Luxury vinyl or tile? Other flooring thoughts?

[erosenst]

Continuing on my “renovations” thread about the bathroom...

...if/when we do the bathroom we will have to redo the floor. Which begs the question of if we should redo all the floors. Right now there are three different tiles in the common rooms, with no transitions and in colors I don’t like. It’s....fine. At best. (Ok it drives me nuts but DH doesn’t even notice it.) Bedrooms have neutral Berber carpet that works well with the colors in each.

But I’m shockingly indecisive on what to do from here. Total space is big - 2500 sq ft. About 1500 is currently tiled.

So - rip out tile ($$$) and replace with tile? ($$$). Put luxury vinyl over existing tile? ($$). Bite the bullet and put hard surface everywhere?

The condo is in Florida so I’m not worried about warmth of the floor in bedrooms. I’m not crazy about putting a ton of money into flooring which is making me lean against tile, and I hate (with a passion) dirty grout. LVP has a ton of advantages but I don’t want it to look cheap. It’s a split bedroom floor plan so there will be a lot of places where hard surface meets carpet if we go that route. (Three bedrooms meet the flooring.)

Do you have LVP? Do you like it? Did you decide against doing it for a specific reason? Are there other things that should factor into my decision? Brands you would suggest or stay away from?

Thanks in advance!!


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[SnuggleBuggles]

This is what we put in https://www.lowes.com/pd/Mohawk-7-Pi...ing/1000512729
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I’m a fan. It was a good price, it looks good and it’s easy to care for. You rent your place, right? Having something that looks good but is low maintenance and low stress is good. You won’t be worried if your fancy floor gets damaged (accidents happen!).


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[AustenFan]

We put LVT into our kid bathroom, and it looks really good. I didn't want tile because my kids drop so much and break everything, both what is dropped and the tiles themselves (our old house has cracked tiles in every bathroom because of the kids). We've been here four months, and the floor still looks perfect. It's easy to wipe up, and no grout lines means it's easy for the kids to clean up. I don't think it looks cheap or like Grandma's old linoleum tile. I don't remember which brand the contractor put in, because they were working with the flooring company here while we were still out of state, but it was pretty average in price (and cheaper than real tile).

As an aside, when we moved into our previous employer-owned condo five years ago, it was all ceramic tile from the 90s (even on the stairs and in the bedrooms) and so gross. They wanted to put in carpet in the living areas, but we paid extra to have them put in hardwood everywhere on the main floor except the bathroom. I loved the continuity. I wouldn't put hardwood in a bathroom, but I'm a big fan of all the other living areas flowing into each other with the same flooring. Several different kinds of tile would drive me crazy, too.

[erosenst]

Yes - we do rent although maybe only one year after we do this. Thanks for the link!

[erosenst]

Yeah I think I would love the continuity, especially since LVP can go in bathrooms. Also an advantage to have everything g that drops not break. We are starting to think about stuff for aging in place - think we may like the softer flooring too.

And thanks for getting it on the mixed tiles!

[bisous]

It seems that all my friends love it. It gives me great pause, though I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings!

1. I don’t think it looks great. Maybe I just haven’t seen the best handiwork?
2. It seems trendy. Will people love it in 10 years? Will it look good in ten years?
3. I don’t know that it’s as easy to take care of as some would say. My cleaning group on FB sure has lots of issues with streaking.
4. When it inevitably becomes unfashionable (or worn out) again, what a nightmare for the landfills!

I think many of these can be overcome (can be better fabricated, you can figure out a good cleaning regimen) but I still worry that it either won’t last or it won’t be stylish in a decade and then it will be a huge nightmare.

As a perennial renter, I’m all about tile. It is hard, it’s expensive and it can be ugly! But done right it lasts FOREVER. That’s what I’d lean towards. I’d just live with what I had until I could afford to upgrade to beautiful tile.

[SnuggleBuggles]

It seems that all my friends love it. It gives me great pause, though I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings!

1. I don’t think it looks great. Maybe I just haven’t seen the best handiwork?
2. It seems trendy. Will people love it in 10 years? Will it look good in ten years?
3. I don’t know that it’s as easy to take care of as some would say. My cleaning group on FB sure has lots of issues with streaking.
4. When it inevitably becomes unfashionable (or worn out) again, what a nightmare for the landfills!

I think many of these can be overcome (can be better fabricated, you can figure out a good cleaning regimen) but I still worry that it either won’t last or it won’t be stylish in a decade and then it will be a huge nightmare.

As a perennial renter, I’m all about tile. It is hard, it’s expensive and it can be ugly! But done right it lasts FOREVER. That’s what I’d lean towards. I’d just live with what I had until I could afford to upgrade to beautiful tile.

I did consider 2 and 4 when we purchased, especially #4. But, unlike some people, we aren’t ones to rip out something based on trends. We make a long term investment. Pretty much all flooring choices have environmental pros and cons too.

OP- what about the porcelain wood look tiles as a compromise? I dislike the hardness (and potential slipperiness) of tile so it isn’t/wasn’t the direction I wanted to go but might be worth considering for your needs.


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[bisous]

I did consider 2 and 4 when we purchased, especially #4. But, unlike some people, we aren’t ones to rip out something based on trends. We make a long term investment. Pretty much all flooring choices have environmental pros and cons too.

OP- what about the porcelain wood look tiles as a compromise? I dislike the hardness (and potential slipperiness) of tile so it isn’t/wasn’t the direction I wanted to go but might be worth considering for your needs.


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I agree that of you use it and love it for decades that’s a very environmentally friendly choice! I confess to not having done much research about how durable it is. Can it handle punctures and scratches? Will it wear down over time? I haven’t looked into it.

I love the idea of a smooth, uniform, highly cleanable surface and would love to be dead wrong about LVP!

[erosenst]

Thanks for the continued input.

In general, *IF* I can find something I really love at the time, I like it for a long time. We have Brazilian cherry floors in our first floor. I loved them the first time I saw them somewhere else. We put them in in 2006 when it was “the end of trendy”. We still love them and get compliments because it works well with our color scheme - lots of navy which I’ve had for 20+ years and still love. I just replaced a guest room duvet because it had really faded (gradually) over time. Wasn’t terrible but it was time - and I realized it was 20 years old but still something I might buy today.

So I’m not concerned that it’s not in style as long as it’s not viewed as “actively tacky” (?) now (ie guests and renters may view it that way), really hard to maintain/easily damaged, there’s a better solution etc.

Given the price to put tile in (probably $45k - I’m at least close) I don’t think we would ever do it in the bedrooms AND common areas. One thing I hadn’t thought of til recently is that I likely won’t like lvp I the bathrooms - especially the master with a nice tile shower. Given that, may keep carpet in the bedrooms, which DH prefers. So if we are keeping carpet in that scenario, Could keep it with tile too which would be $20kish (for common areas) which becomes “expensive” instead of “prohibitive”. But I still think there may be advantages to lvp if I can find some I like.

Please keep the input coming. It’s really helpful!


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[ArizonaGirl]

I don't know what COL area you are in, but we put wood plank tile in our 2300 sf home and it was $12k. We did do the removal, but I thought it was very reasonable and I love it.
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