I am not a huge fan of vinyl plank flooring. It feels very fad'y. Ten years from now, it'll be the one thing that lets you date when you did the remodel.

Having said that, they do have pretty decent designs these days. They come really close to fooling you into thinking it's the real thing. And while some of the hype seems to be just that, they reportedly do stand up to abuse much better than older man-made materials.

The nice thing about real hardwood though is that you can relatively easily refinish it. Or you can pick a material that looks great even when it is distressed. Neither one is really an option with vinyl planks.

On the whole, I do agree with you though. The much better flooring material in the kitchen is tile. No need to stress if you spill something. And if you install radiant floor heating, it feels really nice on your feet, too. And if you carry if through the rest of the house, you can use area rugs in select locations. But that's going to be more expensive than putting down LVP.

So, it's a bit of "you get what you pay for". On the other hand, if you plan on living in the house for the long run, it might make sense to do things right once, rather than replacing the cheaper flooring every couple of years.

I like tile, but the older I get, the more uncomfortable it feels standing on a tile floor for a long period of time. I haven't had hardwood in a kitchen. My favorite is cork tile. Not laminated cork, which I don't care, but real cork. I plan to install Expanko cork tiles in my kitchen. My favorite is Heirloom cork, which is 1/2" thick solid cork, but you can also get it less thick (I think 3/8 and 1/4), which should be fine. There are three stains - light, medium and dark. I know some people are think cork isn't good for wet areas, but I grew up in a house with only cork floors (including the bathroom and toilet room) and there were no water stains. You just need to seal it really well (3 coats of poly). It remained in good condition for about 35 years when the entire house was flooded.

I've had site-finished hardwood floors in two kitchens and I love them. I have NOT experienced the problems you have, and at one time, there were two children (one a boy), a husband (who gardened and was not a good shoe-wiper), and as many as 5 dogs and 3 cats. I've had my floors now for over 15 years and they look great - two dogs and kitchen opens directly to my back yard, so lots of in and out.

I had Vermont slate in our Maine kitchen and it was great with lots of snow being tracked directly into the kitchen - not sure hardwood would have been as good unless I had been willing to constantly mop up melted snow water on the floor. It just evaporated off the slate floor.

Real wood floors are going to be much easier on your feet. They will add value to the home. They can be refinished again in the future. Real wood floors last a long time with basic cleaning and maintenance. The white scratches are from an Aluminum Oxide finish, there are lots of better quality wood flooring finishes that wont do that.

I want to replace my kitchen and foyer floor with tiles that look like hardwood planks . However kitchen opens to the family room which is one step down. I want to replace family room floor with real hardwood but I wonder if it is a good idea to have two different floorings in adjacent room . I want to stay away from putting hardwood in kitchen. I need help in deciding. Any suggestions ?

There are lots of trade-offs, and it sounds as if you are aware of most of them.

We decided on tile throughout the entire level, and we are very happy with the choice. There are lots of awesome tile designs these days. And you can always put down area rugs.

But we also have hardwood on the other level and are super happy with that. We even have hardwood in the master bathroom, and have had it for 15 years without problems. So, it all depends on how careful you can be.

We even have wood-plank tiles in one part of the house. I wouldn't put it in a highly visible room such as the kitchen. But we have it in a spa-like bathroom, where it makes a lot of sense.

I am trying to make the same decision!! We have Mahogany hardwood flooring and are remodeling our kitchen. I keep hearing about wide plank vinyl being waterproof and resistant to scratches from dogs. My mahogany is red and brown. I have been told if we re stained the flooring it would still be red. Anyone tried to strip mahogany floors?