I brought a sample home from Home Depot and could scratch it with my fingernail. Having said that, we went with a different brand as mentioned in my earlier post. it has a 5 mil wear layer with some kind of cerama beads, (I forget all the lingo I learned when researching ours). and I have never found a scratch on ours. We put it throughout our 1,000 sq ft cabin and also in our TV room at home. We have a 10+ lb. cat that tears around like a maniac. All claws intact. The wear layer is very important. It is recommended to put felt pads on all furniture feet. Makes for very easy moving of chairs etc. anyways. That way you shouldn't have to worry about scratches so long as there is no sand or stones lingering on the floor. But the felt pads would help minimize a problem anyways.

Our flooring was installed by whomever the builder used for installation. I have a couple of minor scratches, but they were likely caused by something my 5 year old daughter dragged. We have Gemcore Onyx Huntington. We did the same - felt pads under all furniture and chairs. It’s very hard to tell when there is a scratch due to the texture. We do have some buckling and I’m 100% convinced it’s either installation error or a result of the new construction house settling. The buckling is isolated in areas and doesn’t seem to have processed over almost a full year. They’re coming out to assess Wednesday. We do love the floors and have them all throughout the house. They are low maintenance and super easy to clean. It’s a bit deceiving because you can’t tell where dirt is unless it’s a very light piece of something, like paper.

@V M sorry, just seeing your post above. We are just now finally breaking ground on our home so I don't have pics of the flooring to show you from my house. I will come back and post when I do but that will be some months from now. But we are paying, I think, 15K for our Multi-Length Rigid Core SPC floors in color Sandhill. Our house will be 2975 sf and this floor covering will be throughout the home, except in 3 of the full baths and the utility room. I'm not exactly sure how many square feet that leaves but hopefully you can do some rough math. Everything goes through my builder so I don't have an exact price per square foot to provide you. I also am not sure if this includes labor to install.

This is COMMON. The noisy crackles are so common (how common SJ?), they are SOOOO common we have multiple threads going on the same issue. The noise is WORSE in the morning and it is WORSE at the beginning of the floor's life (in the first 6 months) but then it settles down. As far as we can make out, this is MOSTLY down to the cushion on the bottom of the plank. Yep. The squishy stuff that people believe is good for vinyl so they pay extra for the stuff. The squish is JUST ENOUGH to allow the plank to move (compress underfoot) to cause the click edge to rub against one another. The ideal way to get rid of this noise: get rid of the underpad on vinyl. Or you can get rid of the click edge (glue down or loose lay) Or stop using vinyl all together. Vinyl is thin and the click edge is DELICATE (as you've just experienced). It is BRITTLE. And the click edge is the weakest link (again...you've just experienced this). This is why it is SOOOO important to have flat/level subfloor before laying vinyl. Laminate can handle a bit of movement. It has a fibre board core that is THICKER and more ROBUST. The 'bounce' of laminate drives many people nuts but it is what keeps the floor fully functional over a wonky subfloor. Vinyl doesn't do that. It MOULDS itself to the subfloor. It flexes itself over every hump, bump and lump. That also causes issues with the very weak click edge. The more humps, bumps, etc you have the MORE the vinyl click edge will rub against one another...and eventually break/walk itself apart. If you MUST HAVE water proof floors for 100% of your home, then vinyl plank is one of your only options (cork flooring is another...but I digress). If you do NOT need water proof everywhere, then go ahead and find a HIGH END laminate for 95% of your home and then use either vinyl or ceramic/porcelain tile in the 5% where water proof is needed. A HIGH END European Laminate (VOC content is SOOOOO low it is undetectable in CARB II testing) costs the same as mid-range vinyl! I kid you not. Ask yourself: Do I NEED 100% water proof for 100% of my flooring???