OH and I are considering having wood-look Amtico or Karndean in the hallway and kitchen/diner, as opposed to having laminate flooring. I'd appreciate your comments/experiences of either brand, please - especially the after-care. Also, is it really better to pay extra to have a specialist Amtico/Karndean fitter, or would a competent DIYer suffice?
These products and others such as Marmoleum are top end in terms of quality and you pay as a result - these products are used in high wear environments such as hotels, hospitals, offices etc so will last for years. Marmoleum for our very small kitchen (just 6 sq m of flooring required) would have come in at £650 - specialist fitting is a requirement for Marmoleum as it takes three days in total.
I've had both Amtico (in my previous house) and Karndean and in my experience the Karndean has not worn as well as the Amtico. It has scratched where the laundry basket has been pulled out and there are yellow marks, possibly from bathroom cleaner/bleach. As it's only two years old I'm not that impressed. I had them fitted so don't know how easy it would be to do yourself.
My uncle had a professional put down Marmoleum in their kitchen, and then used the left overs to do the bathroom and loo himself. You really can tell the difference between the professional and the amateur job! I think that if you're going to go for an expensive floor, you're better off not skimping on the laying.
Thanks so far. Any ideas as to how hardwearing these are? Would they withstand normal wear with stiletto/kitten heels, for example? Also, can anyone tell me how realistic the wood effect flooring is (with or without the bevelled edge), as we're hoping to use it in the hallway and would want to avoid the 'naff' factor. We're planning to visit a showroom, but would like opinions of a 'real life' setting.
I moved into a house with Karndean flooring - the owners were very proud of it. Its textured and I find it a bugger to keep clean - plus like another thread its got a few odd greeny stains on it - which I cannot shift. So I would go with the Amtico
This is very much a personal point of view, but wood effect flooring always looks like, well, wood effect flooring and when you're paying what you're paying for Amtico or Karndean you could easily get a good quality real wood floor put down. This will look the part, wear beautifully and can be restored with a light sand and wax.
I'm a Marmoleum fan! It is totally organic, hygenic as it has anti-bacterial properties, can be fitted in wonderful patterns and takes an inordinate amount of punishment, hence its use commercially and in schools and hospitals.
Marmoleum also comes in tile form now (I don't think it was available a few years ago) which can be laid without using a specialist fitter. It's my current first choice for when I get around to putting new flooring in my kitchen.
The reason we've had to decide against wooden flooring is the threat of warping if there is any flooding in the kitchen.
Neither do we want any 'flat'/vinyl (incl Marmoleum) flooring in the hallway. We were hoping to avoid having laminate in the hall and a different flooring in the kitchen. (We're already having carpet in the reception rooms).
I'm sure I read somewhere that the wood effect Amtico (esp. with bevelled edging) looked quite convincing. Is this not true then?
Originally posted by jray: Thanks again for your input.
I'm sure I read somewhere that the wood effect Amtico (esp. with bevelled edging) looked quite convincing. Is this not true then?
TIA
Erm, not in my view. Expensive yes, a top quality fake yes, but like wood no. As for the fear of warping, if you have wood in a kitchen I cannot really see the risk of this. Depends how much water you are intending to throw around of course, but most flooring has to be laid over another surface (ie. ply) unless you have a level concrete floor and the biggest risk is that the ply gets a bit of a soaking. I have vinyl flooring in my kitchen and following a disastrous burst pipe episode my floor now looks like the foothills of the Himalayas. My previous kitchen had the original boards and this defied all efforts to mutilate it.
Regarding the merits of Amtico v. Karndean, we went into all this when laying our kitchen floor. We went to the respective websites and found that Karndean needs top dressing, then regular stripping and re-dressing. This means getting down on your knees and buggering about for ages at regular intervals, which in a large kitchen and with my arthritic knees I can well do without. On the other hand, all Amtico comes ready dressed and needs no further treatment, unless you want a particularly shiny finish. We laid Amtico 3 years ago, it has never acquired any marks or stains, and looks like new.
It needs mopping with the special Amtico cleaner, but I have found a clever way of making this go much further. Instead of putting several capfuls in a bucket, most of which gets thrown out after mopping, I put a teaspoonful in a plant spray bottle, fill up with water, then when cleaning the floor, simply spray the floor with this and use a dry mop. One teaspoon in a bottle of water last for months!
We didn't fancy the imitation wood effects in either Karndean or Amtico, I think they look very fake. We chose a stone effect in black and white diagonal "chess board" style with a narrow black stripe round the outer edge. It looks really good with our black and white units.
I certainly recommend Amtico for ease of cleaning and hard wearing qualities. It is expensive. Our kitchen, 4 metres each way, cost £1,200 including fitting. This was the medium price range, not the dearest. We did have professionals from Amtico to fit it.
I agree susie, I don't see a problem with wood flooring in the kitchen. One of my friends has had a good quality laminate in her kitchen for several years, and another has woodblock flooring throughout the kitchen diner - laid about 20 years ago and still looking great.
Hmmm, I think there'll always be two schools of thought on the 'wood in the kitchen' issue. We're just remembering the chaos when our washing machine flooded, so OH is definitely not keen on laminate (even the aqua stuff) in the kitchen and neither of us want tiles in our small hallway. Looks like we may be back to the different types of flooring again...
Velvet and susie, do you know if the wood flooring you spoke of has actually survived a 'flooding' as such?
Thanks for all your comments (much appreciated) - esp the insight into the cleaning, Connie. If we do decide to go with vinyl, it'll be Amtico rather than Karndean.
Velvet and susie, do you know if the wood flooring you spoke of has actually survived a 'flooding' as such?
Anything mounted on ply, or something akin to ply, is going to be vulnerable to warping in the event of a flood - that's the fault of the ply rather than the floorcovering itself. If you have a suspended wooden floor then you have a void underneath your flooring which can act as a soakaway if needs be. Any flooring that is totally submerged in water for any period of time is going to suffer some form of ill effect! My current kitchen floor has been submerged and that is why it is a mess (buckled ply...) My previous kitchen only had spillages and a mini rainwater flood to contend with and as it was Victorian pine boards on joists above a void the water just trickled away and irrigated the foundations.
No idea if those floors ever experienced a flooding jray, sorry. I appreciate that if it has happened to you once, it is an issue for you. But it has never happened to me or anyone I know, so it isn't something that I would worry about - I'm always in the house when the w/m is on anyway.
Our washing machine repeatedly flooded the kitchen (which my partner was utterly unconcerned about and wasn't interested in getting fixed), but we have laminate straight on top of concrete, and it all looks fine still.
We have had Amtico "planks" in our kitchen for over 25 years and they have been exceptionally hard wearing although they could do with a surface strip and top dress. They are top dressed regularly but a build up does occur. We did have a problem with the concrete floor under the planks where the dog bowl used to sit and water was constantly on site which caused the planks to become unstuck and the concrete to break up. It was repairable with the same planks put back in place. One other flooring we have tried although the range is not as big for wood choice as it used to be is Wood O'Cork formerly made by Wicanders but now owned by a ?Dutch firm. It has a vinyl backing for the adhesive and then a layer of cork topped by a wood veneer which is laminated. It is much quieter to walk on than the laminate flooring. We have used it in bathrooms and kitchens and never found water a problem but never had a washer leak. It seemed to cross the divide of vinyl planks and laminates and personally I liked the look of it and it was reasonably easy to lay.
Jray - we didn't lay the laminate in the kitchen; it was there when we moved in. However, we know that everything the previous owners bought they got from B&Q, and I've just looked at the B&Q AquaLoc- it looks just like Summer Maple, but on the website it says that's new, so perhaps they just used EasiLoc Windsor Maple. It definitely isn't any of the ToughLoc that they've got there.
Thanks Hatster. I've just come across a German (?) company called Witex, whose laminates are supposed to be suitable for bathrooms and kitchens. More expensive that B&Q Aqualoc but hopefully not as expensive as Amtico.
Thanks Berkshire. Have to say I've never heard of Wood O'Cork, but I'll have a Google and see what I come up with. I haven't heard of Amtico planks coming unstuck though, so that's a bit worrying. Paying out so much money for it to become 'unstickable' would be a right pain! (Unless there was a problem with the installation and/or adhesive perhaps?)
If anyone has experience of any of these, I'd appreciate your comments, please.
It is totally organic, hygenic as it has anti-bacterial properties, can be fitted in wonderful patterns and takes an inordinate amount of punishment, hence its use commercially and in schools and hospitals.
