Part of our post wedding renovation included flooring throughout the house. For different rooms we had decided on a high quality laminate downstairs and a thick carpet for the bedrooms. The hallway was an afterthought because I had initially planned to sand down and polish the floorboards. After seeing the state of the cheap floorboards we had, it was time to investigate Amtico and other options.
What is Amtico?
Amtico is brand of luxury vinyl tile, or LVT. They are combined layers of plastic which are glued onto a flat floor. They typically sit on top of a self levelling screed of a few mm on ply. I hadn’t heard of it until seeing dedicated LVT areas in carpet showrooms. Vinyl isn’t now reserved for cheap student rentals where it’s rolled out in one massive sheet!
Amtico vs Karndean
These two brands look to be the market leaders in the UK. You may end up choosing the brand based on your taste preferences as they have their own unique designs. There are other brands available online and generic trade LVT. I couldn’t comment on their quality as I’ve had no experience with them.
How durable is Amtico?
Anecdotally, someone in my family has Karndean and it looks great at being laid 15 years ago. It’s proven to be really durable as they raised 3 kids and have grand kids regularly visit.
I don’t have the same confidence with our Amtico flooring. It’s part of the decor range which cost over £2000 to install but we found it scratches and marks pretty easily, therefore I do worry how it will hold up long term!
I would have much preferred going for a ceramic or porcelain tile in the same pattern. Yes it’s cold on the feet but for me the payoff is worth it. Not having to wince every time things get dragged across the high traffic hallway. I believe costs to lay tiling in a similar pattern wouldn’t have cost much difference.
Paying an “expert” fitter to lay the Amtico
Ironically this was one task I was put off doing myself. Whilst I’ve laid plenty of different types of flooring, LVT was new to me. Part of the Amtico business model at the time included the fitting cost. The benefit includes the 30 year warranty when they know it’s been fitted correctly. The only problem was that our expert fitter had to make 3 trips to correct his mistakes made from the previous visit!
The wrong pattern!
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The gaps!
Bare in mind I picked a highlight of the worst gaps but there was plenty more. Therefore I lack confidence of the waterproofing in this Amtico due to these gaps.
The third visit, upside down tile
Self level screed
The floor is lava! We had a 3mm self level screed down on ply. I feel like this is too thin and would be compromised in the hallway because of the high traffic. I already feel one corner where there seems to be a “dip”. Being under the Amtico I can’t verify what’s happened to the subfloor there.
The upsell and fitting
I was also up sold the solid brass thresholds after forking out £2000 for a job that took multiple attempts. The thresholds would sit between rooms that met the amtico. I do agree that it was worth having them when you’ve paid so much for the floor. They look much better than standard aluminium ones. The problem was that it cost £20 per threshold for fitting. That’s £60 for a few minutes of screws!
To conclude
Of course the fitting problems I mentioned here were rectified. I didn’t have to live with them in the end. Paying for a premium product was the problem. I had finally outsourced a job not to be DIY which in turn ended up being worse than if I had done it myself. Fortunately I didn’t get an itemised breakdown of the fitting cost to cringe at what I paid for.
Aside from the fitting, the apparent sensitivity of the floor is what really bothers me. It wasn’t until after the sale that the shop decided to relay the message that nothing should ever be dragged across the hallway. This basically implied how we would have to go about using the hallway. My tiled bathroom has seen years of abuse and it still looks as good as the day it was fitted!