I put a high quality, floating floor in my apt kitchen in NYC to help with pet wear and tear. NOT the best option. If one piece needs to be replaced (and with pet accidents it bubbles very easily), you have to undo a whole section because they are interlocked. Also, they just don't look that great, no matter what we paid. So when it came time to make the rest of the apt floor look decent, we switched to vinyl planks from Lowes. Sounds gross, but they're actually amazing looking. Our apt was built in the 1880's, (the original floor was long destroyed and removed before we got it),and I found a dark gunstock in a wider cut that almost matched our neighbor's original floor exactly. You ready for this? 98 cents a sq foot! If one gets damaged you peel it off (with some effort) and put a replacement. Echoflooring is sooo right about batch colors. Get it all at once and mix up the boxes as you lay it. We have a bunch of mixed ones for replacement and haven't used one, not one, but I know we have them. Lowes will recommend their sealer,but we didn't use it. They self stick just fine. One or two spots came up after we were first done and someone on line told us to use a hairdryer to reheat it and lay a book on top overnight. Worked like a dream. Our apt in NY is 800 sq ft and our current tenant is a photographer with two rescue cats and she loves the floor. Even with her keen eye, we had to tell her they were vinyl and how to replace it if she had a pet accident. She was blown away! I will try to post a picture of our NY apt floor for you. To be fair to our tenant the photographer, I took the horrible quality pics w my cell, not her! LOL! Choose wisely for your space and go with your fave, not what everyone says you should do, incl me. And pls do remember the color batch issue echoflooring brought up. Good luck :) Here is a link that might be useful: NYC vinyl plank floor

Here is my story posted on the Lowe's website and my resolution is to rip out the floor: With all the great reviews about this product I am almost afraid to post something negative so people think, ah another poor DIYer that doesn't know what or in this case how to do it. Anyway let me give you the facts and you can judge for yourself. After removing the old carpet including all carpet staples the floor was scraped, nailed and sanded where needed. 5mm plywood, (not Lauan!) was put down with rink shank nails. All gaps filled with wood filler and sanded. Before applying Henry's vinyl tile primer floor was swept and vacuumed. So much for the prep work and since I couldn't think of anything else installation was next. Laying down the planks is pretty much a no-brainer and using a hand roller as recommended should be all to it. I did notice from the get go that a couple of planks needed some extra attention and I ended up using full boxes of Novalis planks to keep them down. The next day, which is today, I inspected the work and found that the majority of planks were in one form or shape not sticking. Even the ones with the extra weight on them did not seem to hold well. I was able to lift the tiles up with hardly any resistance. The glue was still soft and it was obvious that hardly any adhesion between the floor and the plank exists. Let me assure you, the preparation was painstakingly done, ambient temperature around 85F, low humidity (Nevada) of 25%, each plank was rolled and rolled again,... I do understand that I am obviously in the minority of unhappy Novalis customers and I have no explanation why this floor is not sticking. I still wait to receive a call back from the customer service representative, not that I expect much of it anyway.

Sooz, click flooring is not "waterproof". The surface of each plank, and the substrate in the body of the plank and click mechanism are waterproof. But you are correct, some moisture can leak down through the click mechanism especially if you flood the floor (wet mopping etc). But it's a very small amount and I wouldn't think it would damage the underlying subfloor. My concern would be the development of mold, or smell if it's pet urine flooding the floor! The benefit to that kind of floor is it's a bit more forgiving of a slightly rough or unlevel subfloor (sheet flooring is thinner and will transmit subfloor flaws) and it's warmer underfoot because it's thicker. It also can be popped up, cleaned and dried, and reinstalled if you have a major flood problem (sewage backup for example). If you don't anticipate numerous pet accidents or flooding consider a good quality click vinyl such as Coretec. There are numerous Coretec threads on houzz. And they do have tile look options.

OK....so here is what I WOULD DO: Pull the carpet and lino BOTH and FIND OUT what's underneath. Carpet hides the WORST subfloors (both in prep and in materials) on the planet. Builders KNOW they can mess up the subfloor because carpet will hide everything. So....once carpet and line are GONE...I would then choose an installation material BASED ON the subfloor material that is in place. Example, if you have PERFECT PLYWOOD (which is EXPENSIVE....so I HIGHLY DOUBT IT) then you can think about peel and stick vinyl (which will be cheap, cheerful and require replacement rather quickly = 5 - 7 years). If you have PERFECT CONCRETE SLAB (again...HIGHLY DOUBT IT) then you can think peel and stick. See above. Now back to reality. The chances are you have bad subfloors. As in laun or fibre board or OSB (oriented strand board = looks like the plywood has been made from potato chips). If this is your substrate, peel and stick will NOT STICK. That means you NEED TO LOOK at floating (click together). The price will go UP because of the price of the locking system (royalties, manufacturing machines are expensive, etc) but the INSTALLATION will be faster/easier. Or you have horrible concrete (lumpy, pitted, sloped, etc.) and you need SERIOUS repairs on the concrete. That type of repair isn't going to come cheap. And it is a gut-wrenching DIY project. And vinyl is great for dogs....but PLEASE WORK with a product that is NOT MATTE. We have dozens of threads with people CRYING over their matte finished vinyl....and HATING IT. And NO, the finish is not defective. Which makes them even MORE upset....because there is no warranty covering "angry". And just for fun, a rental unit will have a different life expectancy for flooring. Rental units have a 7 year life cycle for flooring. Yep. That's sever (7) years and the floors need replacing. So....choose what YOU LIKE today. Get it as tough as your budget can allow (high-end laminate in the living spaces + decent vinyl in kitchen/bath/laundry) and then realize it will only survive a few more years (2-4 years) as a rental floor. That's it. And LAMINATE (especially the high end one's) are EXTREMELY tough. They are STUPID-EASY/cheap to install as DIY and require LESS PREPARATION to the subfloors than vinyl. Because rental property is in your future, don't think anything beyond "seven years".