Engineered hardwood vs Luxury Vinyl Plank

4 years ago

I have engineered hardwood in the basement with tile in the half bathroom. Due to a leaking toilet in the upstairs bathroom, the hardwood downstairs got damaged and has to be replaced in the rec room and bedroom.

The flooring expert is recommending I use LVP instead of engineered hardwood in the basement (rec room, bathroom, bedroom, laundry room, and stairs) as the engineered hardwood I have is no longer manufactured. All the flooring will be the same downstairs.

I love the look of hardwood and I am afraid that if I go with LVP it will not look as nice or as warm as what I had. Insurance will only cover partial costs.

Moisture is not an issue and I don’t have young kids. The basement is not a high traffic area except to do laundry. I don’t plan on moving for at least 5 years.

I would love to hear other opinions. Should I go with what I used to have (using a different manufacturer) or try what is just starting to trend here? Can LVP be used on stairs? The upstairs has manufactured hardwood.

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Simona Stafano

4 years ago

2.70 per sq ft as installed

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Comments (8)

User
4 years ago
If your going to be staying there for a while, I would recommend getting the flooring that you like since you'll be seeing it every day. As for LVPs on stairs, it can be done and can look very nice when finished, see pic attached.

For my house, I went with Haro engineered wood over LVP. Just really liked how nice it looked and how comfortable it was to be standing on. I'm not sure if your familiar with them, but they make some high quality products that are all manufactured in Germany.
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Oak & Broad
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
A good quality Engineered wood floor can add value to your home. LVP wont. Just something to consider.
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Definitely choose wood. Vinyls are great, however, for resale value, wood is the absolute best ROI especially for the main living areas. You can choose an engineered or solid- whichever makes most sense. We are able to provide engineered HW that can be sanded and refinished just as many times as solid. If the wear and tear is something you are worried about, consider choose a floor that has a reclaimed look with a strong grain pattern and saw markings that can hide many of the scratches and discrepancies that will happen over time. If that specific design isn't your style, consider a light color floor. Oiled floors are a decent choice because fixing superficial scratches are relatively easy. Oaks are good because of their graining and if kept a light color- will be able to disguise many of the scratches. You can ALWAYS sand and refinish your floors a few years down the line if needed. Plus, when you go to sell and the floors have been lived on- they can be sanded and finished for the new buyer. A vinyl floor will need to be replaced. Hardwood is more expensive at the moment, but they actually end up paying for themselves years down the line with the proper care and maintenance. Or you can choose wood in the dining and great room and a tile in the kitchen. SJ McCarthy has a good recommendation for hickory and oak. Another option is Character Maple(make sure it is hard maple). If you really want to be bold- go for Brazilian Pecan. :)
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I had always loved hardwood floors and wouldn't consider anything else... Until we bought our current house. It has LVP (Coretec Plus) that visually is pretty good at fooling people into thinking it's real wood. When you walk on it, you can tell it's not because it doesn't have the echo of wood. But it also doesn't have the hollow sound that I remember Pergo-type floors having. Since we have an open floor plan, it is actually nice that is is a quieter flooring. We found a box with a few extra pieces of the flooring in the garage, and decided to test how hard it was to scratch/damage. Hubby dropped an ax on it, no marks. Then he "chopped" it with varying degrees of strength and it really took a solid blow to do damage. He also took a screwdriver to it, dragging the tip of the tool across the "grain" of the LVP (the grain is raised) to see how much pressure it took to create a visible mark, and again, it took significant force to make a mark that was noticeable. And with all of the marks that were eventually made, they all maintained the same color under the damage, so they weren't terribly noticeable until we held the plank up in the sunlight at the right angle. So I'm not pretty happy with the flooring, especially since we live in a mountain climate (snowy, muddy) and have large dogs. I think it will hold up very well. I have no experience with other brands though.
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LVT/LVP is simply another choice. Not right or wrong. I bought a fixer with a lot of old, bare thin carpet. I have a dog and didn't want carpet. I had tile for 20+ years and my joints could not take tile any more, but I like the look of tile, so I bought LVT. I am very happy with my selection. My niece removed all of the carpet from her 100 year old home and refinished the hardwoods that were found underneath. It looks beautiful and she is happy with the results. Her brother liked the look and went with engineered hardwood in his home. My sister built a home in a fairly exclusive neighborhood. Most of her neighbors wouldn't consider anything less than real hardwoods. My sister had real hardwood in her last home and wanted a different look and less maintenance. She went with a combination of LVT in the kitchen, dining room, hallway and laundry, tile in the bathrooms and carpet in the living spaces and bedrooms. Amazingly, her home won the "Best Design" in the annual best new homes contest that is held every year in our area. Maybe her home won because her home didn't look like every other new home built that year. My daughter replaced the carpet and engineered wood in her home. She selected wood look tile. She loves the look of hardwood, but she owns an 8 1/2 acre farmette, has 3 dogs, 3 horses and chickens. She can wet mop the entire space without a worry. I have another friend in Florida who picked LVP over engineered hardwood or real hardwood due to the moisture resistance of LVP. When selecting the finishes for your home, don't concern yourself with what everyone else has, pick the materials and styles that best fit your budget and your lifestyle and colors that make your heart sing. Make your home a place that will bring you joy every time you walk through the front door.
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@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.
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Simona Stafano
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
There are some amazing laminates and vinyl planks that will cost more than eng wood or real wood . There are some less expensive still looking amazing and cost less than wood. They will not scratch easily and you don‘t have to sweat every times something fall on the floor.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
4 years ago
I don’t agree that LVP is not a good choice for basements. We used it because we have a walk out that goes to a free access dog run with 3 big dogs and the other entry is to the pool so lots of traffic with wet feet, muddy feet and at the end of the day a quick mop and it looks like new 12 yrs later . Hardwood would have by now looked like garbage from dog nails and water left sitting. IMO you choose flooring to stand up to your lifestyle not because some imaginary buyer will like it better. We have always had floors that are not real wood because we will always have big dogs and no matter how careful you are they can do some real damage to wood floors.
Design Girl
4 years ago
If you are used to engineered hardwood, I feel LVP is a step down. It's vinyl so will not add any value to your home. I'd go with what you know and have loved.
mtashillco
4 years ago
@Simona Stafano is that a picture of LVP and if so, which brand? Thanks!
Simona Stafano
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Select surfaces from Sams- laminate. My point was -some of laminates, LVP or EVP are amazing quality, this one is even made in Germany, 12mm + 2 mm pad attached

Engineered hardwood vs Luxury Vinyl Plank

Simona Stafano

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Oak & Broad

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