I fit both, so I’ve no horse in this race. This is what I say at the kitchen table when someone’s torn, not what a brochure says.
Where real wood wins
Feel, mostly. Bare feet know the difference, and a real oak floor in a period front room — the sort you find all over Painswick and the older streets of Cheltenham — has a warmth nothing printed quite matches. It can also be sanded back in twenty years and start again, which vinyl can’t. If the room is right and the household is calm, wood is a lovely thing.
Where Karndean wins
Real life. Kitchens, dogs, spilt drinks, football boots that didn’t get taken off. Karndean doesn’t cup when the washing machine leaks, doesn’t mind the underfloor heating, and it’s warmer and quieter underfoot than laminate ever manages. When a family says “we want wood but we live like a family”, this is usually the honest answer.
The ranges I actually carry in the van
Karndean’s Art Select is the top of the tree — deeper embossing, more pattern repeat variety, and it’s what I’d show you for a herringbone. Van Gogh is the wide-plank range, very forgiving in big open rooms. The difference between ranges is real when you hold the samples together, which is exactly why I bring them to your house rather than describing them down the phone.
The money, honestly
Fitted, good LVT and decent engineered oak often land closer together than people expect once you price the prep and finishing properly. The difference is what happens next: wood may want re-oiling or sanding one day; Karndean wants sweeping. Budget the whole life of the floor, not just the invoice.
The subfloor sermon
Skip the prep and either floor fails. Wood moves and creaks; vinyl shows every ridge. If a quote looks cheap, this is nearly always the line that’s missing. Ask.
My rule of thumb
Bedrooms and calm front rooms: wood earns its keep. Kitchens, halls, anywhere with water or wheels or paws: Karndean. Stairs: carpet, nine times out of ten, and I’ll tell you why on the day.
Want to see both against your own skirting, in your own light? That’s the point of the free home visit — samples to your door, straight advice, no hard sell. There are real jobs of both in the room finder too.