I put a high quality, floating floor in my apt kitchen in NYC to help with pet wear and tear. NOT the best option. If one piece needs to be replaced (and with pet accidents it bubbles very easily), you have to undo a whole section because they are interlocked. Also, they just don't look that great, no matter what we paid. So when it came time to make the rest of the apt floor look decent, we switched to vinyl planks from Lowes. Sounds gross, but they're actually amazing looking. Our apt was built in the 1880's, (the original floor was long destroyed and removed before we got it),and I found a dark gunstock in a wider cut that almost matched our neighbor's original floor exactly. You ready for this? 98 cents a sq foot! If one gets damaged you peel it off (with some effort) and put a replacement. Echoflooring is sooo right about batch colors. Get it all at once and mix up the boxes as you lay it. We have a bunch of mixed ones for replacement and haven't used one, not one, but I know we have them. Lowes will recommend their sealer,but we didn't use it. They self stick just fine. One or two spots came up after we were first done and someone on line told us to use a hairdryer to reheat it and lay a book on top overnight. Worked like a dream. Our apt in NY is 800 sq ft and our current tenant is a photographer with two rescue cats and she loves the floor. Even with her keen eye, we had to tell her they were vinyl and how to replace it if she had a pet accident. She was blown away! I will try to post a picture of our NY apt floor for you. To be fair to our tenant the photographer, I took the horrible quality pics w my cell, not her! LOL! Choose wisely for your space and go with your fave, not what everyone says you should do, incl me. And pls do remember the color batch issue echoflooring brought up. Good luck :) Here is a link that might be useful: NYC vinyl plank floor

Thanks for the advice everyone. as for some questions... The floor there is just planks on joists with those support beams going all the way through into the ground (see pic).under the planks is the old insulation and then some sort of 'under-house' ceiling made of homasote (both of which i will replace, eventually). and there are chunks missing from the floor boards: some made from drilling down for a water pipe (around 3" in diameter), and then there are some boards that are chipped and cracked almost an inch deep into the wood, and, of course there are some that have foot-long, half inch gaps in between. so you can definitely see the insulation. i guess i can try to replace some boards, fill some gaps, sand and stain and make it very rustic and mismatched. and i know i can add plywood or osb, but that might be less appealing. and then i can always add vinyl or laminate on top. but i guess i was hoping for some sort of magic material that looks like hardwood, costs as much as osb and doesn't need a sub-floor. i know...keep dreaming.

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.

Ahhhh. The linoleum was removed and something THICKER has been applied. Other than taking up the vinyl and taking up the plywood OR you pick up the railings, etc and get something thicker on there but there isn't much to be done now that the vinyl has been installed. Your flooring installer should have made a suggestion BEFORE the floor went down. Or more to the point a PROFESSIONAL flooring installer (as in "P" professional who is well aware of their duty to the customer) would have mentioned this. Everyone else will simply install it and take their pay cheque.