Engineered wood, LVT or laminate: which suits which room?
Choose engineered wood where you want real timber and the room stays dry, LVT where water, pets and heavy traffic are facts of life, and laminate where budget matters and the room is a bedroom or landing. The subfloor and the room's use decide it far more often than taste does.
The three products in one table
| Factor | Engineered wood | LVT | Laminate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fitted price per m² | £35 to £70 | £25 to £50 | £15 to £30 |
| Surface | Real timber | Printed decor, clear wear layer | Printed decor, melamine |
| Water | Dislikes it | Handles it | Fails at the joints |
| Underfloor heating | Yes, usually bonded | Yes, glue-down preferred | Some ranges only |
| Underfoot | Solid, warm | Warm, quiet | Harder, more click |
| Repairs | Sand and refinish | Replace a plank | Replace the floor |
| Realistic life | 20 years plus | 15 to 20 years | 7 to 12 years |
Room by room
- Hallway: the hardest-working floor in any house, and on the coast at Redcar or Seaton Carew it gets sand ground into it daily. LVT with a 0.55mm wear layer, or AC4 laminate if the budget is tight. Barrier matting at the door does more for longevity than any upgrade.
- Lounge and dining room: dry, lower traffic, seen by everyone. This is where engineered wood earns its premium, especially in the bay-window rooms of the older semis where a wide oak plank suits the proportions.
- Kitchen and utility: LVT, effectively without argument. Spills, appliance leaks and mopping are routine, and glue-down handles all three.
- Bathroom and wet room: neither wood nor laminate. Welded sheet vinyl, or glue-down LVT if the detailing is right.
- Bedrooms and landing: laminate is entirely sensible here, and the money saved is better spent downstairs. Acoustic underlay matters more than the board in an upstairs room.
- Open-plan ground floor: one continuous floor across the whole space, which pushes towards LVT or engineered wood, and towards a level, prepared subfloor because dips show over long runs.
Let the subfloor vote
Whatever the showroom says, the base has a veto. A suspended timber floor in a Victorian terrace suits floating or secret-nailed engineered wood, and wants a plywood overlay before anything thin and glued. A concrete slab in a post-war Billingham or Thornaby house takes anything, provided the moisture reading is acceptable and any dips are levelled. A modern slab with underfloor heating in Ingleby Barwick or Wynyard rules out thick underlays and points firmly at glue-down. If you do not know what is under your carpet, that is the first thing a fitter will check, and it usually changes the shortlist.
The honest trade-offs
Engineered wood is the only one of the three that improves with a repair rather than a replacement, and the only one that a buyer will notice in a valuation conversation. LVT is the one that stops you worrying, and the one families with dogs and small children consistently say they would choose again. Laminate is the one that does the job for less money, right up until it meets water or a decade of hallway traffic. There is no wrong answer, only a wrong room. Prices for all three are set out in the Teesside cost guide.
Before you decide, look under the carpet
In any house built before about 1940, and that is a large slice of Middlesbrough, Stockton and Hartlepool, there may be a pine floor already down there. Restoring it costs £20 to £35 per m², beats laminate on longevity and beats everything on character. The restore or replace guide shows the checks to make before you cover something worth keeping.