Yes, I have had three experiences with vinyl plank flooring, as follows: My father installed Konecto in his addition- a woodworking shop, bathroom workout room (with treadmill) and wine cellar (including stairs). The floor has been in for over two years and looks fantastic. Any scratches disappear with the same vinyl spray you use on your car's dashboard. I installed Konecto in the bathroom of my home that has now become a rental. The floor was so uneven that the tile installed, most likely just prior to sale, cracked and the grout fell out within a week of my moving in. Wet towels and puddles of water have sat on the year-old vinyl plank, with no problems. My father owns a working farm that he rents; Allure was installed in the kitchen and held up to the mud-and-gravel-encrusted boots that slog through the kitchen. It has been in for almost a year and looks great. These experiences drew me to vinyl plank flooring in the house I "inherited" when I got married; however, I still researched other options such as hardwoods and laminates. While it is a personal choice, I have found the following in my particular case: The house, in its present condition, needs so much work that we are upside down already (purchased from a family member, you know how it goes...) and have major expenses such as plumbing, electric, flooring and a kitchen- the current kitchen is gutted. For my neighborhood, I will never recoup the costs, even at bargain-basement prices. This is something all remodelers should consider- are you creating a $300,000 home in a $150,000 neighborhood? Also, with the way that folks love to remodel these days and put their own stamp on their homes, who is to say that the next owners won't cover your beautiful hardwoods with carpet? Finally, practicality: we have 2 dogs and 3 cats and plan for children soon. In our shotgun house we don't want to break up the visual aesthetic of openness by having different types of flooring in the living room, dining room, kitchen and bath, we wanted a unified, seamless look For water resistance, vinyl is the way to go. Not to mention the logistics of installation- in our situation the thickness of the vinyl works best with our current flooring/trim combination. If my situation were different, I might choose a different floor, but when looking at the whole picture, vinyl seemed the way to go for us! We also plan on staying here for some time, so resale is less of a concern, but it is in our minds (though I have never bought a house I didn't change, so your potential buyer might too!). If you would like pictures of the three aforementioned vinyl plank "experiences" I can ask family members/tenants to send some. Also, check out your local commercial joints. For example, my grocery store has vinyl plank floors that look great after 5 years of squeaky, wobbly cart wheels running over them. Hope this helps and good luck with your remodel!!

I'm the OP. We just returned from visiting a couple more flooring stores (we've now visited four flooring stores in total). One place today was absolutely excellent as far as having a long-time salesperson/owner who really knows her products and their uses in various applications. In a situation like ours she highly recommends using luxury vinyl sheet with a glue down installation. It will adapt to minor dips in the floor, it is all vinyl so could withstand possible water incursion, it won't have potential dirt in the edges like tiles would if there is a water event in the basement, it is durable (she showed us some great examples of what can be done to it without harming it), and it is reasonably priced (not cheap but not as pricey as many other options we've seen). I liked what I saw in the Mannington line wood-replicas because it is not cheesy looking, and it has an aluminum oxide coating to prevent damage to the floor. This floor would cost about 50% of what a marmoleum floor would cost us. Hope this helps anyone else who is facing the same dilemma we are facing about flooring.

I brought a sample home from Home Depot and could scratch it with my fingernail. Having said that, we went with a different brand as mentioned in my earlier post. it has a 5 mil wear layer with some kind of cerama beads, (I forget all the lingo I learned when researching ours). and I have never found a scratch on ours. We put it throughout our 1,000 sq ft cabin and also in our TV room at home. We have a 10+ lb. cat that tears around like a maniac. All claws intact. The wear layer is very important. It is recommended to put felt pads on all furniture feet. Makes for very easy moving of chairs etc. anyways. That way you shouldn't have to worry about scratches so long as there is no sand or stones lingering on the floor. But the felt pads would help minimize a problem anyways.

You’re putting oak veneer counters in a rental? Because you think your renters will take care of them, or because you can replace them if they don’t? I don’t know where you are nor how much rent you expect to collect for the unit, but the choices you are making for the floor and counters are 5 year choices, meaning you’ll be replacing both in 5 years. That’s not great business practice. If you can do better, do it now, and you won’t have to re-do either for a decade or more. Re: paint, the classic choice is SW 6126 Navajo White. SW 9166 Drift of Mist is a nice neutral grey, should be no problem.