Even without knowing the kind of wood or condition, I can't imagine replacing wood flooring in an 1890 home. In my opinion, the value is in the original material. If the floor is in good condition, it may not need sanding at all; a screening and recoat might be all that's necessary and the patina would be retained. There are many threads on this topic, try searching the Old House forum. I live in a converted schoolhouse built in 1890. The fir floors had been covered with layers of linoleum, glue, paint ... they were a mess.. but looked awesome after refinishing. That was years ago and I'm planning to have them screened soon (aka buff and recoat.) What kind of wood is it? Do you have photos?

I know this thread is a bit old but I wanted to chime in as people are continuing to debate and google-search the decision between wood floor and wood-look tile. I am a Realtor and I don't think this is necessarily "just a trend." Wood-look tile is continuing to change dramatically and can be quite impressive! I often see investor-flipped, new-construction, or standard pre-owned homes/condo's with updates, etc. In the past year, I have seen a big increase in wood-look tile. Sometimes it looks good, other times, just okay. When it is of lower quality, you may as well just do a cheaper tile. I absolutely think laminate is on the out, unless you are getting a higher quality. If you go cheap, it looks cheap and feels cheap. Families today often want updates, nice finishes/fixtures, and the idea of also having something that looks great, but also durable, is a big plus! So, I would say, go ahead and do wood-look tile, BUT, do it right! Invest in the higher quality product and be sure to take in consideration the grout color. A lighter color looks more obvious AND you have to seal it to help keep it clean. A medium-darker color is less obvious and easier to keep looking good year around. I am in the Fort Worth, TX area.

There is a lot of controversy right now about the glues in engineered flooring making people sick. That being said...I just don't like it, you can always tell it's engineered and just looks cheap to me. With hardwood, you can sand it down if it gets damaged, with engineered, you can't.If it is anywhere near water pipes, you have to look into the future, a leak, or flood will ruin engineered..hardwood will dry out. Hardwood won't cup if it's been dried properly. Cupping is from wet wood (not dried down to 8% or less moisture)being laid down, then trying to dry, and having nowhere to go because it's been nailed down. It then cups.

I am not a huge fan of vinyl plank flooring. It feels very fad'y. Ten years from now, it'll be the one thing that lets you date when you did the remodel. Having said that, they do have pretty decent designs these days. They come really close to fooling you into thinking it's the real thing. And while some of the hype seems to be just that, they reportedly do stand up to abuse much better than older man-made materials. The nice thing about real hardwood though is that you can relatively easily refinish it. Or you can pick a material that looks great even when it is distressed. Neither one is really an option with vinyl planks. On the whole, I do agree with you though. The much better flooring material in the kitchen is tile. No need to stress if you spill something. And if you install radiant floor heating, it feels really nice on your feet, too. And if you carry if through the rest of the house, you can use area rugs in select locations. But that's going to be more expensive than putting down LVP. So, it's a bit of "you get what you pay for". On the other hand, if you plan on living in the house for the long run, it might make sense to do things right once, rather than replacing the cheaper flooring every couple of years.