Conservatory flooring query

[mustgetalife]

Just in process of having a conservatory built. I have a teenage son with special needs, i.e. learning difficulties, no speech, visually impaired. He can be quite messy in that he likes to rub biscuits onto tv screens, creating loads of crumbs, often spills drinks and can be incontinent. He walks around the house barefoot and likes to jump up and down a lot. Wondered what type of flooring may be best suited for our situation. I'm sick of cleaning the carpet in the lounge when he's had an accident. We do have laminate floors in the kitchen that are easy to wipe, though I wondered if they may be too slippy. I presume that laminate would be warmer on barefoot than tiles though, . Does laminate go funny in extreme heat? My OH mentioned Amtico but I'm not sure. We also have to be careful with rugs as a trip hazard with his visual impairment. Any ideas anybody?

[gasman]

How about a nice tastefull cushioned vinyl floor covering ??
Not too hard to walk on and yet easily cleaned. Also it is easy to replace if it does get damaged. Also at this stage think about getting a plumber to install underfloor heating it works brill in a conservatory at this time of year.

[mustgetalife]

I never thought that underfloor heating would give off enough heat. Also worried that he's 'short-circuit' it with all his accidents! We have an air conditioning unit to put in which will give off heat and also cool and is a dehumidifier. I'm hoping this will sort out the heating for winter, so that we can use it all year. My lad wouldn't understand if we closed it up for winter, so we wanted to be able to use it all year round.
Thanks for the suggestion of vinyl. To be honest I haven't yet looked at that option, as I thought it would/could look like we're doing it on the cheap. Does anyone know if you can get textured vinyl? We do have textured tiled laminate in our bathroom - I wasn't sure whether laminate would withstand the heat in the summer.

[gasman]

Proper installed central heating under floor heating will heat the space very efficiently and better than any raidiator or other form of heating and will hardly cost any extra to run as it will be connected to your existing heating system. But needs to be done before the floor goes down as it is a big job to do afterwards. It turns you're whole floor into one big radiator and is lovely.
the electric ones you buy in the diy stores are just tile warmers they would not heat up the room at all just nice to walk bare foot on.
Pretty sure you can get textured vinyl if you shop around.

[pingping]

amtico and karndean do lovely textured vinyl flooring and you can buy ones that look like wood or slate flooring. I can vouch for their looks as I have the slate effect one in the kitchen and have had fab comments from people (especially as am in the process of selling the flat at the moment, and all of the buyers have commented on it). My parents have the wood effect one in their hall, and it looks fab!

Link here: http://www.karndean.com/gallery_intro.asp?main =residential&type=pvc