Cabinets are white!

We have 20 year old oak floors in our kitchen and front hall. We finished our basement last fall and put LVP (not the super cheap stuff) down there. While I like the LVP, I prefer hardwood on the main floor. It feels "richer", which I know sounds snobbish.

I totally get that! We prefer the look of hardwoods. I just worry about durability. Has your wood held up pretty well in the kitchen?

I agree with chocolatebunny. We have site finished hardwood in the enire main floor and upstairs. We just put LVP in our basement. I love it for the basement due to it being water friendly but I would never use it upstairs. We have dogs and kids so we have scratches but it’s totally fine with me. We will refinish some day!

With wood floors, people expect to see scratches from every day use and it's considered natural "patina". But, with vinyl, they don't -- it just looks worn.

If you're worried about scratching, I would ask whether LVP also scratches. I know the vinyl we had originally put in our house scratched badly and it was upgraded to best available at the time (1995 -- so over 20 years ago). Things may have changed, but I would ask folks here who have LVP and pets what their (recent) experiences are.

Wood Floors can last a long time. They can also be refinished to update years later.

https://www.houzz.com/magazine/where-should-you-put-the-laundry-room-stsetivw-vs~35155424

A home with nice wood floors is a good selling point.

I think it's a great investment.

Site-finished hardwood floors last far longer than pre-finished or engineered hardwood, and of course, can be sanded down and refinished. I've had my hardwood floors in my kitchen now for 16 years and they're fine. And yes, I have had as many as 5 dogs and various cats during that period of time, and the door to the outside is smack dab through this kitchen.

All the floors in my house are site-finished hardwood. I do chose to use high gloss (gym floor) polyurethane finish on them. They last longer with that finish (it's just harder), and they're so easy to dust and keep clean. Even the occasional pet "indiscretion" is a breeze to clean up and does no harm.

I had always loved hardwood floors and wouldn't consider anything else... Until we bought our current house. It has LVP (Coretec Plus) that visually is pretty good at fooling people into thinking it's real wood. When you walk on it, you can tell it's not because it doesn't have the echo of wood. But it also doesn't have the hollow sound that I remember Pergo-type floors having. Since we have an open floor plan, it is actually nice that is is a quieter flooring. We found a box with a few extra pieces of the flooring in the garage, and decided to test how hard it was to scratch/damage. Hubby dropped an ax on it, no marks. Then he "chopped" it with varying degrees of strength and it really took a solid blow to do damage. He also took a screwdriver to it, dragging the tip of the tool across the "grain" of the LVP (the grain is raised) to see how much pressure it took to create a visible mark, and again, it took significant force to make a mark that was noticeable. And with all of the marks that were eventually made, they all maintained the same color under the damage, so they weren't terribly noticeable until we held the plank up in the sunlight at the right angle. So I'm not pretty happy with the flooring, especially since we live in a mountain climate (snowy, muddy) and have large dogs. I think it will hold up very well. I have no experience with other brands though.

I have site finished white oak in every room except the bathrooms and kitchen/mudroom. The problem I have with wood is that damage can't be spot repaired, you have to refinish the whole thing which means the whole 1st or 2nd floor. A scratch in an upstairs hall is not a big deal but the same scratch in a mudroom with lots of wet traffic? That should not be left alone, it needs to be sealed.

I have had wood floors damaged by dogs (65+ lbs) and I have not seen damage from my current smaller dogs (under 40 lbs). I went with vinyl plank in my kitchen/mudroom because it IS a messy area for us with a dog door, dog bowls, snowy boots in winter and wet muddy shoes in gardening season. The combination of grit, moisture, and multiple sources of it all made my decision easy. And every time there is a spill I am glad I chose LVP. I love my wood floors, they are 200x prettier than my LVP, but I am grateful to have a more easily fixed or replaced option in this room of the house.

Megan - I think my wood floors have held up pretty well for being 20 years old, but they do need to be refinished. We don't have any pets but you can tell in the high traffic areas that the finish is worn down. We have been putting off refinishing them because my husband works mainly from home and it would entail us being out of the house for several days.

We put Coretec Plus in the basement and even though it's only been 6 months, they have held up pretty well to the groups of teenagers we constantly have at our house. I have not seen any scratches yet, but we also picked a pattern that would hide scratches well.

We have the most beautiful site finished hickory throughout our main level. We just finished a kitchen reno and debated on whether to bring the hickory into the kitchen. I really wanted something less precious in the kitchen. Our site finished hickory is lovely, but I baby it, and I have a fairly involved cleaning routine for it. So, we went with LVP. We have 2 dogs, and they have not scratched either floor.

The LVP color we chose was Glendale Pine, a greyish generic wood look by Coretec. No one would ever mistake it for real wood, but it is the perfect supporting cast for my new kitchen. And the livability factor in my opinion is A+. It is super easy to clean and VERY comfortable underfoot. I love it!

Many people talk about refinishing a hardwood floor as if it were an oh snap project. Well, I can only imagine the mess and disruption. Ugh, not looking forward to that day!

They say LVP does not handle sunlight, it can fade, but that is not a factor for us as our kitchen gets scant direct sunlight. However I think hardwood and direct sunlight may not play nice.

The hickory makes me happy everyday, but it would make most unhappy in the kitchen! Do what makes you happy!!

Look into Amtico. I've had it in my kitchen for 15 years and no one can tell that it's not real wood. My floor is called "Priory Oak." It's gorgeous and virtually care-free. Amtico is the original luxury vinyl flooring.

Hi, Megan. I know this is an old thread but we are facing the same decision. What flooring did you go with- if it's the earthwerks options, I'd be so grateful if you could share some pictures (i can't find even one of this on the internet!)

@Jessie Varghese / @Megan Hill did you use Earthwerks engineered wood floors? We are looking at one of their offerings from the backlands collection and would appreciate some inputs. thank you!