flooring options - vinyl plank vs. carpet/laminate/etc.?

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

My husband and I live in a home we bought 19 years ago and said we were going to redo the flooring then. Then we got pets and lives and ... you understand. Now we have an empty nest. The kid has moved out and all the pets have passed away and we don't want to live there more than another 2 or 3 years.

We live in mid-Missouri. (According to our city Chamber of Commerce, the median income is $58,434 and the median home price is around $160,000. My guess is our house will sell at about $135,000 after it's all said and done. The house is a split-foyer, raised ranch built in the 1970's. We're in a good neighborhood but nothing fancy, near schools etc. It has a living room, dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms, two baths up (one of those the master) and a family room, office, powder room, laundry room and garage down. About 5-6 years ago we consulted a realtor who advised us our house is not the type to put granite counters and hardwood floors in and suggested laminate and re-carpeting with builder-grade carpet right before we list. At that time we had recently put tile in the kitchen and dining, but they installer did a horrible job and our tile has cracked and just looks horrible, so it has to go too. If it matters, we're about to put in hickory cabinets (already bought - they look like the ones in the picture, though that is not my house) and laminate counters. https://st.hzcdn.com/fimgs/4b4135980fbe5dbb_6027-w500-h333-b0-p0--.jpg

I recently walked into a flooring store and was looking at what I thought was laminate. Turned out it was LVP. What do you think of LVP through a whole house (except bathrooms - tile there is nice), including bedrooms, stairs and office? There are two other alternatives. Just LVP in the kitchen and dining and perhaps the landing on the stairs where the old parquet has seen better days and carpet everywhere else. Or LVP everywhere BUT the bedrooms - it would go down the hallway, but the bedrooms would still have carpet.

Of course, using something besides LVP is an option whole house, but for the price I think I prefer it over laminate and as I said, it's not really a hardwood house, though I could get engineered hardwood for just $2-3 more per square foot installed.

I'd love to hear from anyone who knows what, if anything, our flooring ideas would do to resale. I mean, anything is better than what we have, but we'd spend a couple thousand more to increase the price of the house more than that

Kitchen, West Ridge View Estates · More Info

LVP everywhere, bedrooms and stairs and everything.

LVP in the living areas hall, stairs, etc, but carpet the bedrooms

LVP in the kitchen/dining area, but just carpet everywhere else.

None of the above - please make a suggestion.

Featured Answer

maifleur03

6 years ago

I live in KCMO in an area that has houses from the 1940s through 1970s. The LVP is acceptable for areas that can become wet such as baths and kitchens if tile is not used. For the rest of the house use the engineered hardwood.

Being older when I think of LVP and things like that they remind me of the linoleum that was used when I was younger. Ugh, except for areas that get wet.

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Comments (6)

lilion
Original Author
6 years ago
I re-wrote this and posted twice - I've tried to delete this one, but can't get it to disappear. Sorry for the double posting!!!
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violetsnapdragon
6 years ago
We have lived in homes with laminate and homes with vinyl plank and we think the vinyl planks look fantastic compared to the laminate. I think it would be nice and cohesive to run it through the entire place. It holds up nicely, so maybe you want to do it now and enjoy it for a few years before you sell. If I knew it would look so good, I would not have carpeted our bedrooms. My opinion is it will appeal to buyers more than carpet, since people get all creeped out about who has been walking barefoot on the carpet before them.
porkchop_z5b_MI
6 years ago
Neither. IMO hickory cabinets demand something higher-end and something that invokes a natural/rustic vibe -- it's just one of those woods that doesn't lend itself to slap-anything-on-the-floor-and-walls approach unlike say, oak or maple. Personally, I would spend the $$ on either a tile that has a naturalistic vibe (say, slate) or hardwood for the kitchen and put in some neutral carpet in other areas if you don't want to spend the big bucks on hardwood throughout the whole house. LVT is going to look....cheap next to hickory. Quality hickory cabinets are stunning. I have them, and there's nothing quite like them. .
porkchop_z5b_MI
6 years ago
Or, if you're planning to sell relatively soon -- leave the flooring alone and price accordingly, give a flooring allowance, the buyers can choose what they like.
lilion thanked porkchop_z5b_MI
SJ McCarthy
6 years ago
I have seen magnificent European Laminate. It is roughly the same price as a LOW END vinyl. I prefer laminate because it allowed for underpad. The acoustics in a home can drive some people batty. Hard surfaces are echoey. Carpet gets rid of that. Once you remove the carpet you will realize how echoey things become.

I like vinyl in kitchens. I have no problems there. I would go with a very nice stone or tile-look vinyl in the kitchen and then switch over to a decent ($2.50 - $4.00/sf) laminate and a decent underlay (6mm cork or the like).

The 'hollow' sound of laminate comes from POOR/no subfloor prep. And let me tell you how BAD the subfloors are underneath the carpets. Some of these subfloors are SOOOO bad (how bad are they SJ?) they need $2/sf just to fix them. And THEN you are allowed to put something rigid over them.

Vinyl is picky that way. It really, really, really NEEDS a FLAT subfloor. And the ONE THING carpets do NOT have: flat anything. If you work with vinyl (a little less so for laminate) be prepared to add in $2/sf just to get the subfloor ready for rigid flooring.

Of course, if you reinstall carpet, you don't have to do a darn thing! And THAT'S why your Realtor suggested it.
lilion thanked SJ McCarthy