Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Everything . vinyl tiles are the future |
| Disadvantages: |
none at all |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
I recently went in search of Karndean flooring, as a neighbour of mine told me they were recommended it from their builder, who installed it for them after he built their conservatory. I went round to see it and it looks FANTASTIC!! like something you would see in a footballers house, as it had a border around the room and matched the colour of their furniture, i thought they had an interior designer in but they hadn't... Anyway after seeing that i knew i had to have it, so i asked how much, i nearly dropped my cup of tea when they told me how much it cost...£1000's for one room. Anyway my friend told me there was cheaper ranges out there and so on and to shop around etc. This is were my review of this flooring starts.
As im an internet nerd, this was the first and only place i looked, and after reading a couple of reviews here on ciao i found a few sites which were recommended. The first place i looked at was gm flooring, but i found there site wasn't an online store and couldn't get through when i tried ringing, so i gave up with that site. secondly i went on I Love Flooring website and they had a great site with lots of products, but were expensive compared to other prices. Thirdly i found www.flooring.uk.com who are recommended a few times on this site, i gave them a ring to see if they had any offers and if they could give me some advice, and they did just that, they told me that Karndean was a type of vinyl tile, and was one of the most desirable brands of vinyl tile on the market, however because people know the name of it and that they advertise in magazines etc. this is why it can become expensive. What the man at flooring uk told me was that there are other makes of vinyl tiles, ie. polyflor (which they also sell) which have the same specification as karndean but are cheaper, so i looked at there online store and found the product but at a cheaper price than Karndean. After asking the man at flooring uk to send me some samples of the vinyl tiles they had on offer, i went for a woodplank vinyl tile called True Forest Oak, I paid £40 a box which covers 3.34m2 that included VAT and delivery which i thought was cheap, as opposed to £56.99 a box for karndean even though that still was a fraction of what my friend paid (hehe i didnt tell her as she would of gone mad). After telling the man at www.flooring.uk.com the size of my rooms he worked out exactly what i needed including adhesive and amount of boxes. It worked out for my lounge, kitchen, hall and dining room i needed 60m2, which meant a 15 litre adhesive and 19 boxes of tiles, which came to 63.46m2 enough plus wastage which i was told would be required. (it was great as i had 5 planks to spare).
As to the price of the flooring, it all came to £850 including adhesive and tiles delivered!! and i found a fitter in the yellow pages who charged me £810 to fit but that price included ply board and fitting ply as well as fitting the tiles. The fitting of the tiles onto a wooden floor requires a ply board then 'skim coating' then the tiles can be stuck down, also it can be fitted onto concrete floors, it just needs a self levelling compound over the concrete then it can be fitted. The man at flooring uk told me that i would pay around £750 - £850 for ply and fitting. If you think the full price of £1660 was expensive... its absolutely NOT, because i am the type of person to shop around so i went into my local town and got 2 flooring firms to quote me on the Karndean Knight Tile range KP40 american oak, which is a similar product. The first company quoted a total of £2550 for everything, the second company quoted £2630, (i know you maybe thinking the www.flooring.uk.com quote wasnt for the knight tile but i originally was quoted £1173 for the knight tile KP40 and ply and fitting of £810, so it still only came to £1983 a difference of £567 from my best retail quote). So it does show that if you organise things yourself like buy the product online cheaper then find your own fitter you can save A LOT OF MONEY!!! £567 in my case!!!
So firstly I recommend buying the tiles online and like other ciao users, www.flooring.uk.com proved good to me as well.
Now onto the actual product of Vinyl Tiles, vinyl tiles are better than laminate or solid wood as I have been researching and asking people in the business they told me the following information. They are a lot more hard wearing and durable than the natural products. You can mop vinyl tiles, where you cannot mop wooden products. The vinyl tiles are not as noisy as wooden products and they still look just as realistic. They maybe more expensive per square metre and fitting is more expensive than laminate fitting, but you wont get as many problems in terms of chipping, marks (high heels destroy wooden floors), cleaning etc. it is an investment instead of something you will replace in a year or so time. Just make sure you get the colour right, as it can be an expensive mistake if you have it fitted and you don't like it. The way I saw it was that if you just go for something neutral but effective like a mid oak, it will never look dated and you will be able to match walls, furniture and things around your floor. Also what I never went for which I wish I should of, was a design strip, which runs around the edge of the rooms, which makes it look really designer and just finishes the floor off really well, the strips are not expensive and there is a lot of choice. It can be confusing when you start going for borders etc. but if you speak to someone who knows about the product, then they will tell you how it works.
Right well im going to sign off now, so good luck with your flooring, remember Karndean is a great product in terms of design and things, but if you don't want it complicated, look around for vinyl tiles there are cheaper ones out there which have the same look, feel, warranty, as Karndean but are a bit cheaper. If you don't still fully understand what Karndean or vinyl tiles are ring www.flooring.uk.com, they have good knowledge and can give you a quote on the phone like they gave me.
| More Reviews |
 karndean, the alternative laminate flooring
Review of Karndean Flooring by
nome3
Advantages: durable, practical and versatile
Disadvantages: quite expensive
...rich homely feeling. Karndean is a cutomised vinyl flooring which replicates natural forms of flooring without the recognised drawbacks. With it being a form of vinyl I have also found it is very much warmer than other products such as laminate. It is suitable for any room including bathrooms and conservatories and it is hygienic as it will not hold dirt and bacteria. We have found that this brand is also durable it has not chipped, splintered or ...
...can be very noisy whereas Karndean is quiet underfoot and with a 1year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier in the house this is a great advantage. It is low maintenance, as opposed to natural flooring products this will not need sanding or repairing. All the ranges within this brand have differing features, attributes and durability but all are suitable for any rooms within the home.
Karndean is supplied in either planks or tiles in various sizes the ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful |
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very helpful
12.11.2005
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Karndean
Review of Karndean Flooring by
veke77
Advantages: Easy to install on Karndean subfloor
Disadvantages: Subfloor cost more than the floor itself
...had to buy the correct Karndean subfloor from local plumbing centre, but directflooring2u.co.uk does not seem to be interested to give me refund. They did send a courier to collect the wrong jumpax floor. They are also quite rude on the phone. Will never use this company again, they are many other places that give better service. ...
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not rated
05.12.2008
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My new karndean floor
Review of Karndean Flooring by
baloki
Advantages: warm, durable, practical
Disadvantages: expensive
...20sqm of Island Limestone Alderney Karndean flooring from DirectFlooring2U, had great service and the flooring is great. I've had laminate in my kitchen before but I couldn't mop it!!!!! It drove me mad. So i went to my local retailer who showed me this stuff. Its waterproof so i'm able to mop it, they even offer a range of cleaners that i use on both my laminate and my karndean it works really well and once again my kitchen is clean. Its also really ...
...foot making it much better suited to English winters. The only problem was the one i liked was the dearest of the lot and although i saved a fortune (£400) by buying online it was still expensive for a floo. But then again I did pick the dearer one. I'm now saving to get the laminate replaced in my hall and i'm telling all my friends to do the same. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful |
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helpful
08.01.2009
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Karndean - Internet or local shop
Review of Karndean Flooring by
AHAGUE6
Advantages: Scratch proof beautiful durable waterproof
Disadvantages: expensive
...A friend of mine recommended karndean as an alternative as it doens't scrath and looks very realistic. I then went top me local retailer and was impressed by the look and feel but not the price i couldn't believe how much they wanted to charge me for such a small room!!! I sourced the products online and arranged the fitting with a local trader who did a fantastic job saving myself over £300 pound. Its been down for 6 months now and still looks brand ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful |
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helpful
17.01.2009
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 Da vinci range
Review of Karndean Flooring by
purplegarnet
Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Scratches, becomes dull and gets huge gaps
We ordered the karndean da vinci flooring and what a RUBBISH product. After paying £2800, The installer came to fit, after the day was done, we had "gorgeous" floors. After a few days the gaps started to show on all the boards. We ordered the most expensive of the product range available so expected it to be the best, this is almost £1000 more expensive than wood. The gaps have gotten worse than ever and we have 2 - 3 mm gaps almost on every board ...
...you are looking at which flooring option to go for is misleading and incorrect. The Karndean customer services are even worse than the product as far as sorting problems - they are coming up with all sorts of excuses as to how it is not there error. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful |
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helpful
07.08.2008
(01.08.2008)
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24.01.2008
03.12.2003
