Floating v harwood & oil v water based floor

[Shari]

Hi there, we are considering putting hardwood floors over tiles in newly purchased home. From my google research that appears to be possible... but it seems floating floors are very common for this application. From the floating floors I've seen they don't really have the same look and feel as hardwood, but being pre-finished there is no voc or odour problems which is good. Is it possible to get floating floors that look and feel the same as a real timber floor?

If not, for the finish on hardwood - I am 7.5 months pregnant and low toxicity is important to us, so the water based sounds great, but we want a rich red colour and I noticed on some sites it says that the water based doesn't enhance colour, but if we got select reds would that make much difference? Also, I noticed you could add a stain to the first coat?? Is this common? We currently have pink brush box floors which are 18 years old so I don't know what they are finished with, they are semi-gloss I think, but we love them and are trying to get a similar look in the new house - will the water based finish have a similar look???
Thanks!

[TomH]

Hi Shari,

Try looking on the renovators forum. Loads more info about timber floors there. I laid a floating floor for a relative over cork flooring. It looked pretty good, but it's a different look from a proper timber floor. Levelling is crucial in a floating floor - any more than a couple of mm and you will notice it.

Cheers,

Tom

[Shari]

Hi TomH, thanks for that, I'll check out the renovators forum.