I would put in wood floors so that you can get top dollar when you sell the house. Soon. Seriously.

That's why we live out in the boonies- no HOA's or snobby neighbors for us. We're thinking about vinyl in the kitchen of our fully custom home. My snobby BIL sniffed at that, asking me how I could even consider vinyl. I asked him if was willing to fly in to clean and maintain wood floors in the kitchen.

I'm another one who says buy what you want and don't let the perceived requirements of the neighborhood sway you. Yes, you won't fool most people with a vinyl wood look floor, but if you are more comfortable with that kind of floor - it's your house and you have to live with your choice on a day to day business.

However if you think you may sell your home in a few years and the norm is hardwood - that vinyl may be a negative. I raised my kids and pets on wood floors - the old fashioned nailed down kind and it wears beautifully.

If you live in a neighborhood that snobby, you may want to just pack up and move.

I'm with Sophie! If I was raising kids in that house, I'd run and run fast. I wouldn't want my kids to absorb the snob attitude. If that's not possible, then do what you like and what works for your family's lifestyle and your budget. Obviously, as previously mentioned, if you may sell in a few years and need wood floors to be salable in that area, that's a different matter.

Personally, I only care if people I respect think well of me. I don't respect snobs so I wouldn't care what they think. But those kinds of people would probably never be invited in my home anyway. Or if they were, it would only be once if they in any way seemed to be snobbish about me, my family, or anything in my home.

I would put in tongue and groove hardwood flooring and polyurethane the heck out of it; you can get it refinished when it looks bad. Even all beat up, a hardwood floor still looks nice. Also kids can be taught not to wreck the floors!

I put vinyl plank in 3 bedrooms, five years ago. Looks great. Holding up, well. Got it at Home Depot (sorry can't remember the name). I have a "snobby" sister (realtor) who thought it was wood and has now put some in her high-end home. Do what you want. The nice thing about this floor is it is easy to replace if you change your mind.

have you considered wood look tile? We love ours in the kitchen and were very thankful to have it when the dishwasher connection leaked the very first time that we ran it. El cheapo Marazzi gunstock tile from Home depot $1.79/sf (not colored through and through so cheaper). Only problem is that your glass and dishes WILL break if they fall on to it. So far the tile has help up great, no chipping despite several broken dishes. We are putting the same porcelain in the Dapple Gray color on our screened porch.

I would buy what you want and not worry about the snobs. I would add though, that I have a large (100lb) dog and four kids ages 10-16. We've had hard wood floors in our house for 12 years and they have held up just fine to the constant activity here.

I put tile patterned sheet vinyl in our bathroom. One of the neighbors love the "tile" and was shocked when I told her it was vinyl.

There is definitely a difference walking on wood vs. vinyl plank floors. Hard soled shoes on wood sound different than on vinyl. If you go with the vinyl, look at several different brands. Some are good enough to fool the eye, but others are obviously "fake" wood. Flexitec has some on the nicer looking wood patterns. (We looked only at sheet vinyl, not plank.)

I do have to say, we have wood in the entry way, living room, dining room, and bedrooms. The kids and pets have done little damage. (Except for a friend's puppy that had diarrhea in a remote corner of the house that I didn't find until the next day. Took off the floor finish entirely.) Most of the damage has come from pushing furniture out of the way when vacuuming. Although I have floor protectors on most of the furniture legs, rocking chairs and a few other pieces have caused a lot of damage.

Love scrappy's tiles! My best friend is a talented designer and she put wood look tiles in 2 bathrooms - gorgeous! The house is on the market for $1.3M, which in my neighborhood means buyers expect something nice and good quality.

Basing your flooring choice on a desire to keep the neighbors from judging you seems like a horrible idea. Will you choose kitchen cabinets and your next car the same way? Get what YOU want unless you need to consider resale value.

That said, I guess I don't understand why wood is a bad choice for kids and pets unless one of them is incontinent. Every house I lived in growing up except the first had site finished oak, we always had big dogs (and I have 3 siblings), we wore shoes in the house, and the floors held up just fine. My neighbors have several very large dogs and engineered maple on a slab and it still looks nice after 10 years. Obviously something soft and dark like walnut won't hold up as well but oak and maple are pretty durable. Plus when wood is damaged it can be repaired. Vinyl has to be replaced and while it may take more to scratch vinyl than wood, scratched vinyl is a lot more obvious.

Get what you want that makes sense for your family. Ignore the snotty neighbors. Sophie has it right about moving out of the neighborhood if you want to bring up your kids with your values.

My neighbors are the typical snotty trophy wives. I just ignore what they think but it did affect my siblings badly when they were living with me as kids.

I don't care that they feel I need about 10 difference cosmetic surgery procedures but the kids are embarrassed that I go out of the house in my sweats and rarely wear makeup. Adults have thicker skins than kids.

My brother threw hissy fits for months in worrying about how the neighbors will think when I looked at laminates. I ended up with natural stone because the realistic looking laminates cost as much if not more than my stone. The vendor also told me that they wouldn't hold up under my mother's constant wheelchair use.

Ask around on wood. I've seen it hold up well in frat houses that takes a tremendous amount of abuses.

You are not in high school anymore, so why do you worry about being judged over something so silly? Get what you like and can afford. If your neighbors are really that catty and want to talk about you, they'll find something negative to say no matter what you do with your house. Wood floors are a good investment though, you see homes 75+ years old and they have the original wood floors in them. For resale, its a good thing to have. Pets and kids can do some minor damage though - my dogs nails left quite a few scratches in the floor. Also, my kids had a habit of dropping their heavy school bags on the floor by the front door, there are numerous dents from that. But I could someday sand and refinish the floor and it wouldn't be noticeable. That's the beauty of a wood floor, you can refinish it and restore it to like new condition..

First of all, if I had neighbors like yours, I'd park my car on my lawn just for the enjoyment of their reactions ;)

Having said that, we've had hardwood, (nail down, oak strip, site finished) in our kitchen and dining area for 28 years, and raised two boys and a dog. I did do a light refinish, (no machine sanding) once a couple years ago. Wood is a very durable, forgiving, and easy care floor.

If your neighborhood truly warrants wood for resale, put the wood in, and put the for sale sign up. Otherwise put in what you want.

I can tell fake wood is fake and I'm not even a snob (shut up!). I'd get something practical that I liked and let the neighbors be jealous of my sensible and nice floor. I would NOT try to fool anyone with fake wood though.

It's easy to say move or who cares what the neighbors think....but I know it's not that easy.

Me, I could care less and put anything I want in my house! But my friend, who lives in a small town about an hour away, puts up with some strange people she doesn't really like. When I asked her why....she said, because they're daughters go to school with her daughter and there aren't many other little girls to play in the area. So, she makes the best of it!

That being said, she wouldn't give one second to thinking about if they like her floor. If you want their approval (and that's your choice, not ours) then get wood. If you want a nice laminate, go stare at samples for a few minutes and you'll soon see which ones look the most like wood floors. IMHO, it has to do more with the color and variations. Some look very fake, others look more realistic. Choose the one you think will look best.

I don't have any particular brand, but at Lowe's the other day...I noticed they have some very pretty vinyl sheet wood laminate that looked better than their plank in stock. And of course, some of the custom choices are even better.

Of course, they still won't fool Fori...but she's probably more observant than most neighbors :)

Amtico is a good vinyl product and probably more expensive than some wood .

One good thing about your neighbors is that they don't have to live in your home. If they are that disturbed, then they can pay for the floor OR they can leave and go home.

I know someone who has luxury vinyl plank (Mannington Adura). Her home was featured in Better Homes and Gardens vinyl planks and all.

Echoing everyone else, if your neighbors are that snobby, don't invite them in! And/or move.

But I have kids and a golden retriever and wood floors are great. This is our third house with wood floors, all of them original--the first from 1939, the second from 1954 and the third from 1926. Wood is very durable and practical. It does scratch, but a medium colored finish will minimize how much that shows and it can be refinished eventually unlike vinyl. Wood is good for resale too.

If you want vinyl, get vinyl, but not for the neighbors and not because you have kids and a dog.

LOL, cookncarpenter: "First of all, if I had neighbors like yours, I'd park my car on my lawn just for the enjoyment of their reactions ;)"

My DH and I tend to go a bit of a Ma & Pa Kettle when we're around snobs. It's a hoot to watch how they react.

There are tons of upscale options that aren't wood, too. They can't be snobby about your non-wood floor if it's swankier than wood! (If you're worried about durability AND looking expensive, look into tile, stone, harder hardwoods--I mean oak is traditional and great, but there are other woods that are tougher like maple--stuff like that.)

But I do agree, screw 'em. I bet they don't actually care.

Oh, but be sure to get HARD wood floors. My SIL got softer wood and they're pretty, but not as durable.

OK, here's my advice. Put the most expensive exotic hardwood in the public rooms, even if you need to get a home equity loan and max out your credit cards, and don't let anybody in the private rooms, where you can have concrete floors or the cheapest material possible.
Because trust me: You won't be able to fool your friends with any vinyl planks.

Hardwood such as oak will last a lot longer and look better longer than any vinyl flooring. What scratches is the finish you choose, not the flooring itself. And the only one you need to impress is yourself.

I think OP really wants to know what is the best looking floor that appears to be wood, but isn't. I find it hard to believe that it's strictly to impress the neighbors, I'm sure the OP is thinking of its future value when it comes time to sell.

So, if it's for resale value, then any potential home buyer will find out that it's vinyl and that will hurt the sale price. Even if the buyer likes the look of the vinyl, I think they will mentally calculate that the price of the house should be less because it doesn't have a sought after feature.

In the meantime, to answer your question... I was in a flooring store and I saw quite a few wood look vinyls that were very nice looking. And the store had some of them installed so that you could hear what they sounded like to walk on. I didn't notice the brands because I wasn't shopping for vinyl. But that would be my recommendation, go to a dedicated flooring store (as opposed to Lowe's or Home Depot) and see what looks good to you.

My original post was unclear, but I'm not getting these floors for the sake of the neighbors. Instead, I'm looking for something so realistic that it would even fool them because if it could fool them then it could fool anybody that they were really hardwood floors.

I know that this won't be my forever house because I don't really care for the attitude of the neighborhood and I'd prefer to move sooner but the schools here are really great. Until I move, I need to keep an eye on how my choices will affect
the resell value or rent value. (There's also the possibility that we could keep the place and rent it out instead of selling it because I know families will want to live here to send their kids to this school district).

Hardwood would be the best choice for resell value, but I just don't know if it'd be a good choice for my family with the engineered hardwood we'd have to use because of the concrete slab underneath. I've seen other people have to be so careful with their hardwood floors, and I don't want my family to have to walk around on their tippy toes to avoid scratching the floors. (And, if this ends up becoming a rental, then I don't know if enginerred hardwood would last with a renter even if survived my family).

I'm well aware that vinyl won't add value for the resell value. But, I'm hoping if I can find something that looks super realistic, then potential buyers won't automatically disqualify my home because it doesn't have hardwood floors. By the time they find out its vinyl, then its already too late because they've already fallen in love with the place.

Is it worth the premium to buy a Art Select Premium over a Van Gogh because the Art Select has a beveled edge while the Van Gogh doesn't? Does the beveled edge make the plank look more like real hardwood?

I don't think beveled edges are better. Site finished wood is flush, no bevel.

We have used different floorings in rentals. We used vinyl in a mobile home. It was not the highest quality and feels soft when you walk on it. The brand I saw, but we did not use that is realistic looking was DuChateau. They make wood flooring and vinyl. It was called a luxury vinyl. If you don't have it in your area there are websites that sell it. The price is up there on this vinyl but it is nice looking. I am not an expert but in our situation they did not glue the vinyl floor down because it has to be able to give and expand otherwise it would buckle.

We used laminate flooring on a different rental home. The laminate flooring brand we used was Kraus and looks close to wood. The one we picked has the wire brush effect. People have to look close at it to know it is not wood. We do have wood in our own home and it has held up very nice. I have noticed more marks on the vinyl then the laminate. I hope this helps you.

We went through the same thoughts deciding on a kitchen floor in our 180 year old house. We wanted dark wood to match the rest of the house but it isnt practical with a dishwasher and washing machine. The wood -look tiles are nice but very hard and cold, we do not need more of that in New England winters. We chose Tarkett fiberglass flooring. It rolls out like vinyl, indestructible and soft underfoot. This is the "aged Barnwood" wide plank appearance almost identical to our old floors in other rooms. It has been down a few weeks and we love it. I stopped worrying what others will think after it fooled a few people who questioned our choice of wood in the kitchen. Also easy to clean and pet friendly. The kitchen is almost finished. I will post better pictures when I have them.

brdrl: beautiful floor! Also, great looking cat!

"I just don't know if it'd be a good choice for my family with the
engineered hardwood we'd have to use because of the concrete slab
underneath."

Our house is on a slab and we have real oak floors. It did require a plywood subfloor, which added to the expense.

No. There is no way to fool someone who knows and loves wood with vinyl. It looks, sounds, smells, and feels very different. I see all sorts of wood-look floors day to day, and was very observant of them while floor shopping, and I can spot wood, vinyl, wood-look tile, laminate a mile away. I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between engineered wood vs solid wood, but all the other variations are easy to spot.

That said, I put "luxury" vinyl in the basement, and for the basement, it's fine. Upstairs, it's all real wood. There is no comparison. Either embrace the practicality of vinyl (FWIW, it's not as durable as one would imagine. It can gouge and scratch, and there is no simple way to repair it . . . and gouged vinyl looks like crap, whereas gouged wood looks "distressed" . . . My new wood floors are getting banged up, but they look lovely. The few gouges in the (also new) vinyl make them look like crap, IMHO. FWIW, if I did it again, I'd probably go with ceramic wood look tile in the basement with heat in the floor. If/when we ever redo the basement floors in the future, that's what I'd put in (regardless of the expense).

We install real nail down hardwood here in So Cal where most houses are slab, as pattisue said, a plywood underlayment goes down first.

Also, not all site finished floors are without v-grooves, I happen to have them in my house

I have engineered hardwood in my condo. It's fine after five years, dog included. Look for a hand scraped finish and you should be fine. It's the finishes that are perfectly smooth that show scratches.

The giveaway on anything synthetic is repetition of pattern. Easier to avoid in a smaller room. Some synthetics try to get cutsie with fake knots. These are worst than ones imitating clear wood because knot repetitions are more obvious--in nature knots do not appear in the same place on two boards. If the fake wood has no knots and the installer is careful to avoid putting identical pieces too close together, it can work. But better to do a good quality vinyl tile. Tile repetitions are expected even in more expensive tile.

I'm starting a remodel and going with site finished hardwood because I prefer the look of real wood, that said a few years ago on a kitchen remodel in a high end area I brought home samples of an engineered wood plank and a laminate plank threw them down and asked the contractor, his crew and others to tell me which was the wood floor, everyone choose the laminate. So I put it in, 2 years later when I sold the house no one questioned if the floor was real wood. My point is if can fool the eye well enough then it will probably go unquestioned. I think the give away is in the finish, so I would look for a low sheen or matte finish. Bring some samples home and look at them in all kinds of light that affect the area where you will put it. Then get some unbiased feed back from a few others and you'll probably get the best answer to your questions.

Wow, I'd be surprised if a buyer didn't ask about the floors. That's the first thing I ask about when I look at a house that has floors that look like wood. Even if they initially look like wood, but turn out not to be, the longevity of real wood floors is so much better that the price of the house should reflect that for me. Others may not care so much.

But you really have plenty of options and you can pick what pleases you now and what will hopefully impress people when it comes time to sell. I hope you post some photos once you decide.

"I think the give away is the finish, so I would look for a low sheen or a matt." LOL, as my new kitchen & dining room red oak floors, along with the the house's original oak floors, got their final top coat of Semi-Gloss today!

I've fooled lots of people with my Amtico vinyl floor. I have to get out a spare piece to prove that it isn't wood.

I agree that wood-products aren't going to fool people who know wood, but once you've placed furniture, rugs, etc. over them ... the majority of us are going to take in "the big picture" rather than judging the price tag of the flooring.

As for vinyl planks being ugly if they're damaged, that should never be a real problem. Buy an extra box, and if you have a problem, replace that single plank. And laminate is pretty hard to damage. The sheet laminate in my office is original from the late 60s, and in spite of tough use, it looks good. I gouged the sheet laminate in my kitchen moving a refrigerator, and that spot looks bad -- but if it were just one board, I'd have fixed it long ago.

Finally, as for the neighbors who look down on anything other than "real" wood, remember this: The only person you can change is yourself. You can't keep them from their nose-in-the-air attitude, but you can steel yourself not to care about their shallow ideas.

I'm disappointed to read that vinyl isn't as durable as I thought it was going to be if it can easily be scratched and gouged because I was interested in it for its touted durability. Will this be an issue for all levels of vinyl, even the luxury vinyl with thicker wear layers?

And, would it help to hide those scratches and gouges if I chose a vinyl like you would choose a hardwood to try to hide those marks- something with matte finish, grain, light colored, already looks distressed, and any other tricks? Or, does that only work with hardwood floors?

The scratches I've seen in vinyl weren't something you could disguise except with a rug. However, I haven't seem scratched fake wood vinyl planks other than at the mall, so I suppose the high end ones could be better.

Kardean, XL Flooring, EZ-Lay and apparently other companies offer a loose lay (also called drop and done) vinyl plank. The perimeter planks are glued or affixed with 2-sided tape. Then, the rest of the planks are just dropped in snug against each other. If a plank is damaged, you just suction it up with a plunger and drop a new one in.

Glued down planks are also pretty easy to replace. They just use a blow dryer to warm the glue up and replace the damaged plank.

From what I understand, the floors have to be very smooth and level.

To answer your original title question, no.

Even IF a flooring is able to decieve people by looks, it MUST be disclosed when selling and the truth is that people are far less likely to pay a premium for vinyl floors than they are for real hardwood.

Honestly though, why should they? A large part of the appeal of hardwood floors is their durability; they generally don't NEED to be replaced, they can be refinished.

It sounds like (and maybe I'm wrong here) that you feel that people should pay the same amount for your house with LVT as they would for a house with hardwood floors.

Here is an honest question you. If someone offered you 2 products that looked the same, one came with a 25 year warranty and the other came with a lifetime warranty; the first was trying to emulate the second, which would you choose?

I, personally, STRONGLY dislike wood floors in a kitchen. However, that being said, if I were house hunting and came across a home with the right look and they used LVT, I absolutely WOULD expect a discount/ drop on list price compared to a home with real wood.

There is nothing wrong with trying to appeal to buyers but you shouldn't expect buyers to pay the same for your vinyl floored house as they would for genuine hardwood floors.

I think it's pretty important in this discussion to recognize the OP is dealing with a concrete slab. So am I. Everyone is universally telling me that I am limited to engineered hardwood if I want wood. Most of which aren't really great for refinishing, honestly. And, have the same kinds of realities as laminate in terms of underlayment and moisture exposure and the hollow feel and noise of floating floors etc.

I'd love to have solid hardwood, preferably stained on site and nailed down. But, that's just not viable for me. Apparently, it's not for Dana, either. With solid wood, dents and scratches seem to just add character. That's not really true with the engineered samples I have checked out, though. When I mar them, there are these ugly plastic-like, white marks. I understand that it is because of the newer finishes on off-site woods or something. It's been consistently true in my testing. And, I have a bevy of local sales people telling me I am going to regret the engineered hardwood in six months and spend a lot more for it. They recommend LVT due to our climate/moisture or laminate for durability/resilience/minimal scratching. So... it gets tough to justify going with the engineered hardwood. I went through a brief period in which I became convinced strand bamboo was my answer - but then I started seeing severe cupping in climates like mine and that scared me off.

Do the LVT! Two years ago, we refinished our existing hardwoods and put LVT in two rooms that had carpet. Our little dog (who pees on the floor everyday, multiple times a day) has already ruined the hardwood in one area. The LVT is holding up perfectly to loads of urine! It's so low maintenance! I think it's held up much better than our oak floors. If it makes you feel better our realtor wasn't familiar with LVT but when she saw it, she was really impressed. She couldn't believe it was vinyl.

I'll bet once you get it down and it looks good and people find out how low maintenance it is, some of your neighbors will get it too!

Here's the area on the Moduleo LVT where the dog pees everyday:

Here's the area on the solid oak hardwood floor where the dog pees everyday:

Here's what the LVT looks like in our living room.

It's not stunningly gorgeous like real, high-end wood floors, but I think it looks pretty decent. We can't afford stunningly gorgeous and I don't really want to maintain stunningly gorgeous anything. I like things easy. It's just a matter of selecting flooring based on your needs and lifestyle.

I know this is old but I’m curious what you did and how you like it? We are putting in a nice wood-look vinyl in our Florida home. Wood floors are highly discouraged here due to the year-round humidity. Most everyone does whole house tile, which I hate!! So wood vinyl is a popular option for those of us that miss the look of wood.

I would always use whatever flooring is expected in my neighborhood, for resale value. I couldn't decide between site-finished hardwood (I'd had it before and loved it), and Vermont slate (I'd had it in our Maine apt and loved it, too!). I had multiple dogs/cats at the time - children were out of the house, but DH loved working in the garden and would track in from time to time.

I called a local realtor who lived in my neighborhood and asked her opinion. She said people who buy in my neighborhood don't "understand" Vermont slate and are not familiar with its wonderful qualities; they expect site-finished hardwood floors. So, that's what I did. I could be happy with either, but removing a slate floor if a buyer didn't like it someday, would be very costly and messy. Wood made much more sense. And it wears like iron!

Ive used the individual vinyl plank floors in a rental and they are very strong and do not damage. They are completely different to vinyl that is on a big roll. I would and have, used them again and think they look good. At the end of the day though, fake wood is and always will be fake wood. So if you want the real thing, wait and save up.