Here's one we put in for DS & DIL over Christmas.

And now I have water up my nose. Thanks, Tibbrix!

good one Tibb!

Weedy, love that floor. What color and brand is this floor. Does it sound and look like plastic. How hard was it to install and how do the dogs get along with it. I am thinking along the same lines for flooring, but have a little dog with hip problems and not sure he can navigate on the floor. Sorry for so many questions but the floor is beautiful.

It's Shaw, but I don't know the color (texted DS to ask). To me it looks like plastic, because I know what hardwood is, and senator, this is no hardwood. But it lays well on the underlayment and doesn't sound hollow when you walk on it like laminate does. It's nicer looking than I expected for plastic.

It was very easy and fast to install. We stapled down 1/4" underlayment (over badly damaged hardwood floors), laid the planks down, and added shoe molding. One day per room with 3 people, start to finish. The trickiest part is getting the first couple rows down. It floats, so it tends to move, even with spacers holding them away from the baseboards. But then we put some full boxes on top of the laid floor, which held it in place, and the next rows just flew. Slows you down a bit cutting around stuff, but day 2 we got some laminate blades for the jigsaw and that went faster.

I don't know how the dogs get along with it. Will ask DS when he texts back.

Exact product is Shaw Matrix Regency Gunstock Oak Floating Vinyl Plank.

As to the dogs, he said, "They have been roughhousing a bit on it and no visible scratches that I can see so far."

He also said it gets dusty quickly, but cleans up easily.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shaw product

This post was edited by weedyacres on Fri, Jan 23, 15 at 14:42

Thanks for the picture! I was considering a similar color but am concerned about some color clashing with my wood bannisters. What do you guys think? Maybe I should just touch up and paint/stain the bannisters lol. Looks like they need a little love anyway.

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I like the first color you posted! We have vinyl plank too - it's a discontinued product I got at lowes, Surface Source floating plank in chestnut color. It's a medium neutral brown color so it goes with everything. This stuff wears like iron, we have absolutely no damage or scratches from dragging furniture, cat claws etc. In one spot I had to replace a plank because a nail worked its way to from the subfloor and poked up, our stuff has a take-like adhesive between plans so a hairdryer for a few minutes directly on the spot, pry up the corner and peel the old plank away, drop int he new one and it's fixed.

It does feel slightly plastic under bare feet but with sock feet you don't notice and it feels much closer to wood than most laminate does (no hollow sound or snap crackle pop). Ours is textured a bit to help it look more like wood but it's still super easy to clean. I use a steam mop. It was very easy to install, I've never installed any kind of flooring before and it came out looking pro.

We recently had a boiler flood and ripped out all our old wood and laminate floors in our lower level rec rooms and replaced with vinyl plank. I think it is what it is but it is also indestructible too. I am not at all concerned about dents, scratches, leaks or mold. Does it look or feel like wood? No. I went with the dark one you are concidering and it is holding up to lots of kids, lots of animals and lots of winter boots too. Sorry we are still replacing some water damaged trim around doors pardon the wood work. One day it will be finished I hope....

This post was edited by roarah on Sun, Jan 25, 15 at 14:42

is this a good product for a beach front condo or can i use laminate

Laminate flooring really doesn't like any standing water, I know that much.

There's a new laminate out called Calypso that I saw at my flooring place - guaranteed for life and for 72 hours submerged under water. To my eye, though, it looked more LVT'ish than like laminate in that it had a dull surface with zero sheen like many of the more plastic-y LVT's have.