Does it make a difference in the brand of linoleum? I'm looking at Johnsonite for a 1/2 bath. I don't have to worry about traffic or water in that location but Johnsonite says they have a different coating on their linoleum that cuts down on cleaning and maintenance. They advertise it as great for both commercial and home use which would suggest scratch resistant but I don't know.

Otherwise do you need to wax periodically to project from minor scratches? How do you feel about VCT tile? It would give you the creative freedom to create the patterns you want at an inexpensive price. I saw a kitchen on the old house forum that did the floor in it and the owner was very happy with the product.

I do not have Marmoleum--I have Marmorette, the parallel product made by Armstrong. If anything, Marmoleum is considered superior to Marmorette. In any event, I've had it down for approximately 10 years on a mudroom floor and a dry-area countertop. Scratching is not a problem. At all.

I wonder if your floor was topcoated with a product that is showing scratches? I've not heard of any problem with real linoleum products showing scratches.

I'm so sorry to read of your troubles with this spectacularly planned floor. So beautiful! So inspirational! Such a problem. My heart goes out to you.

I believe Consumer Reports said that Marmoleum was better for wear, worse for scratching, than Armstrong's linoleum.

Did you Google? That's the only way to find old threads here with any reliability. I did, but frankly, the reports are contradictory. Many folks love their Marmoleum floors, others say it never looks clean unless you put a lot of effort into it. I find this kind of odd, frankly, since everyone had real linoleum floors when I was a little kid and nothing ever looked dirty--if it didn't clean up well, my mother would've set fire to it.

I've had my sheet Marmoleum for maybe 19 months and it's been abused. Looks fine. Not sealed or topcoated or anything. There are a few scratches but they aren't obvious or deep. Things are dragged through there and driven through there and worse.

I have no scratches on our 3 yr old Marmoleum, or at least none that I can see. Not sure with the matte surface and mottled color/pattern that I would ever notice.

We never wax or put on anything...Just steam, or wipe with a damp cloth, and dry with a towel.

Our sheet Marmoleum floor has been in for five years. We have kids, dogs, cats, and mud. We are not dedicated housekeepers by a long shot. The floor has never looked scratched at all. It's a busy pattern - Asian Tiger - so maybe that is hiding some scratches, but if they are there I sure don't notice them.

I saw the pics of your floor before it was damaged, and thought it was fantastic. I'm so sorry you are having such trouble with it!

I am so confused about it. It scratched before doing anything to the surface and is scratching again after being buffed and resealed.
We mostly walk through the area (kitchen was only half functional until today) and no one has worn anything but soft soled shoes.
I really want to use it for our kitchen and den floors because tile is cold and hard (what we had in our demo-ed kitchen). We have enough wood floors already and the look would not be right for the kitchen portion.
We had considered VCT tiles, but they are a little harder and not quite as nice looking as the Marm. I had heard such good reviews here for the Marm, that it was our first choice for non-tile or wood floors. Our original plan was a hex floor for the kitchen, but we felt that would not work in the den area. This is a really rotten problem as our floor decision was one we were very certain about. This was also a big splurge for us as it cost over $4k for materials and installation.
Now, we are conflicted and gun shy.
I heard from the Forbo rep today and will post about it in the other thread.

Ours hasn't really been in long enough to tell how it will wear in the long run---just since early December---but it has pretty minimal scratching with a big dog who has destroyed our hardwood floors. We do have some scratches (I think all from appliances being moved) and they show a little on the gray tiles but not on the black or silver ones, for whatever reason. (Maybe we just haven't scratched any of those, but I doubt it.) Overall, I've been really happy with how little it seems to show dirt and scratches, though.

One thought---the patterns on the Click tile tend to be a little less mottled/more consistently colored than on the sheet Marmoleum...could that make a difference in appearance of scratches, maybe?

Artemis - what colors do you have? I was wondering if the scratches are more noticeable on our floor because the colors are fairly dark. We have Volcanic Ash and Raven, which are dark, and Eternity, which is lighter.

This whole situation makes my stomach knot. I want the Marmoleum and want it to work for us, but do not want to be blind to the fact that it is scratching up easily. If this is a sign that it is the wrong choice for us, then I'd be a fool to miss it. OTOH, the floor is everything we want if you don't count the scratches and nothing else comes to mind that would be better when all elements are factored in.
I am usually quite decisive, so being so wishy washy on this is a new feeling.
The only thing I know for sure is this needs to be resolved soon. I think the longer we have the more confused I am getting!

I have the Marmoleum click panels in Barbados and Lava (the older black that is now called Raven) that I installed about 18 months ago. When moving one cabinet, a piece of cat litter was caught underneath it and caused a nasty scratch about 4 inches long in a Lava panel. Cat litter! I was sick about it, but that is the only scratch so far. The color of the black Lava goes all the way through, but it is still noticeable. That is, so far, the only scratch I've seen. I have been otherwise happy about how it's held up. The cat's automatic waterer leaked once, right over a seam- the seams swelled a bit, but dried out and came right back to normal. That impressed me. However, I do plan on getting another dog once this remodel is over, and a large one at that. I'm very concerned regarding the possible scratches. Otoh, I love how warm and soft it is, and it's really easy care for the most part. And, it's a great environmental product. UGH!

I've pretty much decided that I will pull it out when I pull the remaining cabinet wall out of my kitchen for the final step of my remodel (I'm doing one wall at a time), and go with oak flooring instead. I do plan to reuse the Marmoleum in the basement laundry- if it gets scratched down there it's not as noticeable, therefore not as big a deal. I do think things are more noticeable in the darker colors though.

We have Eternity (most of our floor) with spots of Volcanic Ash and Silver Shadow; the Eternity is the one I really notice the scratches on. I've only seen one on the Volcanic Ash (and I know that one was from being gouged by the fridge when we moved it, so I don't fault the floor there!) and none on the SS. None of the scratches are noticeable unless you're actually down looking for them, though. (Yeah, okay, I admit that I've done that just a few times... ;)

@oldhousegal, we have a giant breed mix and he really has destroyed our oak floors but has not noticeably scratched the Marmoleum (and we aren't super diligent about trimming his nails) so I do think it's a great floor for pets---we didn't get wood for that reason. (We actually have a doug fir floor under the Marmoleum, so one reason we chose it was that it was floating so some future owner could pull it out and refinish the wood easily. But fir is so soft that it would have been gone with our dog!)

Ours are the Click, too, so I don't think it's the difference between Click and sheet as much as, perhaps, the color. Our floor is Serene Gray and either Caribbean or Barbados (the creamy yellow), so if the matte surface is scratched or scuffed, as I said above, I probably just don't notice. (8 kids, 2 large dogs, shoes worn in the house, coming in from a muddy yard.) "Buffed and sealed" may make a difference, too, if it gave the flooring a sheen?

Ours is not in, but I tried to scratch up a whole bunch of commerical sized sheet samples with no avail. Maybe it is the click, or maybe the color. I don't think most people have this problem with normal wear on the Marmoleum.

I have a sheet of marmoleum. The wood floors in our house are 90 years old, splintery and without a finish to speak of. Some years ago I bought a remnant and put it under the kitchen table so a person could scoot their chair in and out. Anyhow I have scratches in it, in particular where a chair's plastic glide had broken off and the nail was protruding but I think they would buff out. I'm just not that bothered by it. It's beat up all over but has a patina almost, like the patina of marble! I think it's a great material.

I have red Forbo (that's Marmoleum, right?) in my mudroom. Installed 6 years ago, it's held up well. There are some scratches but the seem to "buff" out when I wash the floor. Bullet proof really. I do recall a scratch when I first installed it that freaked me out - not unlike the first etch or marble, or scrath on soapstone. I don't notice the scratches anymore.

Also I wanted to add yesterday, but was waiting for another comment to avoid the error message...

I'm actually not positive that the brand I have is marmoleum, but I am positive that it is linoleum.

Linoleum reminds me of milk paint and unpolished stone. It doesn't have a shiny finish, but that's because we aren't using a contraption that my parents had collecting dust in the mid-70's, a floor buffer. No doubt it had been for linoleum but once vinyl and its ever present shine came it was obsolete. Then linoleum returns to use and you have people like me who don't buff.

Our floor was less shiny before they buffed and added sealer. It was very pretty after they did that, but the new scratches show easily. The "old" scratches were deeper (I suspect).

They destroyed my floor a week ago Monday and I still have no resolution or schedule for replacing my floor. It is holding up our kitchen and den from being used (silly to bring furniture in there before they replace it) and my patience is thinning. I just want a floor we can use. We have been in the bsmt since the early days of Dec..

Fori and Nancy,
Can you order Marmoleum without the sealer and topcoat?

Dianalo, what ever happened to your floor? I'm curious because we have the volcanic ash click on a job of ours and it scratches so easy! I hope you get this so you can update me on what happened!

We have had Marmoleum in the kitchen for 9 years. We followed all the maintenance directions. It is a light green color. It has has started fading in the high traffic area-in front of the sink and stove. The installer recommends stripping it professionally. However, I suspect that might be inviting trouble. We watch our triplet grandchildren and have no pets. I thought this would wear forever! I can live with the scratches-yes it does scratch! But the fading is getting worse. Would I buy this again-probably not.

Our 4 year old Marmoleum has 6 inches gouges all over the kitchen floor. I'm getting ready to remodel our kitchen with a new footprint and Marmoleum is my favorite look, but it seems to wear terribly. I'm barely seeing any other lino products on the mark. Armstrong seems to be discontinuing it.

I have had a Marmoleum floor for three years now in the kitchen and am so disappointed! It is scratched and every spot shows up even though I am constantly wiping every drop of liquid up immediately. It is just two of us living in the house. I would never buy this product again.

We had Marmoleum in our old house (had it professionally installed). It was sheet, a pale yellow ("Butter" I think) with a red 1" border followed by a dark yellow 3" border. I loved the look- so great in our 1940s kitchen. But it scratched and gouged very easily. In the beginning I was really stressed about it. Was constantly on my hands and knees trying to clean the scratches with a toothbrush (when the dirt was removed from the pale yellow the scratches were much less visible). We had that floor for 12 years before moving and it was pretty scratched up. It was two adults, a dog, and two cats, but the scratches seemed to mostly be near the sink and silverware drawer, from dropping things periodically. I don't mind the gentle scratches it's the deep slices and gouges that look so bad. In our new house we are in need of a new kitchen floor and I love the Marmoleum look so much but am hesitant because of our experience, which does not seem abnormal from what I read here. I was hoping a darker color ("Salsa"?!) might not chow scratches as much, but it sounds like that will not solve the problem. Does anyone know of another product that is tougher but has the gorgeous look of Marmoleum and the natural materials?

Cecily, have you considered the traditional swirly/marbled Marmoleum sheet? I have sheet Shitake 3233 color in my kitchen,family room and halls and we do not notice marks at all.