You’ve set yourself lightyears ahead of every other Vinyl educator!!! Thank YOU🎉👍

I do a ton of work for Home Depot. I’ve worked with all the planks you have reviewed. By far lifeproof is the best and most durable hands down.

I installed a ton of the life proof. It’s a quality floor. The best Lowes floor I have installed is the ProCore line. The 11X24 tile look is really durable. I would install both in my home!

I had lifeproof installed a few months back. We were impressed with the quality of the product, but our installers had no idea what they were doing and ruined so much of the floor. They were also their own worst enemy when it came to leveling, and even installed directly on top of some older plank flooring. When we walk across certain spots you can feel the floor give as it isn't flush. The installer also decided to keep going after a terrible install on one plank and it sticks out like a sore thumb. That said when installed properly Lifeproof seems like an excellent product and this review reinforces our decision. Thank you so much for going to these lengths to test. I also learned a bit and may just install my own next go round. Great work.

I used to sub out for home depot floor installations, and have probably installed several football fields worth of life proof. No complaints. For the price, the stuff is VERY durable and 100% waterproof. The thicker product is great for high traffic commercial spaces You really have to try hard to mess this stuff up. I even had it installed over my back patio for about 3 years. Sun, Rain, Snow. No Problems. Was completely dry and mold free when I pulled it up to move. The only issue with the product is when you get into large floor plans, the graphic tends to repeat but you can jump up in price point for multi width planks, and even an engineered hardwood version that has a thin layer of venire over the LVP core to give you a natural pattern that never repeats. Also, it is far easier and faster to tip the planks on edge and slide the long side in first and then hammer the end seams down IMO Traffic master is about the WORST product you can ever install into your home. Home décor isn't much better.

Just finished my floors with your help and videos! God bless you and your family my man!

Thanks for another great video Joe. I just finished my 3rd house using vinyl planks and your installation techniques. All 3 turned out good but I learned a lesson on house number 2. I will never again buy the bargain priced vinyl. Never. As you show here, the locking tongue breaks easily during install and the long term durability is questionable IMO. My advice to new DIYers is purchase the more expensive planks, they go together without breaking and the finished job looks great! Watch Joe's other videos on layout and install tips and tricks, it will give you a tremendous head start on this kind of project.

I installed about a 1000sqft of the Arnica Lake 22 mil Lifeproof LVP. It was great to install and look awesome. Thanks for the great information. Your videos made the job much easier. You have made the job much easier.

Thank you for such an in depth look at vinyl flooring. I am in the education stage for flooring for a room in my basement and this was so helpful.

6 "MIL" is not 6 mm wear layer. MIL is 1/1000 of an inch. so 6 MIL is 6/1000 of an inch or 0.1524 mm for the wear layer. I don't know why they mix units like this, it's really annoying and confusing

Thanks for this. You are the "Project Farm" of flooring... Helps to know what test to put LVP flooring through

We are doing our entire home with the Home Depot Lifeproof after trying it out on two rooms. It has been doing great, even with our dogs. Your techniques have been very helpful 🙂

Thanks to your videos, I had the confidence to do my own flooring and it turned out great. All your tips and tricks really made the difference! Thank you!

Great testing! One thing that I also think is important is how easy it is to clean. The deeply textured planks are often really difficult to clean with a normal rope or squeegee mop as mud gets trapped in the 'grain'. If you have a busy hall or messy pets, this can be a big problem as it takes a lot more effort and time just to mop the floor compared to a smooth vinyl covering. Also, I have been down the real wood laminate and vinyl plank road several times. They look OK if you lay it well (expensive to lay), but if any water gets underneath and you have a non-permeable base below, then you have to rip up the whole floor as the water just stagnates and stinks and the wood curls. These days I just use vinyl roll flooring with a fake wood plank pattern. It fools everyone who sees it, cheap to buy and fit, easy to lay and pull up if needed, warm and soft to walk on, doesn't clickety clack, easy to clean, waterproof if seal edges. You have to be careful moving heavy items around as it is softer than hard planking but after ripping up several expensive laminate floors due to water damage and having to throw it away, I prefer it.

Super helpful info! I just had a sump pump failure & have a total loss on my finished basement. Approx 2,200 sq ft area. I had both carpet, and laminate wood throughout all rooms. So dry out phase with a restoration company is going on now. This company highly recommended the Lifepro series at HomeDepot also for wear,waterproof , scratch resistance...etc. Your video really cleared up many questions I had. Thanks again 😻 your demonstration style and calm demeanor is very nice!

Thank you so much! I am looking at the 22ml Life lock for a wheelchair user and for my misfit pet..

Im being used LifeProof the 2 last ones that you try, and I don't have a single problem after 3 years, still looks like new

We’re about to purchase the Arnica Lake 22mil from Home Depot. Your reviews were so helpful to make our decision We appreciate your reviews!

I went with the 22mil lifeproof and am installing it now. Pricy but it does feel like really good quality. I saw this vid after buying it and it confirms my experience so far. Your install videos were super helpful as well! Thank you

Thank's Joe ! Vinyl flooring has become a crazy house of product claims that can immobilize us ! You have given a comprehension of "what count's" that really clears the air.

My daughter just did her whole house in lowes version of the real wood like you showed at the end. It is beautiful and looks like real wood because it is. The only drawback we found the finish is rather dull, so if you want a shiny floor, hers isn’t.

Great job, thank you. I have been using the Life Proof for two of my recent properties. Once is almost 6 years installed. It does scratch but thankfully it has so much pattern that it isn't extremly obvious. I think it looks incredible and overall has worn really well. For the price, I think it is great and I would definaly use it again.

What an awesome video. Wow. Thanks for doing all that work and spending all the cash for those boxes of flooring.

I really like how you went through the sample pieces with Menards. Wish you could have done that with this one. But nice job.

I recently installed LifeProof Castle Black Slate vinyl plank tiles in my entryway. The install was surprisingly easy; I wish I had done it sooner. I guess it's a drop-and-lock type thing? It went together kind of like the second LifeProof planks you showed in this video, but the locking strips look very different, and the long-side overlay portion did not take well to alignment taps. It would distort very easily, and I wrecked a couple tiles before I figured out it was easier to just get the alightment right when setting it down. My only gripe about it is the anti-scratch coating, and I notice the same thing with that wood style plank in your video: It has a very odd sheen that seems to reflect a lot of blue light. The tiles reflect the wall color, and completely changes the appearance of the floor once it's installed, depending on where you stand in the room. It's borderline almost bad enough to make me want to rip it out and find another solution.

Well, thank goodness I am not a looser lol. The first lifeproof in the video is my exact floor. Never having laid any floor I just thought I was just a newbie, but watching you put the floor together was the exact problems I was having. The cross joints were awful to put together never mind tapping I was bashing them to get them tight. I checked to make sure I wasn't breaking the locking system and I wasn't but I found it very difficult to get them tapped down and tight. Finished product looks great 3 months in but wow we're those joints tricky. About to start a second floor with the same product. Hoping all the steps I learned will make the second install easier.

Currently installing LP 22 mil vinyl planks throughout the whole house. The only challenge I've had with this vinyl is the install under the door jams since the product is more solid compare to others. Nonetheless, your videos have helped me through the process. Thank you for this review Joe. I hadn't been able to find any videos on this particular product until now.

This is an awesome channel Joe. Really informational.

For reals… your reviews on flooring is the only reviews i trust.

Your Traffic Master selection is Winding Brook, the same one I put on our front porch. While not warranted for outdoor use it has been holding up very well in a covered, occasionally rained on area.

I did 3000 Sqft of life proof last year, your videos are extremely informative.

You can also leave lifeproof outside in TN weather for a full year and the color stays the same.

Hey Joe, great vids! I’d love to see a smudge test too. I walk around barefoot all the time and there’s nothing I hate more on vinyl than smudgy footprints. They are hard to clean off. Maybe I have oily hands and feet but if I touch it or walk on it barefoot and see smudges i know it’s gonna drive me crazy.

Great tests, thank you for your contributions! We really need them!

i dont know how many views this has, but it needs more.

Very detailed information, very informative and well presented. Many thanks.

I smacked mine with a metal dumbbell as a test. The non- padded 4mil left a small mark, but heck, barely noticeable. Of all the samples I took home, any that had padding, left a thumbprint size break in the plastic. This was supposed to simulate dropping a skillet. In laying a small bathroom. Two planks butt joints broke on me and I was having more issues putting together than any you demonstrated. Chalked to my skill level. Got mine at NFM. Appreciate the tests you did. Confirmed my own findings

Thanks ever so much for spending the time, effort, and money to put this video together. I’ll know what I’m looking at - and for - when I replace the kitchen floor. One question came to mind: I understand the “score & snap” test, but what is the jig saw testing?

Problem with LifeProof is they don't offer every color in the higher wear layers... so your options are limited. From my research LifeProof is the better brand from big box store. In the end I went with wear layer that came in the color I wanted.

Fantastic, thanks! I'm going to do my house with the best I can get from HD or Lowes. i appreciate your discussion of the patterns and repetitions. I really wish they'd make the variations more subtle. Any bold (eg knotty ) pattern stands out like a sore thumb when repeated many times. In a effort to make it look more natural, they made it so it screams fake. I got some samples of that engineered wood surface last year and it looked great. But it failed miserably on the fork test, especially the darker color

This was incredibly helpful!! We have a box of the 22mil wear layer that I have been moving around the house to see how it looks.

The Home Decoration flooring I paid 3.09-3.39 per SQ ft. I was worried I wasn't going get the same color. My sub floor has seen better days I'm almost done prepping the floor. Waiting for my planks. Thank you for testing as this is isn't cheap. I wanted to use a different plank but my wife said it's has to be the same color so my plan to do living room and dining are on hold. One area at a time.

I used Pergo Outlast + Java scraped oak in my kitchen, dining room, hallways, and my first bedroom (aka, my music room). I absolutely love it! It is very durable, very strong... the locking edges do not deform when I was banging on them (very hard in some cases) getting them into place. It is 10mm thick with a 2mm attached pad. I still put a paper vapor barrier down. I am certainly pleased with the look and the feel so far (I installed back at the end of 2021). In contrast, I recently (a few weeks ago) bought some very cheap, thin (6mm thick, no pad) laminate plank for an accent wall. It does look amazing!!! HOWEVER, if this were needing durability for a floor, I would have taken it all back after the first few planks. Just by tapping it to get it to lock while on the wall, the edges deformed and in some areas the wood below the pattern started to split and pull away from the surface! Luckily, it being installed on a wall, the locking system was not crucial. The Pergo I bought was around $48/ box, while this cheaper stuff was around $21/box.

Nice , you really put a lot of work in . Great job ...

The 22 mil I’ve worked with that numerous amount of times and a lot of times when you tap down the butt seam you can see a fine line in it like it cracks almost especially on dark colors

Bro! Thanks for the video! I’ve been wandering the isles of HD dreading my flooring project. Thanks for making it understandable. I’m way less intimidated 😂

I couldn't score and snap my Lifeproof. Had to use a miter saw. I put it in a rental 3 years ago and they have 5 kids and it still looks brand new

Thanks for the honesty and transparency! Great job!!

The most useful video on KZfaq. Thank you!

Thanks for making this video brother. I got a ton of questions answered from the comfort of my couch thanks to you. I feel good about my purchase

Just wanted to say THANKS. Cant thanks enough. Learned a lot from you sir.

It’s a lot easier to alternate rows to lock them in so they click. You don’t put life proof in like a angle angle lock. You put the 2n piece of the 2nd row in before you put the 2nd piece of the first row and you will see what I mean. That locking system is very strong and durable. Trust me I work with lifeproof every day

If off-white colors of LifeProof were offered in 12 mil or higher wear layer, I'd buy it immediately. 6 mil is a low budget option for those who don't drop or drag anything sharp on the floor. 6 mil cannot withstand a simple knife drop test without a noticable scuff.

Another great video as always. I have a quick question, are you able to make a video on installing transition pieces for a fireplace that has a rock floor. Your help and all your videos are greatly appreciated. May God bless you and your family.

There are many good vinyl flooring choices out there. We ignored the Big Box stores and decided on Coretec from Shaw. It's been down 2 year and no problems. We saved a lot of money by purchasing it from an out of state retailer online. Saved hundreds of dollars. No sales tax and FREE SHIPPING. Do your homework.

And a lot of times when the butt seam is a little raised that same price may go down smooth in another area. It also has to go with the factory of their blades are dull

Can you do an impact test ( random heavy/light items)on these same brands?, maybe at counter tops heights at first then higher.

This information is so valuable, thank you 🙏🏻. God Bless!!!

Just what I’m looking for! Thank you

I really wish I would of saw this beforehand. I bought 6m wear layer. I hope it lasts. The lifeproof has a lifetime warranty though and that’s why it’s called lifeproof. As long as you install it in their guidelines.

Thank you! Super helpful. Didn't know the wood veneer rigid core was a thing. That's pretty exciting!

Thank you for doing these videos ! it is saving me time, money and Headaches I have returned the vinyl plank I was going to use and even if it cost me a little more gonna be worth it in the long run

I’ve bought lowes version 7mil and have a good experience

Thank you for helping us DIYers. I added $10 to your efforts. I contribute $$ to this channel. We are saving so much $$$ by learning from you. I can at least take some of that savings and contribute.

Hi. I just found your channel as I've been researching vinyl plank flooring. I'm renovating my 1990 21ft class c motorhome. Please help me make a decision. The previous owner who started the reno, put roll out vinyl but I didn't like the color. So, I started laying peel and stick vinyl tiles. They were old and didn't stick well, so I used some flexseal that was laying around. It would not cure and they just slide when you walk on them. Some stick, but some don't. So....... I decided to get rigid core vinyl plank flooring. I got a good one with really strong locking area. The old vinyl and the peel and stick are still on the floor. 1) Can I just apply the planks over the old floor without ripping it all up? 2) I know it's a floating floor, but because I'm in a moving vehicle, can I just glue and nail the planks to help keep them from moving around? I'd like to hear from someone who has nailed and glued their planks in an rv and how it's lasted. I'm doing this project by myself and I'd love some help if anyone around the New Orleans area is affordable. Still have to redo the roof and finish building out the bunk area. I'm going to be living in it full-time as my husband ran off last year and I can't afford rent or a mortgage. Looking forward to having my own secure, affordable home and the freedom to travel and explore.

I just purchased the Lifeproof 22 mil this weekend after a lot of research including watching your videos. I'm going to be installing this myself😬 I didn't see links to the 2 videos you mentioned at the end of your video that we should watch. Which 2 were you referring to?

maybe it's me but its so hard to keep track of the good ones.... after I watched it had to go back to see which were 9 or 9.5s..... Life proof 22 mil looks like the winner here.

Very much like the number scale of installation ease. So I’ll give you a “10” on that.👍

I think that 22 mil Lifeproof (Arnika) is made by Mannington because they still hold the patent to Aluminum Oxide on SPC / WPC planks. Sucks we can't get that in Canada. The most i've seen is the 12 mil product.

Great video! Thanks for all of the information.

Would love to see your take on the Malibu Wide Plank which is sold by HD as well. Curious if you have the same findings.

Seems like for more "authenticity," the wood veneer planks should come pre-scratched (think, torn jeans sold as new). That way, the new scratches would probably "blend in" with the manufactured ones. Yes, I am joking...

Amazing detail - thanks for spending so much time to educate us. Great job!

You can also use vodka to dissolve marker.

Great information keep up the great work

Pretty much all the plank any manufacture makes goes together easy. Especially how your doing it. You need to show people when they need to go through Forrest’s under door jambs also when they need to go backwards with any product. That’s the true test of a east installation not like your showing in a wide open area.

Joe! Thank you for your help making easier in terms of choice. It could’ve been harder without your video!!!

Using life proof myself the wear is decent. The only thing that has scratched it is dinning room chairs without padding. Easy to install but the locking system is flimsy.

Sorry my stupid question Joe, but what’s the difference between water resistant and waterproof? Does the water resistant get damaged like laminate if gets wet? Thank you

Great, useful test. One of a kind.

Thanks Joe. I think you need to call the sand test the "Joe Shuffle". As far as the last item you showed with the wood. I recently installed it. Mine had 4' and 2' pieces. But with no repeat pattern that makes it easier. But with the 2' and 4' you do need to watch staggering them. I do not like the 1 2' then 1 4' method, 1 2', 1 4'. It looks to hand picked. I liked it better as a random pattern, but it took more thought. IT LOOKED AMAZING!!!

Thank for all your hard work sir.Have you heard of that peel and stick tile that you can grout it looks really nice.You think you can do a review on that when you can sir .

I wish you did this 3 years ago!

Best review in town, thanks Joe 😀

Another winner video - who knew ! Sarasota, Fla., August, 2022

Joe, I have a gap in my plank, life proof, looking closer? I see the lip is cracked, should I super glue it back like other you tubers show, or completely remove and replace the piece?

Thank You for this video.Very good info...

I installed the 22mill same color as your test. The biggest pain was the drop and lock but overall not bad. This was my first vinyl flooring install with my dads help. I have just a few boards I missed that have a little bounce on the end. What do you recommend to remove residue from liquid nail we used to attach trim around the cabinets.

What's the best locking system that you recommend if it's not drop and lock? We're doing our house in November. Appreciate your channel and God bless!

Thanks for your videos been a great help, have you worked with pergo outlast laminate flooring? Am planning on doing my flooring around the house

Hi, I'm enjoying your testing! One question, is it better or worse to have the repeating patterns that overlap?

Amazing content!

Thanks for good video! Do you think grip strip vinyl flooring is easier for installation?

Appreciate you brother....well said!

Very informative! Thanks!

Trafficmaster is good stuff. I installed mine 5years ago and it’s been perfect so far. You can remove scratches from it with a kitchen green scratch pad.

Thank you for sharing, very helpful in knowing the differences between these. God Blessings 🙌.

I have found Mohawk has really high quality plank. The lock system is very durable.

jack,help me out what is the best vinyl plank for a living room ,what make i was told mohawk can you tell me i think ur videos are great thank ,you

If you get a chance to test Flooret products, I'd be interested. I got a few samples and I am impressed with the quality. In the ballpark of the better Lifeproof products per my impression of your testing.