Agree with above post......you can get both and will look great either way. Engineered has a thin layer of natural timber on the top. Not sure why you were recommended this, unless you are looking at costs. As far as carpet goes, a lot of people seem to be going with timber on stairs (quite costly), and we wonder if that trend will continue. Solution Dyed Nylon carpets that are locally manufactured ( Godfrey Hirst springs to mind ) are brilliant, and have what we call "memory", meaning the pile should not crush - wool carpets will crush or flatten, as it is a natural fibre. I think carpet on stairs is also great for noise control, however that is a personal opinion.

If it's your forever home go for what best suits you eg cork is best for feet knees and anti microbial and there are beautiful cork planks wch look like timber (see ready cork). It's also warmer than timber. But apart from cork timber look planks I'd only go real timber floorboards not anything else. Wormy chestnut is harder than tassie oak but much same price Carpet for stairs reduces noise of footsteps. I got Godfrey hirst one made from sugar cane beautiful and great for pets Hope this helps

Several decades ago, I grew up in a house with cork tiles in kitchen and sunroom - and I was a convert from then. Cork is warm to look at and to walk on, and is very forgiving when you drop things on it. Since then Ive had houses with tiles in both bathroom and kitchen (not my choice), and more than half an hour standing doing kitchen/meal prep, used to give me aching legs. I could never figure out why tiles were so desirable by all and sundry, until I found their advantages in a hot climate in summer - cool underfoot. But when I bought my recent house I was intent on putting cork down, but found I had vinyl wood-look planking in the kitchen - I have learned to love it, as it is : comfortable to walk/stand on (must have a good underlay?), things don't smash when I drop them, and so easy to clean - I really love it now, and with a couple of polyprop non-slip mats from Briscoes for extra underfoot comfort, I'm sold... Hope you solve your dilemma soon... :-D

I'm not sure that you can lay vinyl planks over tiles....even when they are laid on a flat concrete floor any slight imperfection in the concrete shows through after a few months...we had this with our luxury vinyl planks, and they had to lift some an sand down the VERY slight imperfection. With vinyl planking the prep of the floor is very important. If you lay over tiles the lines between the tiles will show through after a few months.