Which flooring type is best? LVT, Laminate, Real Wood. After 40 years my answer is this!

After 40-odd years on my knees fitting floors, the question I get more than any other is a simple one: "Graham, which flooring type is best?" And the honest answer is — it depends on the room, the traffic and your budget. But there are some hard truths about each type that the showrooms won't always tell you. Here's the straight version I'd give you stood in your hallway with a brew going cold.

The four contenders

Most of what I fit falls into four camps:

• LVT stick down — luxury vinyl planks glued flat to a properly prepared subfloor.
• LVT click (floating) — the same vinyl look, but planks that click together and float over an underlay.
• Laminate — a photo of wood printed onto a fibreboard core, sealed under a wear layer.
• Real wood — engineered or solid timber, the genuine article.

They can look like cousins in the showroom. Under your feet, day in day out, they behave like very different animals. Here's how they stack up side by side — the same chart I hand my customers.

The flooring comparison chart

Scroll the chart sideways on a phone to see every column. A tick means it's a genuine strength, a cross means it's a real weakness, and an exclamation mark means "fine, with a caveat".

Why I steer most people to stick-down LVT

For the average busy family home, stick-down LVT wins on the balance of everything: waterproof, warm, silent, stable, repairable and long-lasting. Because each plank is bonded to a flat subfloor, it never shifts, clicks or gaps. It's the floor I fit the most and for good reason.

Laminate has its place — a dry bedroom on a tight budget — but I'll always be straight with you: it's the floor most likely to disappoint you within a few years.

Thinking of herringbone or a patterned floor? Read this first

Herringbone and chevron patterns look stunning and everyone's after them right now. But here's the bit nobody tells you before you buy: the material you choose makes a massive difference to the cost of a pattern, because of wastage.

So if you've got your heart set on herringbone, glue-down LVT is almost always the smarter choice. You get the exact look with far less money thrown in the skip.

The bit most people get wrong

Whatever you choose, a floor is only ever as good as the subfloor under it. I've been called to "faulty" floors more times than I can count, and nine times out of ten the floor is fine — the base was never levelled properly. A dip of even 3mm over 600mm (a couple of feet) and you'll feel the bounce and hear the click. If your base needs sorting, latex screed levelling is the fix, and it's worth every penny.

If you want to sanity-check what a floor might cost before you commit, the sister site has a handy flooring cost calculator and a flooring calculator to get you in the right ballpark.

So, which one?

Quick rule of thumb: wet or busy, go stick-down LVT. Dry and on a budget, laminate will do. Want the real thing and happy to maintain it, real wood. And if it's a pattern like herringbone, glue-down LVT will nearly always save you money.

If you want it fitted properly the first time, WhatsApp me with a couple of photos of the room and I'll tell you straight what I'd do.