jakkom, I am also choosing Mannington Adura, but having a tough time with the color options! I want a color that will stand the test of time (not trendy), warm, light to medium brown and I would say my decor leans towards tropical/Hawaiian. A lot of the vinyl colors are trying too hard and end up very busy and stripey, The Oak looks really good in this regard, but then Oak is, well, Oak and I was hoping for something a little different. I'm wondering which Essex Oak you went with...is it "Natural" or "Honeytone"? It seems the Natural looks less grainy but also a little less warm looking and in some lights falls a little flat and goes a hair pink. The Honeytone is warmer but more grainy. I definitely don't want an orangey Oak, does yours go orangey at all? The other color I was considering for its plainness and non-oakyness was Canadian Maple, but can that be combined with a warm tropical vibe? And it seems like it would show every little speck of dirt if I don't clean all the time. To the other extreme I was looking at Burma Teak Butternut. The coloring is tropical but I fear it will be too stripey busy and scream "look at me". Thoughts? Also your vinyl stair treads look fabulous, the installers did a great job cutting them to butt flush against the wall without adding fussy trim pieces. Do you know how they did that? My installer doesn't want to do the vinyl stair caps because he said there are often not perfect straight edges on either side of stair treads at the wall and wood is easier to cut and sand to get that exact fit so you don't see thin gap lines at the side wall edges. Also, do you think a carpet runner down the center could be put down on top of the vinyl or if that is my plan should I go with wood for all the stapling that would happen and it would put holes in the vinyl? Do you have any pictures you could post of a full length of your stairs and the room with the Essex Oak with furniture in it now? I'm hoping to hear from jakkom but any one else please chime in as well! FYI, I am also having my installer do the glue down method. I have looked at other brands including Modin (which can be special ordered to do glue down, but the color choices just aren't right unfortunately... they look so different online vs in person samples). Many thanks! Lisa B

First of all, all LVT/LVP can be damaged by sun - it color-shifts. Regardless of brand, btw, unless a mfg has come out with a High UV-resistant line post-2015 when we did our LVP in the MBR. However, I can say that it does take a consider amount of sun to make the difference, and I live in Northern CA where with an East-facing exposure, there is direct sun on my entire 2003 LVT kitchen flooring pretty much 300 days/yr. Knowing this, I had window film put on the main windows, but it only cuts it 50% (the 100%-UV blocking clear film wasn't on the market back then). There has been a very slight color-shift on the LVT over 14 yrs, which I only noticed because one tile had to be replaced in 2016. Now, the pattern on my LVT is a slate-look, so it's less noticeable than a wood plank. The new replacement tile is a touch darker, and a little more reddish-tinted. Realistically? It can only be noticed if you stand right over the tiles and look at them. From the usual side angle - say, you are 3' away and looking at it - you can't tell any difference. So...will a wood-look LVP see a color shift? Possibly/probably. Have your windows anti-UV filmed - it wasn't that expensive, when I had it done in 2003 - and that should pretty much take care of it. We have the Mannington Adura Essex Oak in our MBR which was installed in 2015. It's glue-down, our installer refuses to do any other type of install. We're extremely happy with it so far. Our south-facing windows downstairs are uncoated, but we always keep those blinds closed since the only view is of our neighbor's house! If I had a view off to those side windows I would have just had them filmed. The other large window is north-facing, and indirect sun is not a problem. High UV can damage just about anything. Before I had our kitchen windows filmed, the sun, over a decade's time, managed to fade even the laminate sides of my cabs, and laminate has the highest UV resistance of ALL materials. The UV actually bleached out the beech wood trim on the doors, turning it white in a few areas.

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!

Thought I would also update this thread since it popped back up. We moved into our new build 2 months ago and ended up choosing engineered wood for most of the house, except the mudroom, laundry room and their connecting long back hallway, which got tile. I can close this area off and the dogs stay here if we are gone for several hours. Their food and water is also kept in the laundry room. The floors are Duchateau - Riverstone collection - Sava color. So far they have not shown any scratches from the dogs making the crazy run to the front door when they hear the doorbell and/or fedex! The floors have a rustic look and slight texture that will make it easier to hide any scratches and dents.