Following the upgrading of our kitchen and bathroom and blockweaving of the front garden of our chalet bungalow we are now at the point where it is now sensible to replace our hall flooring. The shape is irregular, approximates to 14 square metres and is presently carpetted with a carpet that reflects fully the ravages of the previous building works! My question is which is most likely to give us good service - a top end laminate or real wood given that:-
We have two west highland terriers - an easy wipe surface has strong attraction although of course we will have a suitable mat at the front door to trap mud/grit.!
As a hallway leading to all other rooms / upstairs the location is obviously high wear although possibly less so than in the past because our sons have grown up
I have hard floors throughout the ground floor with the occasional rug in specific places. The main thoroughfares such as entry ways and through ways are large slate tiles, while rooms where people sit are oiled and waxed solid oak floors. The stairs are oak as well with treads oiled but not waxed.
This was all done with animals in mind - principally cats but it is Sloberador resistant as well.
I wouldn't entertain the idea of laminate floors anywhere in the house because regardless of price because they all seem to have an unnatural plasticy appearance and clacky sound underfoot. To me, the difference between this and a proper wood floor is like the difference between closing the door of a Skoda vs. a BMW - clang vs. thud.
I think you could use real wood as a floor for the high traffic areas, although to keep maintenance sensible, this would probably need to be finished in a pretty serious varnish. Unfortunately this usually has the effect of making the surface shiny or very shiny, which personally I think is a shame to do with wood because it again veers to the plasticy appearance. Moreover, when it needs to be attended to, the whole lot has to be sanded off, usually and started again.
It was these factors that led to our mixed choice of stone for higher traffic areas and oiled and waxed wood for the lower ones.
The slate areas can be wiped or completely washed quickly and easily, or for more typical dry dust and grit, vacuumed up very rapidly indeed
- very animal practical. The finish is important. In order to achieve a good colour rendition but without gloss, there are a good range of products from Lithofin which work very well and take a lot of punishment.
The layout of the house is such that animals with wet paws have dry paws before they reach any rooms with wooden floors, but are not explicitly barred. These floors are maintained by quick vacuuming and then periodically with beeswax using a good floor polisher. Over time this richens to a superb appearance. If anything is accidentally spilled, it can be wiped up easily and small areas can be rubbed with more oil and wax so there is not the issue that the whole floor would need to be redone for a small problem area.
With cats only and no small kids, I might consider using an oiled and waxed floor in the hallway, but probably not with dogs. I wouldn't personally go for a varnished solid wood floor either but that would be infinitely preferable to laminate.
We replaced our hall carpet a few years ago with an engineered wood floor - and have been very pleased with the results.
This is a thin layer of hardwood (about 3mm) bonded onto 10 or 11mm of softwood. You install it in the same way as laminated flooring. It is thicker than laminate - but should fit without any major door shaving if you currently have carpet with underlay. It has a wipe clean surface, and is very easy to maintain. If it gets slightly damaged, the backing doesn't show through - unlike laminate. Apparently it can even be sanded and re-sufaced - but only once!
In my view, it is an acceptable compromise between nasty (even if not cheap) laminate and very expensive solid hardwood.
It goes without saying - but I'm saying it anyway(!) - that, to do a proper job, you need to remove the skirting boards, and undercut the doorframes and architraves, before fitting the flooring - and then replace or renew the skirtings once the new floor is down. The expansion gaps are then completely hidden without any need to use beading - which is always a dead give-away of a retro-fit job.
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