Our builder has installed plenty of both, and he much prefers vinyl plank to laminate. He said if laminate gets wet it is ruined and he has pulled out so much laminate flooring.

Laminate has paper wood fiber (will absorb water) I've had moisture damaged Laminate floors before never again. I'm going with higher gradeVinyl that is AC4 which is classified as moderate commercial or higher residential use. 20 mill wear layer. 5 to 6 mm thick with 1.5 mm attached pad. totally waterproof. Shaw Floorte Pro Series 7 Nobility or Nuvelle Density Titan. $4psf (material only). Vinyl Floor LVP

High-end water resistant laminate out of Switzerland - Swiss Kronos - is 14mm thick and MAGNIFICENT. It gives you EVERYTHING vinyl 'says' it does...without the vinyl issues. The cost of this high-end laminate will be close to $7/sf.

The 'closest' thing you will find is CoreTec Plus = 8.5mm thick with a VERY thin underlayer allowed. It STILL has issues with DIRECT sunlight and too much heat. The laminate does not.

Cost of CoreTec Plus = $8.99/sf

Cost of Kronos Laminate = $7/sf (ish)

I go with HIGH end laminate any day vs. medium end/thin vinyl. And I always like 6mm of cork underlayment = very good with laminate. The 6mm cork underlayment is NOT allowed with vinyl of ANY SORT!!! I am not kidding about this.

The people in the 'know' will work with the high-end laminate. Everyone else will try to sell you vinyl...of whatever variety gets them a bigger pay cheque.

I'm a cork flooring expert...so I have NO skin in the game. What I do have is a product that can take over from EVERY OTHER FINISH invented. That means I need to know how every other product's down falls...so I can sell against them when speaking with a customer.

I've sold Lico products (www.lico.ch) out of Switzerland. They are OUTSTANDING. That's how I know what type of quality Switzerland and Germany produce.

There are very few flooring stores that carry the HIGH END (high priced laminates = $5 - $7/sf)...because very few people PAY $7/sf for laminate. They will pay $0.79/sf for laminate. That's also the product that they value as "cheap" laminate. And it is.

You cannot compare the cheap laminate to the high end stuff. It's like comparing the family's Shetland pony to a multimillion dollar Arabian Stallion.

I paid $3 square foot for my 10mm higher quality laminate 3 years ago. The best laminate I could find (even in flooring stores) is $4-5 (the same brand/color I bought was still in the flooring store I visited for $4.50 sq ft). I have yet to see any any laminate over that price. I can tell you that I am VERY happy with my $3 per square foot laminate (again, 3 years ago). Water stands no problem.

buckling IMO is what happens to cheap builder grade laminate flooring, especially stuff that was out 10+ years ago. Even the 8mm flooring that I installed in some other rooms (that is not as good as the 10mm higher quality stuff I installed) withstood the 72 hour bathtub test.

Sounds like results are mixed thus far.

I'm worrying about moving over to vinyl and not being happy with it. I don't want a spongey floor. Is that just my preconception, or is it really spongey?

I walked into a gas station that just wet-mopped the $hit out of their floors, and their floors (it was vinyl flooring for sure) made some odd noises. I hated it so much.

@SJ McCarthy, I installed this brand in my office and love the hell out of it. It's not $7 per square foot stuff though, but it's dead quiet, thick, stiff, zero noises, and water has zero impact.

https://audacityflooring.com/

I installed $2 per square foot stuff 5 years ago (8mm) from a discount flooring store, and it stands zero chance vs the audacity flooring.

Open to what people tell me to do. I need to pick out a flooring material and color in the next couple weeks.

Which CoreTec is the highest commercial grade ? The videos show water does flow through the seams and my subfloors will end up with moisture. Is Revwood Plus better ? But I can't trust any wood particle board material within Revwood Plus 12 mm is still Laminant isn't it ? CoreTec seams are not water tight.

OK...I'm sure these guys believe what they are saying...but they are discussing FLOATING FLOORING. That is sitting on HDF (fibre board). The WATER PROOF stuff is 100% cork. It is 4mm - 8mm thick. There is nothing but cork...cork...and then some cork. Nothing in the middle.

When people say that cork isn't good with water, I always ask them: What is in wine bottles? Cork. What is the material that kept the Titanic's Champagne 'sweat' (ie. now salt water intrusion)? Cork. I'm not kidding. Google the sale of Titanic Champagne. It exists...and so does the CORK that kept the sea water out (at 3800m = 12,000 feet).

Cork is glued down to the subfloor. It is butted tightly together. Then a polyurethane is applied over top = water proof. You can spill GALLONS of water on the floor and it will sit there. The cork does nothing. It doesn't care. So long as the water does NOT reach the walls or the cabinets you are fine.

This is IDENTICAL to stone. This is identical to porcelain. So long as the water does NOT reach the walls, you are fine. Just suck up the water and go. Cork is the same.

Whosoever 'poo poos' cork's water proof properties does not know the REAL cork flooring. The CLICK together stuff is a different animal and it needs to be TREATED as such.

I can get a floating cork floor in a kitchen. No problem. How? Because I know what I'm doing and I know what I'm dealing with. Am I an installer? Nope. Just a sales chic! But I've done it, personally, on several occasions. I can also install a decent glue down cork tile in a BATHROOM. Yep. Baths, kitchens and entranceways = super happy places for glue down cork tiles.

But cork is expensive and takes +++ MONEY to install (if it is glue down). So the cork industry tries to make it easier to install....but the SALES people (and many installers) fail to understand the product and they FAIL to follow installation/maintenance instructions.

I can get the softest wood floor (cork) to be water proof (glue down tile) and to be the toughest floor you will ever meet (Loba 2K Supra AT applied x 2 coats after installation).

But then again, I know what I'm doing; I know what I'm working with and I UNDERSTAND what cork is. I think you would be hard pressed to find the same with the Gents in the video.

As for resale, the EXPENSIVE cork glue down tiles = as valuable as marble flooring. Nope. Not kidding. But then again, I understand cork.

@SJ McCarthy thank you i will look at the USA made swisskrono.com Spill Proof flooring, do you think it is better than Revwood Plus Laminant (proprietary hydroseal surface supposedly waterproof). swiss krono (Link) Thank You !

• swisskrono.com "Spill Proof flooring" is :
• 12mm thickness
• Warrantied against spills up to 24 hours
• Swiss Krono Spill Proof Plank widths of 6” and 7.5”
• _____________________________________________________
• (Revwood Plus is 9.44 " wide)Revwood Plus details (Embossed non-slippery)
• The Uniclic® system will not fail on RevWood Plus flooring.PDF warranty
• Revwood Plus Limited Lifetime Residential Warranty
• RevWood Plus flooring will resist fading from exposure to sunlight or artificial light.

You need to look at the Grand Selection option:

GRAND SELECTION laminate flooring | swisskrono.com

You download the PDF for 2021 = first option = Authentic = 14mm with Aquastop...etc.

The 5G Valinge system is better than Uniclic. The embossed in register is impressive...

Now look at the maintenance for Revwood:

Wood Floor Care, Wood Floor Maintenance, Wood Floor Care | Mohawk Flooring

Revwood still requires the same sunlight and UV protection...the warranty states it 'resists' fading...but it does not say it is colour fast. Again...the warranty is the 'pretty' stuff, it is the maintenance and installation details that tell you what you cannot do.

I trust Swiss Kronos over Mohawk products. That's my bottom line.

I just had the co-owner of a good flooring store out to measure for me--high quality SPC luxury vinyl planks. He told me that they only have one laminate in their showroom, and they only have that because the company gave them the samples. He said no one is interested in laminate any more.

I have been happy with my high-end brand vinyl SPC that has a rigid core backing (same concept as CoreTec).

So long as the customer is WILLING to pay the HIGH END price of the BEST vinyls...The cost for those vinyls is often $8/sf or higher. Most people will gag at those numbers. You can get a low grade solid red oak (narrow plank) floor installed and site finished for that cost.

I just had the Karastan Vinyl Planks installed. Love it. The bottom layer looks like rubber. The middle is crushed limestone. The wear layer is 20mm. FYI. I got Karastan rug padding for the area rugs. They are felt on one side, synthetic vinyl on the other. Karastan brochute, “ do not use rubber pads on vinyl flooring.”

Installed Karastan Lvp in October 2020. One year later we have significant gapping. Trash interlocking system