Design flooring as a parquet alternative - purchase recommendation, manufacturer

Well then - if I were fixed on design flooring, I would take a closer look at Classen. I would examine this floor with my nose (and perhaps the dog's), because something that smells bad is suspicious to me as a flooring material and I don't want that in the house - especially not with small children.

Finally a supporter;). Do you have recommendations regarding manufacturer and type? With Parador Modular One, you hear good but also a lot of bad.

We use 1200 Purline. ;-) It was the best compromise for us! No petroleum, Blue Angel certified, very robust, large format, unfortunately not exactly cheap, and I have seen the texture more realistic with other manufacturers. Still, very good appearance and feel.

Despite the local concerns, I would rather prefer glued or floating vinyl or design flooring.

I don’t quite understand floating vinyl. It is usually on a fiber backing. Then you might as well install laminate, because most of the above-mentioned advantages are lost!

Prefer vinyl or design flooring. I don’t like vinyl due to the lack of foot warmth that much. Although I am male, I am very sensitive here :).

I don’t quite understand that. Could you please explain it differently?

Can you elaborate on that? I don’t necessarily see it that way, rather the advantages of @RotorMotor.

So first of all, the additional cost of design flooring compared to laminate is about 100%. Cheap ones start at around 20 EUR, good ones at 40 EUR, and the supposed luxury class from 60 EUR upwards. The last time I checked, laminate was really almost exactly half the price. Now, the fact that a floor with a correspondingly higher usage class always becomes more durable is true for all materials, so in that respect not an advantage of the material. On the contrary, with vinyl you often hear about scratches very early on. More like a fine type that spreads like a veil. This simply has to do with the fact that the top layer is at the same time the decor layer. With laminate, you have a transparent plastic layer, then the decor carrier layer (cellulose), and then the carrier layer. This makes laminate visually less susceptible to light scratches because the decor layer is not scratched at the same time. The fact that vinyl is not a problem with water is only true for "full vinyl." So only if it’s not on a carrier board. However, this is usually much thinner and thus much more susceptible to unevenness in the floor. Also, such vinyl can, as far as I know, only be glued down. The other vinyl then has the same problem due to the HDF carrier board, which, to be honest, is only a problem with standing water for a long time. And standing water, while full vinyl may not be affected by it, still runs underneath and can ferment there in a nice microclimate under the floor and seep into the floor and walls... I would doubt any grease stains. I think it depends on the specific material. I have certainly also seen strange shiny spots caused by grease on plastics. But I admit, I am not aware of that with vinyl. Just as little as with laminate. Anyway, compared to solid wood parquet, no advantage because you can oil parquet for maintenance and thus naturally work in stains. The thermal conductivity is indeed better than with parquet and also laminate, that’s true. The "soft feeling" is often touted; compared to glued parquet I can’t feel a difference, and with laminate, in my opinion, it’s so minor that, at least for me, it wouldn’t be worth a 100% price premium. So if you are already thinking about replacing after 5-10 years anyway, I would rather lay it floating and then you can just take laminate and save money. If not, ’s advice makes sense and you take wood with a thick wear layer right away. But you have to pay a bit more for that. I would then probably rather glue it down because of underfloor heating.

Prefer vinyl or design flooring.

Just a really silly question. What exactly is design flooring? Oh yes, vinyl flooring is also design flooring. A PVC floor is a vinyl floor and a design floor. Laminate with a special design is also sold as design flooring. Please first detach yourselves from the term "design flooring." The ONE design floor or design flooring material does not exist. What is the goal? To buy a floor free of vinyl? Avoid plasticizers? Then please provide information on which material is preferred. "Design floors" can be made with vinyl or also with PET/PP layers (= the same stuff as plastic bottles). Avoidance of dangerous plasticizers or chemicals can be found in every product variant. "Design flooring" is essentially very effective marketing to sell vinyl floors (PVC/vinyl) or plastic floors (with PET/PP) at multiple times the margin of an identical product with the mundane name vinyl floor. Always keep that in mind. I prefer parquet design flooring and have chosen smoked oak design. Completely without plasticizers or other harmful substances. Pure nature – except for the parquet adhesive.

Correct, design flooring is nothing other than vinyl flooring, but in my experience it is PVC-free and at least low in plasticizers. Completely plasticizer-free does not exist, because then the plastic would become so brittle that it would break very quickly. That laminate is also sold as design flooring is new to me, but it really cannot be excluded, since it is not a protected or even formally defined term anywhere.

"Designboden" is essentially a very well-running marketing term to sell vinyl floors (PVC/vinyl) or plastic floors (with PET/PP) at multiple margins of an identical product under the plain name vinyl floor. Always keep that in mind.

Yes, that's how it is. If you already have to call something "design," there is much to suggest that you otherwise cannot recognize design... Ultimately, it is always a prioritization of different aspects. "Foot warmth" and "resistance" are the main focus for the OP. If naturalness and (perceived) health also play a role, the significantly more ecological linoleum comes into play as a flooring material compared to vinyl or PVC. Nowadays, you no longer have to wax it like before, as modern linoleum floors have a protective layer. With manufacturers like Forbo, there are designs of linoleum floors that lean towards wood - so they do not remind you of the old school floor.