Must have been crap wood or badly laid then. The hall and gym at school had
wood block floors between 60 and 100 years old and they'd survived.

True. But if I cast my mind back all those years I seem
to recall that our school hall floor had a really thick
protective layer of wax mixed with dirt, added to weekly.
Good for protection; not aesthetically pleasing 8^)

Ben

--
Ben Edgington
Mail to the address above is discarded.
Mail to ben at that address might be read.
http://www.edginet.org/

============

Hi All,

We have about 25m^2 of recently built dining room/family
room to floor - it's currently just a screeded surface. I'm
having real difficulty deciding what to lay - too many
options!

Main concern is that whatever we lay copes with two children
(3yrs and 1yr) - not particularly destructive, but as messy
as any toddlers.

=============

One other option: porcelain tiles (with or without underfloor heating mats) - practically indestructible, easy to clean, relatively cheap and wide variety of looks - though hard on heads & knees (if your kids are as coordinated as mine, they'll notice the difference from carpet pretty quickly).

On the wood front, having had polyurethane resin finished oak boards AND oiled oak boards (20mm) with kids & dogs (relatively big and very active), I can say that after 5 years the wear is not particularly noticeable on either finish, though on pine it's a lot more visible. On the other hand, we went for a matt finish and relatively "rough" surface right from the start, rather than a high gloss polish.

Good luck

Davide