Hi Sina and mayflowers Thanks for the feedback. We had a discussion with one of the builders and he also said that he would not use the vinyl in the bathroom, but rather a tile. I have read that using the same tile for the bathroom floor and shower floor creates an illusion of more space, but not the wall. I like the idea below (we will have the frameless glass shower instead of the tub - was this what you had in mind - possibly use normal skirting with paint for the adjacent walls left and right). The tile i the below example might be a little too much for us, since we are planning for black trimmings, should we aim to install white, off-grey type tile with a contrasting wall colour? It seems that the black trimmings pop nicely against white..

You have a shiny sheet vinyl product with embossing and a floor drain. Whew. That's plenty of reason to remove the sheet vinyl. A 'vinyl on vinyl' glue down is *possible but in your situation it is contraindicated because: the sheet vinyl is embossed (has a stamped pattern) AND it appears to have wax or polish on top. And I haven't even gotten to the floor drain - OMG don't even get me going on floor drains! To glue this down OVER TOP of the sheet vinyl you must first establish the entire sheet is WELL ADHERED to the subfloor (it cannot be perimeter glued) 1. Clean/strip EVERY STICK of polish off of the floor 2. Prime the floor with a product that will stick to contaminated vinyl (the polish = contamination = bond breaker) 3. Remove the embossing (get rid of the stamped pattern) by coating/covering it in some sort of product (hmmmmm....that's tricky!) 4. Glue down vinyl plank over top of the HEAVILY PREPARED sheet vinyl 5. Figure out a way to extend the neck of the drain. To float a vinyl floor over top: 1. Find a way to remove the embossing (oh dear...there it is again) 2. Find a way to deal with the floor drain (you cannot float a floor in a room with a floor drain) So...either way you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. I know you want the vinyl throughout the basement...but in this room I would HIGHLY recommend you leave the current floor and then install the rest of the basement in the vinyl plank. The age of the concrete slab will tell us if you should float or glue. No matter what, your subfloor will need to have ++work to get it smooth and flat. Vinyl planks do NOT like a wonky subfloor. And most basement slabs have enough issues to cause problems with the thin, flexible vinyl plank products.

OK...so the hardwood is staying and the rest is being removed. Ok. No problem. There is probably going to be a floor height issue (assuming all of the old floors touch one another on the same level). That's OK. You can throw down an uneven T-molding where the hardwood hits the carpet/vinyl. Or you can raise the lower levels up to the level of the old hardwood. No problem. Now...onto LVP OVER TOP of hardwood. Not a good idea. But it is what you want. So here is what you will need to do: sand down the old hardwood so you are on 'raw wood'. You will then treat this as a wooden subfloor. Great. Perfect. If the hardwood can be saved at a later date (ie. it still has plenty of wood left on it), then you will want to put down some sort of craft paper (cannot be a vapour barrier). LVP and hardwoods don't like each other. Hardwood FINISHES (the stuff you have to sand off) have a chemical reaction to vinyl. Each contain active chemicals (even when dry) that can and will discolour the other one. The hardwood finish will stain because they are touching vinyl planks (usually a nasty nicotine orange). And (more importantly for your new vinyl) the wood FINISH will stain the vinyl (the chemicals leach UP into the vinyl and then discolour the new vinyl). That's not all. The vinyl can and will 'cap' the hardwood. This prevents the hardwood from breathing off the moisture in it (or in the basement...etc) like it has been used to. The vinyl prevents the moisture from evaporating off. That leaves the moisture to hit the back of the vinyl and drip back down onto the hardwood. The drips turn to puddles once the wood has been completely saturated. It can be one H3LL of a mess. It won't happen in the first year (if it does you have a bunch more issues) not even the second year. But it will happen. And then you HAVE TO PULL the hardwood...and the vinyl. And maybe even the subfloor. So ripping out the hardwood sounds horrible but it is the best plan. To be clear, vinyl needs SUPER FLAT subfloors (hardwoods are rarely flat). The better option would be laminate. Laminate gets along very well with hardwood. They are both made out of the same stuff. And both breathe (a snick) which means they rarely have issues with one another.

Most high-end vinyl products have a glue down option: Karndean comes to mind. They also have loose lay. This is when the PERIMETER of the room is glued and the rest of the planks are tight fit to the one next to it. Start with the $7/sf products. That's your starting line. The glue down planks will be about $1/sf CHEAPER than the floating (they do not have to pay the patent-licensing fee on the click edge) but the glue will more than make up for that price. The installation for glue down is more because it is more labour intensive. Tell the builder to have the slab PREPARED for glue down resilient flooring (resilient in this case is due to the FLEXIBILITY and NOT the wearability). I would think a glue down vinyl will cost the same as a glue down hardwood. Just so you know.