Wood floors vs. Luxury Vinyl wood look

5 years ago

I have read many many stories on the horrors of real wood floors on here and people saying NEVER again.

I would like a un-polished White Oak, wide plank look. So now we have Luxury Vinyl, and they are hard wearing, water resistant and some look pretty good. I have found one that I thought was nice however the photos online from the manufacture and the sample book look terrible. I was fortunate enough to see a large sample put together that I liked. However, I am worried that they picked all the best planks to make a great looking example and that it was not a good representation of what you would really get. I am now considering getting a box and putting it together in a room see how it functions and looks.

So back to the wood, solid, engineered. The big complaint that I saw was water damage and now with all of these smart gadgets. Is that really such an issue anymore? They have water turnoffs for A/C systems, dishwashers, washers, did I get it all? What do you all think? I will mention I live on a ranch and the floor will see its fair share of dirt, doggy nails.

Thoughts?

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Comments (5)

jck910
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
REAL hardwood. I rarely see horror stories on here about real hardwood. My floors are 50 years old - original to the house - are easy to care for and look great And yes they are in my kitchen
kriii
5 years ago
I have engineered hard wood in most of the house, including kitchen. No water damage issues but I do wipe up drips right away. Check with the floor manufacturer about dogs. My flooring will handle dogs of up to 40 lbs before nails will leave a scratch.
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roarah
5 years ago
I have original hard wood in my main living spaces of my older home. The kitchen has a bit of wear after 94 years with one refinishing 15 years ago but really look great still. I have LVP in my basement and had a water boiler leak and we were able to slightly lift the planks to dry and they did not need to be replaced so this was great. The do have more wear than my wood floors from cat nails and kids playing, it is the main play area of my house but they too look great considering the price, the flood and high traffic they see.
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Patricia Colwell Consulting
5 years ago
IMO a ranch is a working space and the less hassle the better . I have vinyl plank in my walk out I have 3 large dogs in and out all day through a doggie door to a large dog run. In all kinds of weather. End of the day a quick sweep and a damp mop and those floors look like new 13 yrs later IMO hardwood would have been a disaster . I think you need to understand your life and choose flooring to work with it. The stable where I keep my horse they put vinyl plank in the bathrooms and kitchen in the indoor arena they look great 6 yrs later
SJ McCarthy
5 years ago
The ISSUE with finishes (wood or vinyl...doesn't matter) is the LOW GLOSS finish. Yep. The very look you want is the ISSUE that gets the biggest number of complaints. Sigh.

A low gloss (unpolished) look is HORROR to keep LOOKING clean. Low gloss allows OIL to show. And by OIL we mean SKIN oils and PAW oils. Yessssssss....skin oil is SHINIER than the gloss on the floor. Ooooooohhhhhh dear.

So...the vinyl planks out there have big complaints because of the GLOSS level. The low gloss wood floors have the same issues.

So I guess you have to pick your poison.

First things first: Homeowner know Thyself. Are you a 'clean-shiny' person? That is to say, do you feel GOOD when you see a newly cleaned floor look SHINY? Think about that for a minute. Imagine cleaning a low-gloss floor (wood or vinyl...don't care). Imagine you put some effort into a little damp mopping because the floor looks a little dusty or dull. While wet you feel the floor looks GREAT....but then it dries and it looks EXACTLY the same as it did before you pulled out the mop. Oh booo!

Now imagine the same scenario but now imagine PAW prints on every square foot of floor. You do the mop...you follow the instructions given by the flooring producer. Your floors look great when wet....but when they dry the paw prints RETURN! Whaaaaaaaat?

And to make things worse, the moment someone/dog steps foot on the floor, they leave prints once more.

I'm not trying to insult anyone here. In fact these issues come up again, and again, and again on Houzz. Vinyl, tile, cork, hardwood, laminate, etc. Anyone of the that has a LOW GLOSS finish have complaints. And the complaints are almost EXCLUSIVELY about how the floors never 'stay clean looking'.

Do yourself a favour and figure out if you are a 'clean-shiny' person (I am...but then again I couldn't careless if my floors look clean/dirty...I'm the worst housewife/woman in the WORLD!).

If you are (nothing wrong with it...it's who you are) then STAY AWAY from low-gloss ANYTHING.