Two premium floors, two different strengths
Premium LVT is a layered floor with a photographic wear layer: waterproof, warm and quiet underfoot, extremely hard-wearing and very convincing as oak or stone.
Real wood is timber, either engineered (a hardwood top layer on a stable core) or solid all the way through. It has a depth and variation nothing else matches, it ages with the house and it can be sanded and refinished.
Neither is "better". The right answer depends on the room, what is underneath it and how you live in it.
Room by room
| Room | Premium LVT | Engineered wood | Solid wood |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kitchen | Excellent: waterproof and easy to clean | Good, with care around spills | Not our first choice |
| Bathroom and en-suite | Excellent | Not recommended | Not recommended |
| Hallway | Excellent: takes the heaviest traffic | Good | Good |
| Living room | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent |
| Bedroom | Good | Excellent | Excellent |
| Over underfloor heating | Yes, with a suitable product | Yes, specified properly | Not recommended |
| Over a concrete slab | Yes, on a prepared, damp-proofed base | Yes | Best over timber subfloors |
| Busy family, pets | Excellent | Good | Fair |
| Refinishing in years to come | Damaged tiles can be replaced | Can be sanded and refinished | Can be refinished many times |
Choose LVT when
- The room gets wet: kitchens, bathrooms, utility rooms, boot rooms.
- You want a herringbone or stone look through a busy ground floor with very little upkeep.
- There are children, dogs or a lot of traffic.
- Mobility matters. One of our customers, a wheelchair user, was about to make a costly mistake until we talked through which product would suit a wheelchair day to day.
Choose real wood when
- It is a living room, dining room, bedroom or study where warmth and character come first.
- You want a floor that will be refinished rather than replaced, decades from now.
- The house itself has character: period properties often sit beautifully on real timber.
- You have underfloor heating and want wood: choose engineered, specified properly.
Or both
Plenty of the best houses use both: LVT through the kitchen, utility and hallway, and real wood in the living and dining rooms, with tones chosen together so the thresholds look deliberate. We plan those junctions at the home visit rather than improvising them on the day.
The part that matters for either
Whatever goes on top, the subfloor decides how long it lasts. We survey it before you choose and price the latex screeding, levelling or damp proof membrane your floor needs into the quotation.
Still undecided?
Book a free home visit. We bring samples of both, look at them in your rooms and your light, and tell you straight which we would put down and why.
