I thought the high end LVP looked good 5-7 years ago, but ended up going with engineered wood. But recently I was in a quality flooring store (not a big box, not a discount chain), and I have to say, the graphics of the wood-look LVP were pretty amazing. Have you all seen it lately? For such a big purchase, where installation is sometimes(often, where I live) more $$ than the product, I'd go up a couple notches in quality, and not shop at the chains.

OK...point #1. If any part of your slab is 'below grade' the ENTIRE THING is graded as 'below grade'. Personally I would pick different flooring for the 'wet' rooms such as the bathrooms and laundry. The reason: 'water proof' flooring is expensive. So WHY pay for the entire basement to be covered in 'water proof' when only a few hundred square feet actually 'need it'. The other thing is: a floating floor is really all you want to play with. Tiles in bathrooms/laundry room can be adhered to the concrete, the rest can be floated. The basics for ANY floating floor is the same. You must have a vapour barrier (not always underpadding) and you must always have a WELL PREPARED concrete slab that is flat (no wonky subfloors for a floating floor...ever). A laminate floating floor and a vinyl floating floor and a cork floating floor (and even a linoleum floating floor) all require the same thing. And the mechanism to install is always a 'click-together' system. An engineered hardwood can be floated but it almost always requires glue on the seams. Again, all of the same PREPARATION is required. So go ahead and start paying for the concrete slab to be fixed up so that your flooring of choice can be laid down as soon as you can. The 'nightmare' the sales guys are talking about relates to installation and moisture. They are TRYING to get you to purchase the product THEY NEED to move. Yep. I would hazard a guess that these guys have been given 'targets' to meet and/or they have been offered bonuses for moving a certain TYPE of product (too much in the warehouse is costing the company TOO MUCH money). In a nutshell, the reason why you are getting 4 different opinions is because you spoke to 4 different salespeople with 4 different 'company agendas'. That's it. There is no mystery in that. My questions for you (if I were your sales person): 1. What is your budget (do NOT fudge numbers with sales people...it pisses them off and makes them less likely to get the RIGHT floor)? 2. What is your FAMILY situation? Animals? Landscaping issues such as pools, etc? 3. What are YOUR expectations? Can you accept the limitations of certain flooring if it gets you the LOOK that you want for the price you are able to pay?

The house is from the 1950’s and was previously a screened in porch. These are the seams I mentioned. i had to rip out the glued down carpeting and scrape/sand the glue off the concrete. I dont know what was previously used in these seams so I have cleaned them out. Almost ready to fill.

IMO no floor except tile can withstand a slate pool table but the vinyl plank without the backing but just thick vinyl would IMO be the best choice . I will tell you from experience the pool table if it is slate , ours is 1965 vintage , will dent hardwood in a flash.