I just finished installing vinyl plank, Surface Source, from Lowe's, in our kitchen dining area as a diy project. I love how easy it was to install. It is the chestnut color, and looks wonderful with our wood furniture. With taxes included it came to $1.88 per square foot. Throw in another $150 for a laser floor tiling square, a really good utility knife, a woodworkers and carpenter's square, several rulers and yardsticks for measuring and cutting guides, and an orthopedic pillow for sitting on the floor while you work. It installed fast, and I'm very happy with the result and price. I also considered Konnecto (sp?) and other brands. A few months ago I diy installed 3 x 3 carpet tiles in my study. They were 1st quality overrun on closeout and were meant to be glued down. I installed them as a floating floor and fastened them together with hot melt carpet tape at each corner. So far I like them a lot. There has been no movement, and they are incredibly easy to clean and look great. They had a commercial use grading. With taxes and truck shipping it cost $2.12 per square foot. They are very difficult to cut and trim when installing. I used a dremel moto tool with a reinforced fiberglass blade (many of them), 7" dress making scissors (extremely sharp), and a good utility knife. In a mobile home I'd probably do some of each. Hope that helps.

We have LVP throughout our townhouse - over concrete slab downstairs and over wood subfloor upstairs. It is a discontinued Lowes product, self-adhesive type. In installed it myself 3 years ago and it has held up perfectly - no scratches, no curling or problems at all. I followed the directions of letting it acclimate to the install environment for a few days before installing. The concrete I applied Drylock moisture seal and let that dry while I started the flooring install upstairs. The upstairs subfloor is old and had had carpet installed many times, there were some loose nails I pulled all the ones i could find - a couple I missed eventually worked up and made a bump in the planks, it was very easy to remove a single plank with the hairdrier to soften the adhesive, pull up the plank, remove the nail, and put the plank back down! We have had no issues whatsoever with the floor material, and many people think it is engineered wood at first. It wears like iron, and easy to keep clean. Ours is a medium chestnut color so it never looks dirty, either.

We have an older starter home that came with red oak flooring in half the house (LR, both small upper bedrooms, one of which was turned into an open-plan DR). We did solid vinyl tile in the kitchen, and sheet vinyl in the bathroom. I will say that I agonized over the choice of flooring brands on the SVT, only to find the cost difference insignificant compared to the cost of installation. Like many things about home remodeling, materials are 25% of the cost and labor is the rest. So get exactly what you want! In both cases the vinyl abuts the old wood flooring. Therefore it was imperative it not only look good on its own, but also: - look good laid next to the wood - be easy to clean and not show dirt easily - be quiet AND comfortable underfoot: our master bedroom suite is on the level below (allowing the main rooms to have a gorgeous hillside view), which means I am often upstairs walking around in the kitchen, using the main flr bathroom, etc., while my DH is still sleeping downstairs. This is the Metroflor slate-look solid vinyl tile in the kitchen. Sorry for the blue-ish color cast; it is actually a dark sage green and brown stone-look: The Metroflor was installed in 2003. We love the look and easy upkeep. We were so happy with it, we debated about using it also for the main flr bath, but finally decided on sheet vinyl, in 2013. In the 10 yr interim the flooring mfgs had made HUGE strides in photorealistic stone-looks for sheet vinyl. Back in 2003 there wasn't a single sheet vinyl I thought looked realistic, which is why we went to vinyl tiles. But by 2013 there were several that were amazingly realistic. We finally chose a Mannington sheet vinyl for the bathroom. In photo #1 you can see how it looks against the oak flooring: Here you can get a better view of the pattern. Everyone who sees this sheet vinyl has been impressed with how beautiful it is and how much like real stone it looks: Hope this helps!

I just installed Armstrong Vivero Arbor Orchard in Natural, selected because it has the integrilock click-in install mechansim. 530sf - 2 bedrooms and a laundry hallway. I have never used luxury vinyl, but have college rentals and heard good things. Carpet is NASTY for college rentals. In the past, I've used various levels/price points of laminate, when the subfloor allowed it. The husband and I do the install - mostly him doing the labor, me doing the shopping. I like the finished floor to look as natural as possible (vs just throwing down whatever comes out of the box), so I help with the layouts. (I also LOVE epoxy - garage - for concrete, but am saddened that Home Depot stopped carrying the Rust-Oleum 2 part version that I've used many times.) What I look for in flooring is durability that looks great. College kids think even the low end laminate is real wood, but this cheap stuff lacks durability. For my latest project, I wanted to do the install myself - maybe with the help of my young kids. Prior to learning of Armstrong's Vivero, I was set on US Flooring's Coretec because it seemed to have the best available LVP click-in locking mechanism. My project was delayed and I failed to order the flooring. Then, I found Armstrong's product and the price was easily $3 less per square foot. Plus, I watched the You Tube video where the guy could not close the gaps between the Coretec planks. I figured that if he couldn't do it, neither could a chick with two young kids. So, I prepped the floor - sanded the OSB and began the install - without reading the directions!! My tools in hand were a tapping block made for LVP, carbide utility knife blades, a rubber mallet and shims. Of course, also measuring tapes and L squares etc. Because I failed to read the Armstrong install directions (I did watch a few videos), I installed backwards. Instead of laying the top piece onto the bottom piece, I slid the bottom piece onto the top. This took a lot of finesse and hammering. I failed to hear any "click". The floor was looking awesome, but it seemed to be taking more effort and time than anyone claimed. The husband decided to help. He read the directions and discovered my first issue. I finished one bedroom, doing the install wrong, in 9 hours. This bedroom is 15'x12', plus a closet. I had to go to the store to buy a "pro bar" to tighten the planks together. (The probar damaged the planks, even after taping cardboard around it.) The second bedroom - same size - was installed the correct way and was done in 6 hours. These times include the OSB sanding/clean up. I laid the flooring directly onto the OSB. When installing correctly, where the top is layed onto the bottom, there is definitely a "clicking" noise. Although the correct way to lay the planks takes less time/effort, there are very slight gaps here and there between the planks. When I installed the one bedroom incorrectly, the gaps are non-existent. These gaps are very slight and resemble a wood floor when the boards slightly shrink. I don't think the "gaps" are a big enough issue to warrant the extra time/effort to install. When installing following the directions, the pro bar was needed only on the final edges of the room. The planks do not move nor make any noise when walking on them. This is my new non-epoxy flooring!! My only complaint is that 1 length (48") is not enough. With a 15' long room, I ended up with tiny 1" slivers inside the closet. There was no way I was starting a row over once I got to the end. Using a 12-16" starting piece was problematic in every 1" sliver row. I hope that more lengths become available. The planks were difficult to cut, so I am hoping this equates to fantastic surface durability. The carbide blades did mar the surface (and could remove a finger with no effort), so installing with the recommended titanium blades might make the install quicker/easier. It is true that young kids can help with the install! I wouldn't trust them with the sharp blades, but they can definitely "click" the pieces together.