building a new home. upgraded initially from ceramic tiles wife didnt want to karndean vinyl flooring. However i dont see this is great for environment or us ( still has VOC? due to it being PVC) thinking of going back to good old wood and paying the extra also because kids have allergies which tiles and supposedly karndean is also good for but no so sure giving that it gives off VOCs
what are peoples thoughts? does wood still add extra value to a home
Tiles will feel a lot colder under foot than timber or vinyl.
We put timber looking tiles in our previous build & are doing the exact thing for our next house.
You won't get any creaking in the floors & depending on the colour & design, it will look cleaner.
If you do it properly (i.e. glue down not floating) you wont get creaking.
I thought op was talking about proper hardwood timber than floating laminate, that's why I said creaking. Op never mentioned it but I assumed because op said paying extra.
I thought you can also float timber floorboards.
@salekhard: You may be right. Is it a new thing?
I have never seen hardwood glued or floated though, always nailed/screwed onto another frame.
@GangGang: Solid timber is often laid over concrete slab or over particle board flooring. Solid timber doesn’t float, even if the store told you it does, that product would be engineered flooring which is plywood with a solid timber Veneer.
@Stewardo: yes you are correct have since found out is engineered. I have done more research on it and i will be getting first floors premium engineered spotted gum floor 132mm width variable lengths wire brushed and 4mm veneer
this will have particle board underlay and will be secret nailed/glued down
coating will be wittlewax. based on research this floor will outlast me
wittlewax make mention you can do small repairs yourself ( minor scratches ) some deep scratch ( which would be your own fault ) would require sanding which is doable on these boards
We have Bamboo flooring. It's a low sheen finish and tough as nails. It did creak a little for the first few months but then settled. I do know someone with a coloured finish and this does wear whereas the natural finish doesn't seem to scratch or dent and it's been down a few years now.
We built recently. A really authentic looking wood floor is almost impossible to get without it being actually wood. Nearly all vinyl planks & tile look-alike were just obviously not wood.
We found 1 product only which stood out as being as close to wood.
It's from Armstrong Flooring as part of their ForestSelect series and we got it from our local flooring shop. We got the brushbox-look & guests who come to the house almost invariably exclaim how lovely our wood floor is. Sometimes we admit its plastic! Mostly we just say "yeah, its brushbox".
The downside to timber is it scratches and eventually needs re-polishing. Especially if you have pets. Where as the laminate fake timber stuff is hard as nails and wont scratch.
Make sure you do a dent test - eg drop a tin of tomatoes on it, glass bottle of oil etc and see how it goes.
Timber look tiles, cheap ones look horrible expensive ones look and feel great