Best place to get engineed wood flooring?

[m3jappa]

I,m after some engineered wood flooring in some type of walnut colour, anyone know whos reasonable in price with good quality?

[fieldl]

I bought nearly 40m2 from here http://www.flooringsupplies.co.uk/ a few weeks ago.
I went for solid wood instead of engineered but suspect they are equally as good.
The service was excellent plenty of communication and very quick delivery.

[satans worm]

I bought 100sq meters of 1 strip engineered walnut (good thick real wood layer) from a place in Ipswich, superb stuff, retailed at GBP50 sq meter but they gave a discount on the order amount, I think we paid GBP40sq meter, still have 10sq meters left over if you want to buy it cheap

If you are local and interested I will look up the name of the shop.

You can see some of it here, or atleast i think you can, flickr doesnt work at work so im taking a guess I grabbed the right photo!

Edited by satans worm on Monday 8th February 08:59

[monthefish]

I recently ordered some samples of 'Engineered' wooden flooring from various suppliers and was amazed with the variation in what was sent. The decent stuff was around 20mm thick in total, with the real wood layer being about 4mm. There was also some stuff which they classed as 'engineered' which was around 10mm thick total with less than 1mm real wood.

I suppose, stricly speaking, they're both 'laminates' (i.e laminated product) but in the accepted definition of the terms, the latter was closer to what I would have called laminate (although I think normal laminate flooring doesn't have any real 'wood' in it at all - just a printed image of 'wood'.)

[D14 AYS]

I use these guys http://www.castlewoodfloors.co.uk/products/c/156/w... Good prices

[GT03ROB]

fieldl said:

I bought nearly 40m2 from here http://www.flooringsupplies.co.uk/ a few weeks ago.
I went for solid wood instead of engineered but suspect they are equally as good.
The service was excellent plenty of communication and very quick delivery.

Yep used these guys & very good service.

[m3jappa]

Thanks guys, i actually got a couple of samples from the company in the link above and like has been mentioned the difference in quality is vast, one of them had a 'real' wood top layer of 0.1mm iirc and the more expensive types i just wasnt that keen on.

I found a company on ebay who claim to be the manufacturer and as such can offer big discounts (heard that one before) its £25 or thereabouts per m2 and is 20mm thick and in the picture at least the top layer looks at least 5mm so who knows, it does look very similar to a floor in floors2go that we saw and fell in love with but that love ended when i saw it was £56 per m2 so for all i know they may actually supply them and hopefully they do because it was stunning
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

[satans worm]

m3jappa said:

Thanks guys, i actually got a couple of samples from the company in the link above and like has been mentioned the difference in quality is vast, one of them had a 'real' wood top layer of 0.1mm iirc and the more expensive types i just wasnt that keen on.

I found a company on ebay who claim to be the manufacturer and as such can offer big discounts (heard that one before) its £25 or thereabouts per m2 and is 20mm thick and in the picture at least the top layer looks at least 5mm so who knows, it does look very similar to a floor in floors2go that we saw and fell in love with but that love ended when i saw it was £56 per m2 so for all i know they may actually supply them and hopefully they do because it was stunning
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

Looks to me that link is for solid walnut rather then engineered? Item has expired so i could be wrong.

Remember engineered is at least as expensive as solid, and in many cases more so, its benefits of non warping does not come cheap, but essential if you have underfloor heating.

(Would also like to add our floor is not as 'red' as the pic above show, it is much more 'choclate' in appearance.)

Edited by satans worm on Monday 8th February 21:07

[m3jappa]

Not sure whats happened to that link, last time i looked it was engineered, i spoke to the guy and hes the one who told me 5mm top layer etc

They have a place in croyden which i can go have a look at the stuff so think i,ll do that first.

Thanks for the offer but i need 70sq m so at 40 per m its going to be too much for me even with a deal on your 10m2 , your lounge looks awesome though, did you glue the floor straight to the sub floor? I think i may fit mine like that.

[satans worm]

m3jappa said:

Not sure whats happened to that link, last time i looked it was engineered, i spoke to the guy and hes the one who told me 5mm top layer etc

They have a place in croyden which i can go have a look at the stuff so think i,ll do that first.

Thanks for the offer but i need 70sq m so at 40 per m its going to be too much for me even with a deal on your 10m2 , your lounge looks awesome though, did you glue the floor straight to the sub floor? I think i may fit mine like that.

Actually it was not glued down, instead we we layed it floating on a very thin foam underlay, i was never comfortable with the idea of glueing it to the screed, floors been down a year and no issues so far. Note the glue costs a fortune too!!
I know what its like trying to find the right floor, we spent ages looking for the right floor (right price, looks good and quality is a hard combo!) we considered many including Karhs but i wanted a thick veneer (ours is 6mm)not just a couple of mm.
After lots of samples, then thinking where they only sending the best cuts of the wood, we decided to spend the extra to be comfortable with what we bought, as it could be an expensive mistake if you dont like it.
AS i said, they started at 50sq meter but after alot of haggeling we got it for £38 so we were happy with all.

Good luck in your searches, im sure at one point you will consider using oak instead as you can get it alot cheaper, I know we came close!

Edited by satans worm on Monday 8th February 21:34

[m3jappa]

Yes oak does seem a lot cheaper and if the right stuff caught my eye i would go for it. I totally agree too about it having to be right as like you say you have to live with it and for the sake of a few hundred its not worth it, if i don't find anything i like i,ll just have to save longer.

When you did the floating floor did you glue the joints? initially i thought this may be more awkward with the glue spilling out the joints so thought gluing it to the floor would be easier, i also am slightly worried about the floor feeling like its moving- but i guess using a decent underlay is key here.

Funnily enough i effectivly lay floors for a living- but outside ones you park your car on or put your table on in the garden so am not experienced with laying wooden floors, but i,m confident that once i get the right methods it will be straight forward.

[satans worm]

m3jappa said:

Yes oak does seem a lot cheaper and if the right stuff caught my eye i would go for it. I totally agree too about it having to be right as like you say you have to live with it and for the sake of a few hundred its not worth it, if i don't find anything i like i,ll just have to save longer.

When you did the floating floor did you glue the joints? initially i thought this may be more awkward with the glue spilling out the joints so thought gluing it to the floor would be easier, i also am slightly worried about the floor feeling like its moving- but i guess using a decent underlay is key here.

Funnily enough i effectivly lay floors for a living- but outside ones you park your car on or put your table on in the garden so am not experienced with laying wooden floors, but i,m confident that once i get the right methods it will be straight forward.

The glue between the joints is standard wood glue, just wipe with a damp cloth and it drys clear anyhow, the stuff you stick it to the floor with is a very messy extreemly strong glue, I believe as soon as you put the wood in contact eith it it is very differcult to move, st to a blanket and all that. Re the floor moving, there is a very slight give but you would not notice it unless you really concentrated on it, my wife for example would not have a clue!

[Rgee]

Whats the correct underlay to use for engineered wood on a concrete base. Something like 4mm timbermate gold or just a DPM?

[fieldl]

How much underlay are you looking for?
I've got 30m2 of Novastrat Sonic Gold which I understand to be perfect for engineered floors.

[satans worm]

Forgot to add, dont forget to look at the finish of the wood, ie laquered, oiled or prefinish.
if it is prefinished then it will cost another few quid per sq meter to get it oiled.

[ncs]

For a really nice Walnut engineered floor, 21 x 189 x 2100mm with a satin lacquer expect to pay about £50.00 + vat

If you can go for 21 x 127mm I can offer I mean expect to pay £40.00 + vat.

Allegedly....

Nick
pm me your number if you want a natter