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Home Decorating Flooring Design Dilemma

Pros and cons... LVP vs. engineered hardwood

4 years ago

Need to redo floors in main spaces of house. What are the pros/cons for these flooring choices for a home in the $290-315K range? Trying to be practical, but not tank resell. No pets or kids to consider.

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Comments (5)

PRO
Oak & Broad
4 years ago
Good quality Engineered wood can be refinished like Solid hardwood. That lets you change the stain color of the floors as style or taste changes. It will also look new once refinished.
PRO
Sina Sadeddin Architectural Design
4 years ago
Engineered wood would be best for resale value. I agree on going higher quality so refinishing int he future is an option. But look for a medium natural stain, which is the most timeless.
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The plastic wear layer of laminate is probably better if you anticipate more dog accidents. A wider plank would probably be better in this case. If the urine gets into a seam, then the smell/moisture will infiltrate the laminate substrate and you will probably have to replace a plank. You can get click and lock engineered hardwood. It installs just like click and lock laminate. Kahrs has been mentioned a lot on this board as a good brand. The engineered flooring that imitates solid hardwood the best uses a sliced or sawn face layer instead of peeled. I prefer the very thick sawn face layer products, but they are generally high priced compared to solid hardwood. Look for a satin sheen if you can find it, because it hides surface scratches better than semi-gloss. We have a medium dog and kids and scuffs and scratches are not a big deal with our hardwood floor. They are hardly noticeable because the red oak had lots of grain, is natural in color/finish, and has a satin sheen. Even where the dog jumps onto the bed and her claws have dug slightly into the wood, it just adds to the character of the #1 common wood. Laminate tries to imitate clear or select grade hardwood and gives a uniform and repeating surface picture. It is generally durable, but it does dent and the surface layer can chip on the edges/ends if not installed properly and/or in commercial applications.
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Well this is just my opinion. I had a midtone true hardwood in my first house. It had some slightly damaged spots in areas, we had it sanded and stained, it turned out beautiful. Mid tone, red oak, kind of a honey color. Every room except one bathroom had it. It did get a few scratches and maybe dulled a little in the 5 yrs. Second home, new build. Pretty mid tone, darker than our first wood floor. It held up to water extremely well. I had a leaky fridge for 5 yrs ( water spout on door), always cleaned up well no permanent damage. oak grain. it dented but in true wood may have been bigger scratch/ indents. Dented the top coat, mainly where my kids pulled chairs in/out and droppred silverware. I hated it for it's topcoat, it had a shine and with our natural light it showed every footprint ( clean floor, clean feet of kids left footprints just out of a bath). I loathed that floor it always looked dirty even if I just washed it, and it was a huge area with lots of natural light. That's a consideration. We also had a large property and gardened, and had a waterfront property. We were messy. But that's why I'm leaning toward real wood this time, I hated that shiny coat, may have been that specific brand. The scratch and water resistants was phenomenal, but still dented and looked dirty due to the gloss topcoat, showed every smudge. I heard the new owners tried to have it sanded and stained dark and it turned out poorly, so then they went lighter. In my mind it must look worse (eww) however I guess it's personal taste. I'm going for true hardwood in the next home, definitely worry about scratches but I know if I have the real thing I can fix it. Sorry to post twice, looking into how to edit
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Another thing to consider when looking at the engineered floors is plank length. I just realized why I didn't like some of the photos I saw ... they had too many short pieces which gives the floor a choppy look and to me, it looks too much like a tile effect. The Uptown Floors suggested above sound great, and I will look at them more closely, but they still have "shorter" board (12" to 8 ft). I am looking at another company with board lengths from 3 ft to 12 ft. Those longer boards make a big difference in the overall look in a larger open floor plan. The longer boards do cost more, so I need to do some more comparisons and value of spending more for a more pleasing look. Their other specs are mostly similar. I think floors are going to be my hardest decision!
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What are the specifications for the wood flooring you are considering. I just finished a remodel using engineered wood flooring (in So Cal if that makes a difference) and there is a huge range of quality in terms of the specifications for engineered wood which will impact durability. Also your choice of finish and color will also impact durability - or at least how wear shows up. You need to consider the depth of the wear layer as well as the type of finish used. Good engineered flooring can be refinished although not as many times as solid hardwood. For most people that is not going to be particularly relevant as refinishing once or twice would be adequate. I personally would not purchase flooring from Home Depot but would take the time to go to several stores to look at all the varieties of flooring available. I would also do some research into how to differential low, middle and high quality engineered wood so that one can differentiate intelligently between choices. In terms of subjective advice, laminate is never going to be as attractive as wood - engineered wood is wood after all and in some circumstances it has to be used because solid wood would not be a feasible option. It is always going to be perceived as a higher end more aesthetic choice than even the highest quality laminate.
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ladybug A 9a Houston area
4 years ago
Engineered wood. But, do your homework, even though some have a thicker layer and in theory can be refinished, the handscraped or distressed looklooks probably cannot be refinished.
Chessie
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
I don't know. If I was buying a house and it had engineered in it, I'd have to know the details of that floor - the specs. For one thing, there is no way I would be buying a home and refinishing the floor after I moved in - so I'd want to know how durable, what sort of finish (no oiled, NO handscraped or distressed either - ugh!) and so on. IF I felt the floors were not acceptable (due to color, finish or damage), and refinishing was needed - that would have to be done prior to me moving in - a huge added expense. It would give me pause.

LVT is easy to replace, with whatever I wanted. I would probably have a lot less heartburn over a house with a good LVT in it.

But if you put in a good engineered, and put it in your plans to refinish them before selling, then that might be the way to go.

I am super picky about floors though. :-)
SJ McCarthy
4 years ago
Vinyl does NOT like heat or direct sunlight. Most vinyl products have a maximum heat tolerance of 85F. That 'sounds' fine until you realize that a pool of sunlight on a floor can reach 120F inside of 20 minutes! Ooops.

Which means you need to assess your home as a WHOLE. Old windows or windows that have very little UV protection on them will give you plenty of trouble when looking at the average vinyl product (today's low-E windows start with a UV protection of 45% and then move to 75% and then to 90% or higher).

It sounds like you have a low-impact household and a nice home (depending where you live...my market offers bachelor apartments for your price range). A wood product would certainly offer a beautiful floor with plenty of livability and plenty of return on investment.

With a budget starting at $7/sf (and moving higher would be preferable) you can have a midrange quality engineered hardwood and a lovely underlay (like 1/4" cork) that will give your new hardwood floors a lovely solid feel to them.

Oh yah....vinyl does NOT like underpad. It needs to go STRAIGHT DOWN on to the subfloor. And if the subfloor isn't PERFECT you can have problems.

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