Another flooring Q (LVP vs hardwood)

[origami]

If you got to replace your flooring with insurance money, what would you pick?

I’m the poster dealing with major water damage repairs on my first floor (colonial house). Replacing my flooring is 1 bright spot in this nightmare. I currently have engineered hardwood in 1/2 the space, 2 kinds of carpet in the other half. The cost to replace those is what I’ll get from insurance but I want to do the same flooring throughout. No carpet this time and tile is uncommon here. I’m looking at LVP vs hardwood (engineered or regular). I prefer the look of hardwood but I also prefer not spending money (lol). I’ve never actually seen LVP in a house before. Looking for opinions on those or other options.

We have kids but no pets. We live in a mid-market house but good area. Planning to stay another 10-15y here.

[boiler717]

I prefer hardwood and would do it. My parents have LVP and I don’t like it. Part of their problem is the color, but I don’t like the feel of it either. I would definitely pick a timeless color for LVP and not one of the trendy grey ones if you want to avoid it looking dated soon.

[deadwing]

Another vote for hardwood. The only time I've seen LVP I wasn't impressed with it (I suspect it was on the low end of LVP though).

[SusanBAnthony]

Hardwood no question.

I've had both and LVP is fine and a good choice for some situations. Including not having the budget for hardwood. But if hardwood is an option I would definitely definitely choose it.

[dcn]

We had lvp in our house we just sold and didn’t like it. It feels plasticy because it is plastic ha. I much prefer wood.

[lessel]

So we have sort of the standard oak hardwoods on our first floor and matching LVP on our second floor. Overall I prefer the hardwood, but I would make sure to go with a quality product and installer (kind of a duh, I guess...). The hardwoods installed by previous owners here were like the ones that you get at Home Depot and are pre-stained. Then some years later they decided to sand/stain them. That doesn't really work so great with that style of hardwood and there are these grooves between each plank that they used filler on... well, that filler is chipping out all over the damn place. So if you go hardwood, I would go with the 'raw' wood kind. Let it sit and acclimate in your house for a few weeks before it's installed, etc. Then they do the whole sanding/staining repeated for a few days. It's a major PITA process, but worth it.

All that said, the LVP on our second floor looks pretty damn identical--maybe kind of too shiny is my only complaint--and is probably 5 years old and looks brand new.

[Susie]

I would check recent sale listings and I would seriously consider following what you see there.  

That being said, we replaced the flooring in our house last year before we moved in, and we did HWs.  They already have scratches from dog toenails, but I am not too precious about it.  We did finished in place, satin finish (vs. higher gloss), unstained cherry, exactly so that the anticipated future scratches would not scream at you from across the room.  I like finished in place because they don't have the bevel that pre-finished has, so it's a smoother floor.  They just feel nicer under foot than the LVP that my dad has in his vacation house.

[Velar Fricative]

We are replacing a half-HW half-carpet first floor situation with all LVP. First, it's a rowhouse with an open floor plan so I wanted the same floor throughout. But second, the HW in the kitchen area is in really terrible shape, because it's the kitchen (and it's also 30 years old and likely builder grade, don't think it was ever replaced when the house was built in 1992). We don't have a mud room or otherwise separate entryways, so we need something that can withstand anything and won't drive me nuts to maintain. I do otherwise like HW but when we ever sell this house, it's not the kind of house that buyers would expect to see beautiful HW in anyway given the housing stock and market around here. I have noticed an uptick in more and more people around asking for LVP recommendations so it does seem to be increasing in popularity.

If none of the above applies to you, go with HW.

[sassystace]

If you do LVF, make sure you go with a higher-end, thicker version of it. We've done two types in two different spaces in our house and one feels plastic-y and flexes a bit when you step on it and the other is very strong and feels like wood. LVF is more durable in areas with potential for water (kitchens, bathrooms) and areas of high traffic/pets. Go look at a floor showroom with samples down on the floor.

[RockNVoll]

If hardwood is within budget, I would always choose that for main areas. And this is coming from someone who likes the LVP we installed in our basement, but I wouldn't want hardwoods down there.

[lolalolalola]

I’d choose engineered hardwood.

[wildrice]

Jul 26, 2022 11:48:38 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

We are replacing a half-HW half-carpet first floor situation with all LVP. First, it's a rowhouse with an open floor plan so I wanted the same floor throughout. But second, the HW in the kitchen area is in really terrible shape, because it's the kitchen (and it's also 30 years old and likely builder grade, don't think it was ever replaced when the house was built in 1992). We don't have a mud room or otherwise separate entryways, so we need something that can withstand anything and won't drive me nuts to maintain. I do otherwise like HW but when we ever sell this house, it's not the kind of house that buyers would expect to see beautiful HW in anyway given the housing stock and market around here. I have noticed an uptick in more and more people around asking for LVP recommendations so it does seem to be increasing in popularity.

If none of the above applies to you, go with HW.

Not that you asked, but I have a VERY similar situation here (my townhouse is 1982) and we just got LVP installed last week throughout our main level and basement. I thought about refinishing the builder grade hardwood that was in terrible shape, but that seemed more disruptive to our lives and I don't want to deal with having to redo it again someday down the road. 

Our floors look awesome! I am so happy with how they look. IDK if they quite look "real" but they look very nice and they've made a huge improvement in the aesthetics of our house. I think hard wood will always look nicer than fake wood, but personally I am ok with something that looks nice and meets my needs for ease of installation/maintenance and price point, too, especially since I think there would be such a thing as overimproving our home. We don't plan to move anytime soon, but when we do someday I think there is a limit to the ROI we'd get on certain choices. Anyway, I hope you are just as happy when yours are installed!

[Velar Fricative]

Jul 31, 2022 16:08:13 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Jul 26, 2022 11:48:38 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

We are replacing a half-HW half-carpet first floor situation with all LVP. First, it's a rowhouse with an open floor plan so I wanted the same floor throughout. But second, the HW in the kitchen area is in really terrible shape, because it's the kitchen (and it's also 30 years old and likely builder grade, don't think it was ever replaced when the house was built in 1992). We don't have a mud room or otherwise separate entryways, so we need something that can withstand anything and won't drive me nuts to maintain. I do otherwise like HW but when we ever sell this house, it's not the kind of house that buyers would expect to see beautiful HW in anyway given the housing stock and market around here. I have noticed an uptick in more and more people around asking for LVP recommendations so it does seem to be increasing in popularity.

If none of the above applies to you, go with HW.

Not that you asked, but I have a VERY similar situation here (my townhouse is 1982) and we just got LVP installed last week throughout our main level and basement. I thought about refinishing the builder grade hardwood that was in terrible shape, but that seemed more disruptive to our lives and I don't want to deal with having to redo it again someday down the road. 

Our floors look awesome! I am so happy with how they look. IDK if they quite look "real" but they look very nice and they've made a huge improvement in the aesthetics of our house. I think hard wood will always look nicer than fake wood, but personally I am ok with something that looks nice and meets my needs for ease of installation/maintenance and price point, too, especially since I think there would be such a thing as overimproving our home. We don't plan to move anytime soon, but when we do someday I think there is a limit to the ROI we'd get on certain choices. Anyway, I hope you are just as happy when yours are installed!

Awesome! We just signed the contract to get new floors in September. I expect a huge improvement, and not just because anything is an improvement over our destroyed HW and the gross living room carpet lol.

[magdala]

We put LVP in our home theatre in the cellar. The home theatre gets heavy use from the kids, looks good and is easy to care. It works for us because there is no height difference. It looks like hardwood and most people cannot tell the difference.