Kitchen 20 x 26 or about 500 sq. feet unfinished oak regular do it all yourself flooring at Menard's last year $1.71/square foot but there were about two or three bundle-worth of bad boards so we bought about another 40-50 square feet later. Add to that the cost of feeding a work crew, renting the nailer, buying nails, etc. and buying the poly coatings. Haven't put in mouldings yet. Lobby area 10 x 26 was $1 square foot remaindered porcelain floor tile, plus cost of orange crack barrier, whetsaw rental, a few trowels, underlayment, thinset, grout, and silicone goo for perimeter.

We have LVP (it’s a second floor bedroom turned gym) and we placed the heavy duty rubber mats under the treadmill and weights, and I have a padded area rug I use for the bench and to do floor exercises on. It works great, no issues and we use it daily 2x a day between my husband and I. I remove them every few months for deep cleaning and haven’t seen any dents or grooves in the LVP. For my new house I will be doing a proper gym so I’ll be doing carpet squares over rubber padding (over wood, which is there already) and a mirrored wall…so looking forward to the mirrored wall!

My business partner and I have installed and finished/refinished flooring in multiple houses. We have invested in the supplies and equipment to get good results and have made our share of mistakes along the way. I know how the work needs to be done and I do not have the physical skills to do a refinish myself. A natural athete, with excellent coordination and muscle control, could probably get the hang of it quickly but not me. I can't keep the machine at a consistent speed forward and backwards and drop/raise the drum at the right moment. I can do preparation, cleaning, hand sanding and scraping and cutting in, but not the actual sanding. If the floor is virtually dead already or in a very low standards rehab, I might try but otherwise it just isn't worth the risk. Clean the floor thoroughly and buy a nice room size rug. Choose paint colors to complement the existing flooring.

Are you also changing your counters? In the lighting in the photo the counters go even less with the cabinets then the floors do and you may get more mileage out of changing them. In fact I'm gonna say something a little controversial. From what little bit I can see of the floors, which I'm guessing are just linoleum, they look kind of funky and retro against those cherry cabs.