Karndean/Amtico Flooring

[markeg]

One other benefit of hard flooring is the lack of dust/hair/smell you can get when carpets and animals mix. I suffer from dermatitis and by moving to hard floors ten years ago, its been a massive improvement. We also find its easier to keep clean (with two labs we get more than enough tumbleweed) and there is very little dog smell (apart form the dogs themselves, obviously )

I wouldn't go back to carpets at all now.

 

[lux]

I wouldn't do it again - despite it being hard wearing, if you drop a screw driver (say a philips ) point end down on the floor you end up with the imprint there forever.

That's not true!

We've had Karndean on the entire ground floor of our house for 7.5 years, and as the panels are glued down and not interlocking they can be heated up (with a heat gun) removed, and a new panel glued in its place. We've had it done twice now on ours (Mrs L got acetone nail varnish remover on ours which blistered 3 panels badly :x ) and there's absolutely no sign that it's been done (apart from £50 lighter for the fitter to come round and do it :x ).

The good thing is it can be fitted right up to the skirting boards without removing them or using crappy beading.

I would say though, dont put the polish on, leave it au naturel it looks loads better.

 

[gannet]

I wouldn't do it again - despite it being hard wearing, if you drop a screw driver (say a philips ) point end down on the floor you end up with the imprint there forever.

That's not true!

We've had Karndean on the entire ground floor of our house for 7.5 years, and as the panels are glued down and not interlocking they can be heated up (with a heat gun) removed, and a new panel glued in its place. We've had it done twice now on ours (Mrs L got acetone nail varnish remover on ours which blistered 3 panels badly :x ) and there's absolutely no sign that it's been done (apart from £50 lighter for the fitter to come round and do it :x ).

The good thing is it can be fitted right up to the skirting boards without removing them or using crappy beading.

I would say though, dont put the polish on, leave it au naturel it looks loads better.

ok so the forever bit isnt true, but it requires you to spend more money to rectify, wood doesn't

that better

 

[un1eash]

Previous owner installed karndean in our house roughly 5 years ago. No problems with lifting but having a dog it has scratched quite a bit. Cleans up well though and I won't be changing it anytime soon as it still looks great and often confused with real wood.
Only photo I have...

As above also no need for polish, ours had it and it was very shiny, removed it and it looks alot more natural.

 

[Jasey]

We did the polish/special cleaner once 11.5 years ago - seems to be a bit like that supaguard stuff - complete balls

 

[Roundozo]

We have real oak flooring in the entire downstairs of the house (7 rooms and a hallway) and cannot fault it. Laminate or fake wood will eventually need replacing where as wood can be sanded and re-oiled. It also is very homely and not cold. A wood yard called East Brothers made all the planks but I can't tell you how much as it was all done by the previous owner.

The other day the cleaners spilt some bleach or something and didn't notice. By the time I got home and noticed it had damaged the floor. They paid for repairs but all was needed was a sand and oil. If you damage laminate or fake wood you'll either need spares or hope that the manufacturer keeps supplies up.

 

[JimsZ]

Really good topic, am planning a kitchen and am contemplating this (even got some polyflor samples from the company in the links posted) type of floor and the images really do look good.

My solid wood floor is 12 years old and never been touched, looks ok still but is starting to show signs of wear from the odd washing machine flood, sun bleach, screwdriver pointy down etc...

Was going to go down the tile route but for around 27 m2 minimum plus hallway feel this might just be the way to go

 

[JimsZ]

I went for tiled flooring in the end...

 

[Smartbear]

Hi, we're having our kitchen refitted at the moment & have gone for karndean flooring (portland stone)
We've gone for the grouting effect inserts which really lift it, think it was about £700ish including fitting (our kitchen is about 4.5m x 3m)