I'm no expert, but I really like the look of dark flooring when there's a lot of natural light like in your photos. The snap-together floating floors are really easy to install, especially if you have really level subfloors. On the other hand, less than level can be a nightmare and involves a lot of extra remedial work. I did most of the flooring in my house and my husband did all of the remedial work. Lucky me. If you are thinking about doing this one room at a time, I would settle on one type of wood or wood-look flooring for the entire house and not mix different flooring colors from one room to the next.

I put in 5mm vinyl click plank from LL in a stone pattern in my kitchen. the thickness does make it a bit tougher to cut so any advantage that the thickness has in making it lock together is balanced by it being harder to make cuts (assuming score and break with a blade and not power tools). Overall, it does take a bit of time and patience to get it installed well. In my installation, seams are all very tight with no signs of any separation after 8 months, despite all this ridiculous cold weather no doubt causing more contraction than what I would normally ever see. Mine is on concrete slab so I don't have experience with it on wood subfloor. Overall, I am happy with it. Note that the surface wear layer will scratch. You should still put protective pads on furniture, etc. It is much more resistant to gouging from dropping heavy stuff on it unlike the cheap sheet vinyl I've had in the past (and worlds better in this regard then laminate and wood). These characteristics may not carry over to all the other 5mm. LL private labels from multiple manufacturers, even stuff they label as being in the same series. In getting stone style click vinyl samples, I noted that they came from at least two different manufacturers. When I've looked at their laminate samples, I've found at least four different manufacturers (and again at least two were supposed to be the just different patterns in the same exact series), some were clearly better quality than others despite being the same price.

Hello, We're trying to finalize flooring decisions for our moisture/water vulnerable basement. We're going with flooring options that either don't care or are easy to clean/dry/replace if they get wet. In one area, we're going with Flor carpet tile. But, in another area, we're considering vinyl planks. From what we understand, they're waterproof if there's a flood.We're trying to pick between LL's Tranquility product (on sale at $2.24/sq ft with a 50 year warranty) vs HD's TrafficMaster Allure Ultra ($2.97/sq ft with a lifetime warranty). Now, for my wife and me (in our 40s), there's not a lot of difference in the warranty; we're not likely to be in the house when the Tranquility's warranty runs out. And, the Tranquility feels much more substantial than the TrafficMaster. So, does anyone have any experience with either of these products? Any other opinions? Thanks! Tiger

I haven't bought it yet, but I certainly intend to. It will be going in my master bedroom where I have my son and his fiancee. My son was so hard on the carpet the previous owner put down (cheap, builder's grade), I put down a laminate floor so I wouldn't have to worry about stains. Laminate wasn't much better and isn't much good overall. Every place where my lazy son has spilled a drink and didn't immediately wipe it up there is a nasty raised area between the seams. Furthermore, even the tiniest amount of "play" in the subfloor can cause the floor to click and pop (at best), or worse it can cause the locking mechanism between the planks to break. I said all of that to say that with Allure you won't have to worry about spills because it is a vinyl floor. If you ever did have to replace a "plank," a razor knife, a scraper, a little finesse, and 10 minutes is all you'd need. If you have laminate, you'll have to remove every plank all the way back to the wall. I've seen this stuff in a completed room and the only thing that looks and feels more like real hardwood is actually real hardwood. I can tell a laminate floor from a mile away. If there's a Wal-Mart near you they may have a similar product on the floor of their shoe department or clothing departments. I've also seen similar stuff used inside Tractor Supply stores. If there is a Lowe's near you, they have an alternative product by Armstrong. It doesn't seem as substantial though. Also, Lowe's carries a vinyl plank called Novalis which is actually a lot cheaper than Allure and I've read really good reviews about it. With Novalis though, it is a traditional "peel and stick" type plank, so the subfloor would have to be prepped much more thoroughly. I've provided a very helpful link I found. The guy putting this stuff down is a real contractor! Here is a link that might be useful: Allure installation