Looking at flooring options for entire 1st floor, which includes kitchen, dining, family, and den. I feel like solid hardwood is the ‘default’ and what realtors would say is best for resale - but what about alternatives?
Luxury Vinyl Plank - LVP has come a long way on style, and offers the best water protection. But it might feel obviously not-solid, and I hear it scratches easily.
Laminate - And here I mean the fancy stuff, commercial rated coating and water resistant. Feels pretty solid, very resistant to scratches. “Dreamhome” line from LL Flooring, or similar.
Solid hardwood - not only the most expensive by a decent margin, but water resistant is limited, and I know it scratches. Plus sides are you can sand/refinish, and resale value. But I’m not too keen on making a choice just because selling it later.
Thoughts? Experience? Are there other major properties to consider?
Edit: I should have mentioned we have 4 kids, as far as wear & tear. Currently dog-free after both passed, but we’ll eventually get small/medium-sized dogs again.
If you can, walk on samples without your shoes on. LVP seems to be the material of choice for all the new developments in my area. I hate how it feels on my bare feet. Solid oak or maple feels much better.
Tile is nice in entryways where there is a lot of wear from dirty shoes.
I’ve heard of people doing polished concrete. Could be an appealing option if you live in a hot place and want cool floors. Or maybe combine concrete with a heated floor if you’re in a cold climate.
I know most people don’t think about this, but you may give some consideration to how much and how long the material you choose will off-gas. Off-gassing depends on the type and age of the material and even stuff like the adhesives.
I have no expertise, but I would recommend balancing aesthetics with utility. We have an engineered hardwood in our house and our Golden has more or less destroyed it over 6 years just from normal use. My parents have this tile flooring that looks like hardwood and it’s SO robust. They have four dogs and their floors still look perfect. If I was going to do it all over again, I’d get the stylized tile.
We have hardwood floors in most of our house, but LVP in our kitchen. I love the vinyl, it looks good and is super easy to install and we haven’t had issues with scratching so far. It doesn’t really look like hardwood, though, so I think some people still get snooty about it, lol.
I have a century home that has all 3 installed in various spots from previous owners and some LVP installed by us.
If you want to install the same flooring through all those areas I would not pick laminate. The laminate we have in the main kitchen was installed I would guess about 5 years ago, and it being a kitchen, spills happen. Because of that the laminate is already swelling up at the edges where the planks meet. Its not drastic or overly noticeable, but it is there and will continue to wear and tear over time. As you can imagine I’m not particularly thrilled with the previous owner’s choice on that one.
In the mother-in-law kitchen we installed vinyl plank which has held up nicely and isnt prone to absorption from spills, but time will tell as its been in for only ~2 years. My MIL also has a small dog and it hasnt seemed to make a dent in that regard. YMMV with a larger animal or kids.
The rest of the house, dining/living/bedrooms are the original hardwood floors, the scratches are just character in a house of this age and it wasnt an issue for us when buying.
If I were starting from a blank slate I would pick LVP for the kitchen for the water resistance and pick one of the other 2 for the rest.
