The floors arrived and were starting to be installed after setting in the house for about 7 days. QA issues were warped boards. Inconsistent widths on a 5" floor and worst of all many with the tongue either cut jagged or cut uneven gradually ending up with no tongue at all. Beautiful floor otherwise. I really wanted solid distressed look since I have a big dog, so I am having a hard time switching over to engineered. Don't want to be sorry 2 years down the road.

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.

CoreTec wood line is a hybrid product. It has the water proof core (mineral core) that is very stable (doesn't move too much). This is a core that is NORMALLY paired with laminate (a paper photograph on top) or vinyl. CoreTec has used the wood product on top to reach out to customers who will NOT have laminate or vinyl in their homes. They are trying to capture the 'wood market' without producing a wood floor. My problem with this situation is: Wood expands and contracts in the presence of moisture. This is normal and to be expected. The CORE underneath the wood DOES NOT. Hmmmmm. That means the expensive TOP stuff (that you pay $$$ for) will do everything wood is supposed to do (expand/contract) while the stuff it is GLUED TO does not. And that brings us to the next concern: the Glue. A layered floor (like CoreTec Wood) has a weak link = the glue that holds the layers together. The Wood can and will expand. That will STRESS the glue underneath. Eventually (and no one knows when 'eventually' will be...the product is so new that no one knows it's breaking point) that glue will let go. The CoreTec core works well with laminate (the photograph) and vinyl because both are relatively stable when dealing with humidity and with spills. The WOOD is NOT stable. My concern is the hype around the water proof CORE is going to be the selling feature when the WOOD on top (and the glue below) are NOT. I would get a sample of this product and soak it in a fish tank for 24-48 hours. Then pull it out and see if the wood has been affected. At that point you can assess the legitimacy of the claims re: water proof wood flooring. Please get back to us once your experiment has been conducted.

Living with my Karndean Warm Ash 9" planks for 2 months. Its very pretty, love 9" and the color. I was going for exactly whT the OP was goung for and the look is right. But. Has no bevel. Not Into cleaning, the idea of any bevel sounded gross with my not so often cleaning. Wish I had done a micro bevel if it was avail. Didnt even consider and wish I had. Prof install, Karndean is not maybe the best but decent brand......the ends of the planks stick up just a tiny bit. Most noticeable when walking down the hallway as the planks are laid Ling. Really distracting. And of course I can't imagine it not chipping. Really sad, super expensive small new build. Other thoughts, I hate the grain in lvp. although I went with a very minimal grain, again the idea if dirt building up in the grin was gross. But even with minimal grain you notice if you Re sweeping with or against the grain. You have to sweep with the grain. I have soft spots that you can feel give. Drives me nuts. No noise, just give. Btw that and the flex in in the trex I feel like I'm living in a fun house mystery spot. Wish I had gone glue down but assumed it was some cheap way to go. It can be fixed, click cannot. No give.