You want wood, get wood. A good LVT will cost as much as real wood will cost. There's plenty of good engineered products between $3-$4 a square, which is what a good LVT will cost you.

I'm curious why you say I want wood. I don't.

I want something that won't scratch, will hold up to water, and I can steam mop.

I just pulled up 400 sq ft of engineered wood.

It's possible I'll end up with it again but to us it's a distant second.

"I want something that won't scratch, will hold up to water, and I can steam mop. "

You just described tile. And only tile. Neither vinyl nor wood will meet those parameters. Everything scratches. Steam mopping isn't recommended with either wood or vinyl. And although vinyl itself isn't damaged by water like wood is, any leak that you have will get under the vinyl and mold the subfloor and damage it.

I disagree. I steam mopped the click-together engineered wood for 6.5 years with no problems. And since we've now pulled it up I would know if there were any issues with the subfloor.

Tile is not an option. This is going in an open kitchen/LR/DR/hall and I do not want tile in the LR.

Many vinyl floors have surface texture that simulates the look of wood texture. As a wood flooring professional, I can attest that many real wood floors do have texture. It's part of their appeal. Many prefinished woods however, do have such a buildup of finish that the grain is filled and the surface is smooth. Some woods like Maple and Cherry are smooth but for many woods, this is not natural. My theory is that once the makers of prefinished wood started making their products smooth in response to warranty issues, many customers didn't like the smooth look and the current craze for hand-scraped and wire brushed floors was born.
You probably won't find any perfectly smooth vinyl plank floors but I have seen some that don't have woodgrain. I believe that the Freefit standard line is fairly smooth.
http://www.freefitfloors.com/cherry.html
Just as with wood, the smoother the surface, the more likely it is to show scratches and wear and vinyl DOES scratch. Of course the vinyl could be waxed in the future once it gets scratched or worn.
I'll second what was written about steam cleaners. Steam cleaners are absolutely NOT recommended for wood floors. Of course once your floor is installed, you're free to treat your floor as you wish but the fact is that wood and water don't mix. Forcing steam through the joints and into the wood will eventually make the wood expand and contract at the joints and the finish will debond. Once it debonds it will be easier to force in more steam. I have a client whose housekeeper literally stripped almost all of the floor finish off their kitchen wood floor.
I could use your same reasoning playing Russian roulette with one bullet in a six shot revolver. The first five tries went well so the naysayers are obviously incorrect.

Not to mention that the repeated exposure to steam can and will loosen the bond on the "glue strip" type vinyl floors. Glue isn't meant to stand up to repeated sauna conditions.

Thanks, I'm looking at the Freefit floors now.

Funny you mention maple and cherry as being smoother, those are the woods we're the most drawn to.

I understand, of course, that real wood has grain. My point is that all of the finished wood (floors and furniture) in my house is sanded and smooth. Nothing has a raised grain like that on the vinyl.

I'm not looking at vinyl with adhesive strips, only the "click lock" types.

I'm curious what the recommended methods for cleaning wood (solid & engineered) floors are. The dining room and kitchen HAVE to be mopped, one way or the other. The living room could probably get away with being swept or vacuumed.

For wood floor cleaning, I recommend buying and using a Bona cleaning kit. It includes a spray bottle with an alcohol based cleaner, a mop handle, dusting pad and microfiber cleaning pad. I use this on my own floors. After sweeping or vacuuming I spray or mist the cleaner on the floor and use the mop to remove the cleaner and dirt. If I get a real dirty spot I'll clean it with a damp towel first. I've yet to see dirt that couldn't be removed with this method. Once the cleaning pad gets dirty I wash it in the sink then throw it in the washing machine.
This process minimizes the amount of water the wood is subjected to.
When my bottle runs out I refill it with 2oz. of Woodwise cleaner concentrate and add water. The Woodwise concentrate is a very reasonably priced but hard to find. I've seen Bona products at Lowes, Target and Bed Bath & Beyond.
Other than that I'll occasionally use a dry Swiffer to pick up dust and hair and mineral spirits for grease or tar.

I really like the Freefit. I sold some VCT to a friend to use in his bike shop. He wanted wood floor in one area but it included the side door where all his deliveries arrrived so I recommended Freefit. It's holding up well despite having lots of boxes slid over it. Later I did some Freefit in the Bamboo look for his mom as a favor. She had one of those glue-edge vinyls that failed.
I've seen Freefit in several local retail shops also, including a restaurant with a bar. I was (and probably still am) a bit skeptical of laying it loose but it seems to work as advertised.

Good luck!

I haven't seen it in any of the local stores I've tried.

I can't figure out their samples. It says they're free, but as soon as I put one in my cart it's $10!

Why do you want plank form vinyl instead of sheet goods? You could probably find sheet goods in a pattern that is not fake wood without any grain. Most of it is a tile look. We are putting sheet vinyl into our bathroom to replace carpet. We chose a thick Congoleum with a 12" marble tile look.

Good luck with your flooring project. I understand the look you're after, but that comes with the caveats already mentioned. If your flooring has a furniture-like finish, it will degrade in appearance quickly with normal use. It is the microscratching on the flooring's surface that makes it look worn and used.

We used to sell a luxury vinyl tile called Genuewood, which was a unique and fantastic product. It had a sandwiched layer of real wood veneer and had a thick and smooth pure vinyl wear layer. Great concept for a wood/vinyl hybrid.

We just finished our flooring part of the renovation, with the foyer, powder room, dining room, den and kitchen all having the same flooring. We selected Tarkett Transcend. A hand scraped finish, very slightly beveled edges. We considered Karndean, a beautiful product but chose Tarkett for the floating installation. Very happy so far, we've had nothing but snow and rain since the job was completed, just a damp or steam mop and good to go.

No worries....its a good thing.....

cevamal I know this post is a couple of years old but I am currently looking for exactly what you were looking for. I want a LVP that is smooth. What did you end up using?

I woud just use a "wood look" ceramic. No maintenance issues and it's bulletproof.
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