We just finished remodeling our kitchen and the product I liked best was a Mannington sheet vinyl. I am a Realtor and am in and out of a lot of homes, and have seen AMAZINGLY life-like vinyls. I decided I wanted vinyl as we have another home that has tile, and I wanted something warmer and softer in this house...but I wanted that look. The product that we used was called Mannington Sobella Supreme Guadalajara. (The samples on the web-site don't look a thing like them...see the real samples if you can.) When I had a guy out to give me an estimate on our tile backsplash he reached down and touched our floor and said "OH! This is vinyl! I thought it was tile..." And I told him I was so happy because he was a tile expert and he couldn't tell. The other night we had some neighbors over and the husband looked at our floor and he said "Your tile floor looks nice but do you find that it is really cold?" And I said "It's vinyl." At which point he also reached down to touch it. Anyway, to each his own, but they have come a VERY long way with vinyl sheet goods. Good luck with whatever you choose, Cathy

My parents downsized for the 4th time and their latest house has LVP. It looks nice in their house and they picked a medium brown tone, so not a trendy color. Their last 2 houses had tile and houses before that had hardwood. I built last year and installed engineered wood floors through most of the house. I kept an open mind and did take a look at LVP when doing my research, but I didn't like the look and my DH hated how they sounded when he walked on large sample areas installed in the flooring showrooms. These days you are seeing the LVP being installed in higher end homes here in FL and buyers seem to accept it just fine, specially closer to the beaches. A couple of years ago I had started seeing the ceramic core floors with a wood veneer in Los Angeles, specially for mid/high end flips.

I suggest looking at some of the SPC Rigid Core plank floors. Those have a limestone polymer core and can handle heavier furniture than the WPC plank flooring which is a wood polymer composite. The SPC will be able to handle moisture better, but you will have to use a moisture barrier on the concrete. Republic, republicfloor.com, SuperCore WeShipFloors.com and several others make the SPC flooring. I would call and ask questions if you find one you like.

luvbeautifulthings: I live in SoCal, where houses cost what yours cost. I have stated before in these forums that I do see LVP in my area. But we live in a suburban area of large families, SAH moms, pets--that kind of neighborhood. It's not West L.A., if you know what I mean. I agree it's important what realtors tell you about the local market. In your case, "floating" the floor on top is going to mean a couple of things you might not like; such as having to cut the door molding around every door casing. Removing and re-installing the baseboards. Will your doors still shut or do those have to be cut down too? How will the new floors transition to the kitchen? (Ugly transition strips?) Or are you taking LVP right into the kitchen...in which case you're going to (maybe) be fencing in your appliances (How will you now slide your dishwasher out?). The other thing is this: as you search for your awesome LVP, that looks realistic, that's good to excellent quality, you're going to find you're almost spending as much as engineered wood. And as we both know, the cost of installation in SoCal is high--- product cost isn't going to vary all that much unless you go really bottom basement (but I have a feeling you won't). Near me, installation was $5-6/sf and that was 5 years ago (or so). It's probably higher now. The cost of glue for my downstairs (which is large) was $2,000. Not a budget breaker in the scheme of things.... so given the choice, glue down engineered works better where we live (we are on slab). Either way, you'll have to redo your baseboards. Price it out. I'd demo that floor and not think twice. I'd get the floor you want and do it right the first time. Glue it down.