I would get some test samples of the engineered wood - some people say it is great but we had Shaw engineered wood in our previous condo and although it was beautiful (new build) it was very fragile in our experience. Our cats' claws scratched the floor in some places, we have never had that happen with real wood or with our vinyl plank that we have now. Any little bit of water will cause damage - for example we dropped some ice cubes and one escaped our cleanup, it melted in a corner and caused the seams to warp - fortunately not in a noticeable area but any moisture on the floor easily damages it. Dropping anythng on the floor left large dents - I dropped a jar from the fridge and made a giant dent right in front of the fridge where it was very noticeable :( So in my experience, engineered wood is not very durable. For the subfloor issue, why can't you just build inset covers for the holes, make them flush with the rest of the existing floor, and eliminate that expense? We have vinyl plank - I ton't call it "luxury" as it was 8 cents/sq ft from Lowes (DIY installed) and no underlay required. We are very happy with it, I don't know if I would pay prices equivalent to engineered wood which is $7-10/sq ft installed.

I'm in the process of researching for my first remodel. I live in a small 1950's ranch on a cement slab in Anchorage, AK. The neighborhood is modest, basically a carpet/laminate/vinyl floor area. We live in a very wet climate - with 7-8 months of winter plus a lot of "rainy season" in the non Winter months. We currently have 3 cats, but plan to get another dog down the road and we like our dogs big. As part of the remodel, we are tearing down the wall that separates the kitchen from the entry/LR area. We also converted from a furnace to a boiler system. The "pipes" for the new boiler system got routed through the old channels for the forced air in the cement slab. We will be flooring over the holes where the old grates were, but cannot plug them up with cement for obvious reasons. I want the same floor throughout the public spaces of the house, which is basically the LR, den, DR and kitchen. Wood or a wood look is really important to me. The front door will have a tiled entry area but the back door is a slider leading out to the deck and will not have tile. Everywhere we go, they are recommending LVT. Glued down, as opposed to snap-together. They swear these floors will hold up to everything we can throw at them, that they don't scratch, they wear great, and are impervious to water. They say repair is a breeze with glue down in particular. However, the prices get competitive with engineered hardwood given the subfloor that will be required for the LVT so it can cover up those holes in the concrete for the old grates. And that makes me pause. I know hardwood., engineered or not, will add value to a home and LVT will not. On the other hand, LVT will apparently require little to no stress related to upkeep and damage. If the prices are equal, does it even make sense to consider LVT? Conversely, does price matter or is the real issue to consider what is going to hold up best in our situation? Do you agree with these assessments and WWYD (what would you do or recommend) in this kind of situation?

Well, I'm a HW fan but we have more handmade rugs than we do rooms, LOL. HW is a better seller, but you need a top-quality finish on it, such as Bona or Swedish. Refinishing HW can be almost as expensive as new W2W (and you have to move furniture out for either). Carpet HIDES dust/hair better, but a lot of dirt filters down through it. You are right that it's a lot 'cozier', though. We have a downstairs Master suite and it is the coldest room in the house. We did put in W2W for that 'comfort factor.' However, that was 25 yrs ago. The carpet's disgusting now--permanently stained, flattened nap. My allergies have gotten worse over the years, and I suspect the carpet isn't helping the issue no matter how often it's vacuumed. We have the original red oak flooring upstairs from 1940 in the LR/DR/frt bdrm,. It was refinished with oil-based polyurethane in 1990 (good water-based poly wasn't on the market yet). It is still in beautiful condition and ridiculously easy to maintain. That said, I think it's clear your heart belongs to W2W. Even if you eventually sell your home, it isn't a given that HW floors are a guaranteed "sell". HW is nice, people love and appreciate it, but if other factors are positive for your home - layout, location, cleanliness, good maintenance - your home will sell even with W2W. So unless you absolutely know you are going to sell your home by a specific time, go with what you love.

As I said in my original post, our Mannington Adura is glue-down. The flooring company we used refuses to do a click-lock on LVP installs. Period. If a customer insists upon click-lock they will sell them the flooring materials but will not do the install. They said they have had too many complaints with click lock installs and it just was not worth the trouble for them. If you read install instructions for almost any flooring, having a level floor is critical. All of the mfgs specify their tolerances for uneven subflooring and they're mostly all very tight (narrow) ranges. I think a lot of DIYers forget or don't pay much attention to that. We had to, our flooring joists are wildly uneven and no free-floating floor would have worked.