...I figure I can replace the flooring with hardwood when the LVF needs to be replaced.

Why pay twice for flooring? Hardwoods (should) never need replacing.

I've had hardwood floors in my whole house (yes the kitchen) for 30 years. 2 kids, 3 dogs, a messy husband and I'm just refinishing them now to change the color. I'd never put "plastic" in my home. To me LVP looks cheap and from what I've heard they don't wear all that well. I doubt you'd get 10 years out of them. As a realtor and a designer, I'd never use them in a home in that price range. Never.

35 years ago, I installed hardwood flooring in my kitchen, and it’s held up very well. I’ll be refinishing them soon for a kitchen remodel.
I would never put plastic floors in my home. IMO laminate flooring just doesn’t feel good to stand on. IMO you’d be throwing money away; they won’t last and won’t add to your resale value in the Bay Area.

I don't know if you made a decision yet - I didn't see your post until today.

I would never pay to install hardwood floors. I selected LVT because I wanted good cushion and I wanted low maintenance and easy to clean floors. The better LVT products will last 25 years without issue.

I would be willing to bet that these same people who won't use "plastic" in their homes have plastic paint on their walls and likely have plastic fibers in many of their fabrics. They may have plastic counter tops. They may even suggest freely that people cover their stucco or brick with plastic paint, I am sure they have plastic cell phones and plastic computers and drive cars that are about 75% plastic. They may even have plastic stuck in their bodies (I have a stent that is made from plastic and it saved my life.).

I just built my second home- i put Luxury vinyl in the entire house after having hardwood for 10 years in my past build. It all depends upon lifestyle and preference- but as some say they would never do LVP, I’d never do hardwood again. It’s a dream to clean, no stress, and multi million dollar homes In my area have been using it for years- as with everything- choosing a quality brand matters. I passed on many homes when I was looking to buy, bc of damaged hardwoods that faded, dented, scratched and nonetheless, I would have to stress over way more than LVP. Refinishing a hardwood (not cheap) comes way before having to address any LVP issues. In my last home, I replaced one entire floor that was carpet with LVP, and a room I had put hardwood w LVP, and I loved it so much more, I put it in my entire new home I built. No need for tile transitions in the mudroom laundry room or even my kids bathrooms....it holds up to everything for a nice seamless clean look. Only carpet in the home is on the stairs and only tile is the master suite bath/closets. In my area- it’s more valued than hardwood at this point. But as all things- it could change. But Ive been living it for a decade now and it’s come so far. I’m a hardcore LVP advocate.

I'm actually going to start doing my flooring soon and am still leaning towards LVP.

Jennifer H, I understand why you like LVP but I'm curious why you dislike hardwood floors so much?

Both Jennifers, which brand of LVP did you two end up going with? I'm planning on going with NuCore from Floor & Decor. Reviews are solid, their price point is good, and the folks there have been extremely helpful everytime I'm there.

When I purchased my flooring I bought it from Flooring America. It was an "Exclusive" brand for Flooring America. It is made by CoreTec and is the same as their CoreTec Plus line. (Boxes and warranty are from CoreTec).

I happen to have brought home samples from a Carpet One store and Flooring America and had two samples that really looked like the same product. The descriptions were the same, the color codes were the same, but the name of the product and the name of the colors were different.

The style has been discontinued - they do love to change things up year after year, but when I googled the image I had saved on my computer this is what I found.

All these stores have "Exclusive" brands that you can't buy anywhere else, except in every other store with their own "Exclusive" brand.

I found the image at multiple stores in my area - probably about 8 different stores. I called all of them and found that the price varied up to $3.00 per square foot. It even varied between stores within the same chain. Just because it is $6.00 at Carpet One in Lancaster didn't mean it would be $6.00 at Carpet One in the next town over.

Another thing to keep in mind. Everyone wants to get new flooring in the fall, before the holidays. Demand is high, prices are high. January / February all the flooring goes on sale. Demand is down - prices go down.

I purchased mine last March and the store with the least expensive price had a weekend blowout sale where you got $100 off if you spent x, $200 off if you spent y and $500 off if you spent z. I needed enough flooring that I was going to spend z twice.

My sister purchased 1/2 of what I needed and got $500.00 off and I purchased 1/2 of what I needed and got $500.00 off. I paid my sister. Had it all delivered to my house.

I don't think LVP will impact the value of any house in the SF Bay area if it can be gotten for the $1M range. My friend who just moved out there thought $2M was a deal. :-)

It depends on your lifestyle and location. In NY I have hardwood and down south we did LVP.

We actually considered hardwood but our moisture level numbers were too high. I was glad as I really wanted LVP. It wound up saving us a significant amount of money. Now, DH is a convert. It’s easy to clean and easy on your joints.

All brands are not equal in quality and appearance.

@Jennifer Hogan I think we live in the same general area! Would you mind telling me which stores you called had the best pricing on flooring? Also are you still happy with your flooring choice? We are replacing our entire first floor and up the stairs to the second and have chosen to go with LVP. Just trying to figure out where to purchase locally for the best price and which brand to go with. We have small kids and i'm so worried about the floor scratching easily. Our contractor brought some LVP that home depot sells and I was able to easily scratch the sample with my car keys. Makes me so nervous for LVP!

I purchased my flooring from the Flooring America Store in Lititz PA.

The Flooring America store in Elizabethtown PA - 30 miles away was the highest price I found.

Both stores are about 20 miles from my home and 20 miles from each other (perfect triangle).

So check different stores in the same chain - they don't all have the same price.

I price checked the product at

Flooring America

Carpet One

Pro Source

Floor Trader Outlet.

We also have a couple of local flooring stores that are not part of a chain. They didn't have the flooring I picked, but had many that were the same as other floorings that I found at Carpet One. (Started at the Carpet One that was closest to my home and about 2 blocks from the grocery store I shop). Once I found something I liked I had them order a sample and took that sample with me as I looked at other stores. Never found one I liked better than my first selection, but did find it cheaper.

I love my flooring - mine is made by CoreTec. My sister also has LVT - purchased about 8 years ago and I believe it was Mannington Adura. She had 2 teenagers and a dog, not has a dog and grandbabies. LVT has improved quite a bit since she purchased hers, but at the time she got what was the top of the line. It still looks perfect - I know I got on my hands and knees and washed it up after we all gathered at her house to bake Christmas cookies last year and had sugar all over the floors. Found no issues even up close.

I would advise you to get a flooring that is a higher quality than the big box store offerings. Do your research, talk to the store owners and get a good quality product with a lifetime warranty and one with excellent reviews.

The one other bit of advice that I learned is that you don't want a flooring that is too close to white. They yellow in the traffic pattern areas if you have an asphalt driveway or bring the oils in on your shoes after you have walked on asphalt. No one wants to talk about this - most stores denied knowing anything about this and the manufacturers really tried to get around my questions, but it turns out there is a statement in the warranty that "Environmental Staining" is not covered, so if you get a yellow pathway in your white flooring it is not covered.

Best of luck - let us know what you end up picking.

Here's an early picture of my LVF that just got finished. It needs to get cleaned and this was taken at night, so I'm hoping it'll look a little brighter.

Ashley, you mentioned you were doing your stairs in LVP as well. Have you actually looked into this? What I've heard from people at the stores is that stairs are the worst part about doing flooring in LVF. The expert at Floor & Decor straight up told me that the special order stair strip they sell is crap as the manufacturers don't design LVF with stairs in mind. I think it's typically used for a lower level or maybe a single room.

Thank you both for responding! Such helpful information. I didn’t know that about the stairs! I wonder if maybe we should be looking into a laminate product then. I am going to the floor store today to talk to someone.

@Ashley andrew is correct. LVT is not used on stairs. It's also not "waterproof" but water resistant. If there is a flood water can and will get underneath the floor and that can still cause issues with mold.

I know about the stairs, because I'm dealing with it right now. I have the LVF going over what would be the top step of a flight of stairs and am still figuring out the best way to deal with it.

As far being "waterproof", the LVP itself is waterproof in the sense that it won't absorb water and warp like wood. But if water seeps underneath, then you have the same problem as anything else. Just have to hope their design will prevent water from going through the cracks.

The Coretec tiles I got have 3 trim choices that are for stairs, a flush stair nose, an overlap stair nose and stair tread. I didn't have any stairs (ranch home), but was curious. Maybe it depends on who makes your LVP/LVT.

Yea the guy told me at the store today that most of the brands offer the tread but some may not offer a riser piece?

That's not surprising. The riser is the vertical piece of the stairs that faces you when you walk up.

If you want that to match the top piece, maybe you can cut one of your planks to size and glue it on underneath the tread.

I am now trying to decide between two brands! One was exclusive to flooring america/cloisters it seems. It's called Downs H20 LVP flooring. The other is Karndean Korlok flooring. Anyone know anything about the two brands?

I bought Downs H2O LVT. It is made by CoreTec from James Duty at Cloister Flooring America in Lititz, PA. I think you and I might be in the same area - not sure if there are any other Cloister Flooring Americas except the one's in Lititz and Ephrata..

One of the other brands I looked at was Kardean, but it was quite a bit more expensive and took me over budget.

Price check other stores in your area.

Flooring America,

Carpet One,

Pro Source,

and Floor Trader Outlet

will have the same "Exclusive" product with a different name..

Different stores in the same chain can and most likely will have different pricing. Flooring America in Etown was more expensive than Cloisters. Carpet One in Annville/Cleona was the highest price when I did my comparison.

I really like the people at Cloister Flooring America and love that they offer assistance getting started if you are wanting to install yourself. Again - COVID may be limiting the service, but when I got mine they offered for someone to come to the house for an hour and show you what to do there was a cost, but something like $100.00. They also rent some of the supplies. Everyone else I talked to pressured me to have it installed and pretty much said "You're on your own."

Also, if you can wait till after the holidays, flooring should go on sale. Generally everyone wants flooring done by Christmas and then the market hits a lull and stores are trying to drum up business. I don't have a clue how COVID may change things this year.

If we are dealing with the same "Cloister Flooring America" ask if they will be having an anniversary sale in March. I think that is an annual sale for them.

I am new here and My business is Flooring. I can say confidently that if you use LVP, cleaning will be very easy because it's waterproof and anti-oil. Another important is durable. We all know Hardwood is comfortable, but as I know, laminate flooring is getting better and better, comfort has been greatly improved.……And, There is no doubt that the number of people who buy LVP flooring is increasing.

@Jennifer Hogan we are def in the same area! I ended up going with Karndean Korlok that carpet mart had for an even better price than cloisters which surprised me. about an 80 cent a sq. ft savings! I’m hoping it’s as good a flooring as I hear!

@Andrew which nucore floors did you use in the picture above? We’re looking at nucore performance but I can’t seem to find many reviews on them. Just curious if that was possibly the brand you used in the picture above.

This is what I used:

https://www.flooranddecor.com/rigid-core-luxury-vinyl-plank-and-tile/gunstock-rigid-core-luxury-vinyl-plank---cork-back-100109859.html

Don't think it's the Performance model.

Love this post, more and more homes are putting in LVT/LVP. We are remodeling a home and it took quite a bit of convincing my husband who felt wood has always been the only choice ever to not go that route. We have stairs and are facing the same challenges. We’ve decided for the stairs heading to the 2nd level will be stained to match the kitchen island. we have 2 sets of 3 steps for the entry and family room levels that we are likely going with the LVP. @Andrew thats a great idea for the riser using a regular plank. I may have big problems with my flooring choice because with Covid we grabbed samples from HD, picked a color that marries our painted cabinets, stained island cabinets and our antique dining table and secretary/hutch in an open concept space but the flooring from HD has bad reviews and im Having a very hard time finding a replacement.

Looking forward to not caring about our floors like we have when we had hardwood.

I am a realtor in the SF Bay Area and I am seeing LVT going in everywhere as a house wide transitionless flooring. We put it in our rental house because its waterproof. Quartz counters, white cabinets, gray toned LVT. Personally I don't like the way it looks but I agree its very practical. If you don't want it to be dated quickly I say stay away from the gray tones.