Flooring advice please

[Ben Edgington]

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

[Owain]

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.

You could also look at terrazzo, which can be hard, noisy and slippy, but is almost everlasting. Tiles or laid in situ.

However, toddlers won't be toddlers for ever. You could use something cheapish like *sealed* plywood or chipboard for now, and reconsider your options later.

Owain

[Ben Edgington]

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

[Davide]

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

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 heatin mats) - practically indestructible, easy to clean, relatively cheap an wide variety of looks - though hard on heads & knees (if your kids ar as coordinated as mine, they'll notice the difference from carpe pretty quickly).

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

Good luck

David

-- Davide