I am completely torn about what to do with my floors. We currently have the engineered Bruce hardwood, thin strips (see picture), but NOT the kind that can be re-finished. It isn't in terrible shape, but it does scratch somewhat easily and is 15 years old. Because we have one area that is badly damaged (beyond just scratches), I am having to decide on replacing the floors, but since what we have is so old, I'm not too upset about it - other than the fact I keep going back and forth about what specifically to replace it with - or whether to try and replace only the damaged area.

I am attaching the two samples I got that I seem to like best so far, though truly I would prefer one that had a TINY bit of shine, as that's what I am used to with my hardwoods (NOTE: what you see in the picture is a little glossier than normal as we had them recoated not so long ago - not SANDED, just screened and re-coated).

I guess my questions are:

1. Would putting LVT in such a large, open area look "fake"? The samples I am sharing are $5.00 per square foot Core-tec brand, so I guess on the higher cost end for LVT?

2. Are there ANY LVTs that have SOME shine (not looking for glossy, but not totally matte-look either - unless some shine is no longer 'in' and dates the flooor). I asked on another thread this specific question and did get a response about one product in particular, but wonder if there are other options as well.

3. Will it appear "cheap" for re-sale that we put LVT over a hardwood floor, even if the floor beneath it is only in what I would consider "fair" shape?

4. Would YOU (and I know this is subjective and I will likely get all kinds of responses) replace the entire floor with LVT when only a small 8 ft. area is truly damaged and the rest being in "fair" shape OR would you try to get them to see if they could replace with a decent match the damaged part to the rest of the not-so-bad floor? I guess the issue is "brand new, spotless LVT vs. fair-shape engineered wood"?

Thanks for reading and entertaining my questions. I don't know who else to ask that can give an objective opinion. None of my friends really have a lot of design sense NOR do they know a lot about floors. Awesome friends, just not their thing :).