Here’s an example of vinyl flooring available that has the appearance of real wood floors. For comparison, ‘vinyl plank’ sells for around $2/sf, engineered hardwoods sell for around $4/sf, and real hardwoods go for $5/sf to $8/sf:
Jim Klinge
Klinge Realty Group
Broker-Associate, Compass
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We installed vinyl “wood” flooring and are really happy with how it turned out. We have two kids and two dogs, so the durability was a big selling point. Plus, if one plank gets ruined you just pull it up and slap a new one down — no interlocking pieces.
We got Pinnacle Smoked Hickory (with a lifetime guarantee):
http://modernsurface.com/pinnacle-smoked-hickory-3/
If anyone is thinking about going this route you should be aware that, as Jim pointed out, the planks are really thin. This means when you remove thicker, taller flooring (in our case about 1,000 square feet of hideous tile), it leaves roughly 1/4″ gaps between the new flooring and any door trim pieces that rested on top of the old floors. Gaps between doors and floors are more pronounced too, but any baseboard gaps can be fixed with quarter rounds. Just something to keep in mind.
I agree with everything REintheLBC stated. I installed vinyl in my new place and love it. The first comment I always get from pics and first time viewers is, “Oh my god I love the floors” and then I get asked, “Is that real wood?”. It’s completely durable (I’ve got dogs) and it’s basically water proof, a huge selling point for me as I have a half bath and laundry downstairs and I put this stuff throughout my entire first floor.
I did install new taller baseboards, so height was not an issue.
LOVE our luxury vinyl planks. Waterproof so we can use them throughout in kitchens and baths and no worries when the kids spill water…As they do. The floors look amazing and people compliment on them regularly.
As for the vinyl in your video well that looks like the lower end of course to put it mildly. We used usfloors and it was the same price as laminate really and we shopped around plenty. The common theme at all flooring centers was that they are selling lots of LVP and plenty goes into mid range coastal homes. Don’t believe me? Ask Warren Buffett as they just paid a mint for usfloors over at Berkshire Hathaway. Some of these vinyl floors have all the green certifications that laminates have no chance at also because the nature of laminates is glue glue and more glue.
On the downside, they ding up. They are plastic after all and man they can ding. So you trade off that for the fact they can’t warp essentially. Did I mention they ding? So don’t buy a type that would show dings. Stick to a rustic weathered kind of pattern that hides any oops moments.
Jim,
We are looking at redoing our floors with either “wood” tile or the luxury vinyl wood planks. Is the vinyl a negative when reselling a home? Is it worse, the same or better than having “wood” tile installed? I have samples of both the wood tile and the vinyl and I’m really impressed because they both look amazing on the floor. I just don’t want to mess up our home’s value. (We currently have ugly square tile and carpet downstairs).