I understand the sense of caution. Callbacks are not good and can eat away at your profits. To answer your question: I have used products supplied by flooring distributors, and have included products from Ardex, Mapei and Fritztile. They were all used with an appropriate primer to facilitate bonding to what they were placed over. Additives were included to make the product less-likely to break apart and powder. I especially like Ardex SDP (Self Drying Patch)...because the PSI (pounds per square inch) rating is lower than some other products. Self leveling formulations can achieve a very high PSI and can be very difficult to nail into, even with pneumatically assisted fastening tools. When I used a product with a high PSI, I sometimes would have to drill pilot holes and manually drive in hardened spiral flooring nails. I never had a floor patch crumble. I figured...if I used a good patch, and if the substrate was well-fastened and didn't move much, I believed the installation would be OK. I believe that you have to have significant movement to get a decent patch to fall apart under a finish product. I came to wood flooring out of a family business that specialized in resilient flooring materials, so I learned a lot about what you can and cannot do regarding floor patches and their application. I will say in closing here (for general consumption) , especially for the DIYer,... if you try to use calcium carbonate patches (usually white in color...and I won't mention brands) ...you will experience quick breakdown of the product, because they are fragile and will crumble easily. If it looks like plaster of paris, it is not a suitable floor filler or patch...my opinion.

Lemme guess .,.. leaking toilet and instead of pulling the toilet and fixing it they caulked all the way around the base, making the leaking water go under the flooring but ":stopping the leak"? kind of undecided, but I know the second option will take a lot less time. Only for a short while. If you put the self-stick vinyl over the hardwood you will quickly see the shadow of the board joints through the vinyl, and then it will crack along the board shadows and you will have to remove it all and replace it correctly. Remove all the hardwood from the bath and check the subflooring and joists to make sure they are sound. Replace if needed. Then put down proper underlayment for vinyl (something water resistant and smooth) over the subflkoor. Then do the floor. Then re-install the toilet with the proper height flange, a stainless steel anchor and a new was ring. Do NOT caulk around the base. If it starts leaking, you need to know it.

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.

If you can afford to upgrade the subfloor to 3/4" worth of plywood (minimum thickness for today's builds) that consist of TWO layers...and you have the deflection rating properly done (you have to measure distance between the joists) then go with tile or stone. If not, then find something you can live with. Again, subfloor preparation is HUGE! The SAME preparation you need for hardwood, you need for vinyl planks or click together vinyl tiles. The only thing that does not need that 'upgrade' = sheet vinyl and (zoinks) carpet. Please do yourself, you sanity and your budget a favour: SIT DOWN and map out the WHOLE HOUSE. All it takes is your TIME. Don't buy anything. Don't touch anything. Don't pick up a hammer or set down caulking. Just THINK. Go ahead and create a FINAL LOOK for your home. At the end of the day, what do you want it to LOOK LIKE. That includes floor plan for kitchen (change of footprint???? or just a refresh???). Wall colours and THE LAST THING that is DONE to a home (oh dear...) is to redo the floors. Sigh... Right. So you have bad laminate in the bedroom. Oh well. It works x 1 year (the edges weren't knocked together properly...go ahead and tap them back into place). Go to the PAINT store and find CHIPS that work with your vision of your home. These chips are ONLY for COLOUR. The materials come later. Before you start, you need to know how it looks at the end. That's why you are taking your (free) sweet time and thinking this through. If you want wood cabinets in the kitchen...then use a 'brown' paint chip for that. If you want white counters then use white for that. If you want wood floors in the house...then use brown for that. If you want to paint the walls mocha (I don't know! I'm just guessing) then get a paint chip for that. If you want a slate gray floor in the kitchen then get a paint chip for that. You then put the colour board (try to draw a mock up of the rooms...with the paint chips sitting in place...or go ahead and colour it...Crayola isn't that expensive). That is GOOD ENOUGH for you to make a plan. Now that you have a DESTINATION, you can work TOWARDS that destination using the money you have and the materials you have available. You will leave the mock-up in your CAR (or truck...don't care). You will drive around with it. If you see a GARAGE SALE and someone has 15 gallons of paint for $1/gallon, you will KNOW that Robin's Egg Blue is NOT part of your plan. You will NOT purchase it. If you see vinyl tiles ON SALE at Home Depot for $1.99/sf and they are GRAY SLATE colour...then BUY THEM! Why? Because they FIT your map. And that brings me to measurements. List the measurements on the BACK of your page...so that you know how much to buy when you see a good deal. This is how you go about making changes on a budget. Don't do another thing without making your map/mock up. You are only wasting money if you do.