I installed LVP throughout the house. I was quoted $18,000 for labor and the LVP--which didn't include removing and reinstalling the toilets ($200 each X three), moving the fridge and stove, installing new baseboard throughout. The final cost would have been in the $20,000. range. I did the same job myself for $7000, and saved $13,000. I watched many KZfaq videos on how to do this work, how to prepare the subsurfaces, how to cut the LVPs. I also purchased the best tools that the pros use. It took quite a while, and I'll never do it again, but thirteen grand is a lot of money to me, so I bit the bullet, and my floors look amazing.

I live in Florida and I have ceramic tile throughout my house. We have sandy soil, so the sand will damage vinyl plank or wood floors. The ceramic holds up to our sandy soil, so it suits us. I also have a vacuum robot and mop robot to keep them clean. It makes life easier!

I have to LOL, I looked at a brand new condo a few weeks ago, and they were price in a medium rage, 55 plus. I could not believe they didn't even have hardwood as standard, they were legit putting sheet vinyl in the kitchen, dining, bathrooms, and laundry room as standard! WTF, you want me to pay 520K to get sheet vinyl flooring?! 🤦‍♀

My house is 105 years old and still has its original hardwood floors. I had 3 dogs who lived here for years with zero issues. My neighbors also have hardwood floors and I have never heard them say their cats caused an issue with their hardwood floors.

🐶. I live in Georgia. Engineered hardwood is fine. However, DO NOT get a high gloss finish. The dogs will scratch it. Matte is your friend.

The term ‘Luxury Vinyl’ is an oxymoron.. if the hardwood gets scratched then so be it. That’s what it’s there for. I would also avoid high gloss and go with a more matte finish. Also go with area rugs in high traffic areas.

Hmmm, my experience with LVP (two homes both sold 200K+ over purchase), don't go cheap, get a good installer that can do straight runs, and keep a magic eraser on hand for scuffs. Had it in my open concept first floor, spills, puppy messes, and 3 pit bulls and a rotty couldn't scratch it. Took it like a champ, if that were new hardwood, i would have been in tears.

Purchased a new built house, had carpet taken out and hardwood installed the entire first floor, including the kitchen. Previous house carpet over hardwood had carpet removed, floors refinished and wood flooring in the kitchen. It was an excellent decision when it came time to sell.

My house was built in the 60s. Previous owners put asbestos tile over original hardwood flooring and then later put expensive wool berber carpet on top of the asbestos tile. When we bought the house we didn't know what was under the carpet but it looked nice enough that we planned on keeping it. During the final walk through we found out there was water damage on the carpet in multiple spots that had been hidden under large heavy furniture pieces. We still closed on the house but wanted to replace the carpet right away. That's when we realized there was asbestos tile underneath. We ended up paying a lot of money to an asbestos abatement company and then thousands more to install hardwood... and the asbestos abatement company told us the original flooring was hardwood but it wasn't salvageable.

I replaced my carpet and tile mix with LVT from California Bamboo. I purchased the xtra wide plank. It looks real, it’s waterproof and the stuff I got is much stronger than engineered hardwood. It does not scratch. I spilled nail polish on it and removed it with nail polish remover can’t tell. I have I all over my home. I love this stuff! Oh, it wasn’t cheap. It was around 15k for 2000 sq feet. I shopped around and got the best looking and most durable I could find. But definitely pay for an installer.

I did the absolute worst by accident. Got duped into gray lpv with grooved wood graining. I'm freaking sick to my stomach every day.😪😪😪

We have a 1930's home. We remodeled our kitchen years ago, removed the vinyl laminate flooring, water stained pine underneath, we had hardwood floors installed to match the rest of the home. Love it, yes, hardwood floors are lovely in the kitchen, they clean well, look warm and inviting. I always encourage people that hardwood in the kitchen is a great choice! Thank you for the video!

The main thing to keep in mind when choosing a hardwood floor for a kitchen is to select a wood essence that has a janka hardness rate of at least 1300 and up

Hardwood looks great, but any cat owner knows that cat barf will eat the finish no matter how quickly you clean it up. Tile or LVP is the way to go IMO. As a long time pet owner I would pass on a home with hardwood flooring.

I generally agree with everything you recommend with the following caveats. First, wood flooring in a kitchen is not always a great choice because a kitchen floor often has much more traffic than the rest of the house. Our last house had wood flooring in our kitchen that needed refinishing prior to being placed on the market while our other floors were in very good condition. Fortunately, we were able to hire a flooring refinisher that did a very good job at the openings to adjacent rooms. I would always suggest tile in kitchens. Second, I would usually recommend ceramic tile in finished basements. Third, if at all practical, I would avoid prefinished wood flooring, it looks like prefinished wood flooring. As a retired architect I wish real estate agents would use correct terminology. Two examples of incorrect terminology heard on this video include two favorites of real estate agents: "home" and "hardwood" when referring to floors. an unlived in house is not a home, it is not a home if no one lives in it. Not all wood floors are hardwood, douglas fir, and other species of softwoods are often used for flooring. Unless one is specifically speaking of hardwoods such floors should be referred to as wood floors.

I bought a house in 2010 that had wall to wall carpet. I removed the carpet. As a hardwood flooring contractor, I put in hardwood flooring everywhere, except for two of the 3 bathrooms. I also put in white oak treads and risers and new white oak posts and handrails. For the floors, I put in 13/16 inch thick rosewood parquet that I had bought 30 years ago in Thailand, and bordered it in each room with 2 rows of select white oak flooring. I did the same in the master bedroom and in the basement. For the 2 smaller bedrooms, I put select white oak flooring in. I plan on selling house in 2-3 years and refinishing floors before selling. I’d love to put solid white oak 6 paneled doors in house but I’d never get my money out of it.

One thing I know is that, if you live where sand gets tracked in, you better have some kind of durable tile or even concrete at the entry doors. That sand will eat through wood and vinyl real quick.

Yes. Hardwood is beautiful. But the way we live nowadays, LVP is the way to go. For pets and kids. Put them in my last 2 homes.. and I hate wall to wall carpet anywhere. I have area rugs. The worst is when people put new carpet in to sell.. I just think it needs to be ripped out.

Good to hear some people still love hardwood floors. We have a regional place that manufactures hardwood flooring and they say they have really seen a down trend in sales due to the use of the LVP. Glad to hear people in the know still appreciate the real thing.

I guess I’m weird I liked your house tile much more then the floor you put in

Great video. My only reservation about engineered hardwood is it may warp, swell, or disintegrate if you have a leak, pipe burst, or even a spilled drink that forms a tiny puddle and doesn’t get cleaned up quick enough. There are drawbacks to every one of these options, but since I live in the southeast where it’s humid it seems that LVP is the lesser of all the evils. Its main drawback is that if you have a leak, pipe burst, or spilled drink that doesn’t get cleaned up quick enough it won’t warp or swell, but mold and mildew can form underneath it. LVP also cannot be resurfaced so if you scratch it moving around furniture or something you’ll have to replace that piece of the flooring. So none of these options are perfect. It’s just what you deem to be the lesser of the evils. One type of flooring she didn’t mention is bamboo. I would like to get peoples opinions of bamboo flooring.

I was looking at homes for sale online and I could pick out LVP every time. It just has a sheen that gives it away. Not a fan.

A good idea for sellers is to go to new home displays, they will see the up to date choices in flooring, countertops, fixtures, lighting etc. i was in real estate for years partly working selling existing and also worked for builders. If a seller has decorating, that is too specific it can hurt thecsale, that is why new home displays are so good because the choices appeal to the masses.

We did a pretty big remodel and we used a designer for the big, permanent stuff like cabinets, countertops, backsplash and floors. I’m so glad we did. It didn’t cost that much.

I live in a log cabin, so my late husband had rustic wood flooring installed. It looks beautiful, but is impossible to clean. Swiffer products can’t be used because the floor shreds the dry cloths and the wet ones don’t get in the crevices. The floor destroyed a Floormate machine, so I had to buy a very expensive commercial floor machine. Even then I have to do touchups by hand because of all the dips and “rusticness”. Don’t put in “rustic” hardwood flooring unless you can get on your hands and knees to clean it. I have 5000 ft of hard flooring to clean.

Vinyl flooring has BPA. Though covered with a "protective layer", wear will eventually cause the layer to erode and release the BPA in the vinyl. BPA is a known endocrine disruptor. With babies crawling around at floor level, vinyl flooring shouldn't contain a substance that impacts development.

I live in Southern California and tile floors are very common, we have a expensive neutral beige/white tile that looks very good and is easy to keep clean, just have to have the grout professionally cleaned every few years. We do have an upgraded low pile carpet in the bedrooms but that is just our preference.

I got a StainMaster 25-year warranty waterproof and scratch proof VPF. The only reason for that was because they had a 70% per box sale at tech 4th of July and ended up redoing my whole home, including labor for 4.4k Had there not been a sale, I'd probably had have to had gone with the peel and stick vinyl like these new construction crap holes. I do recommend the flooring I got. It's thick, my dog nor furniture have scratched it and it's holding up really well.

Amateur installation of engineered wood and laminate is a huge issue, it even sounds bad walking on it! Pay a professional for installation! Also, no matter what, do not change flooring from room to room, unless it’s carpet in a bedroom of tile by the tub. When I was in real estate , I saw homes with tile in one room, laminate in another, a different tile in another, what a mess!

We put white oak hardwood in our homes, kitchens included. We put large white porcelain tiles 0.4 inches thick in the bathrooms and laundry rooms. We matched floor height so hardwood and tile are level. Small tile is out. Large format tile is in. Use 1/16 or 1/8 inch grout lines. Wider grout lines are out. I disagree on the engineered hardwood. It is difficult to match years later, if you have to do a repair or an addition. Sunlight eventually changes the color of both engineered and regular hardwood flooring. Engineered hardwood is more difficult to sand. Whereas hardwood flooring can be easily sanded and color matched by professional hardwood installers. Engineered hardwood is indeed a lot tougher, more stable, and lasts a long time. The only issue I have is trying to match engineered hardwood flooring years later. You are correct about carpet. I abandoned carpet in 2017. No one wants carpet anymore. Not all decorators are equal. Beware of decorators who want to experiment on your dime. Trying things they have never done before. One decorator talked one woman into staining a new hardwood floor black. The homeowner hated it. The floor never looked clean. I experimented with laminate flooring, but abandoned it. I did try vinyl tile flooring in a well pump room. It was a good option in the pump room where the well pressure tank and water treatment equipment is located. That room has a drain, in the event of a tank leak. That room has two tanks holding 156 gallons of water, a water softener, and a 49 gallon water heater. The floor is recessed one inch so water will drain before reaching the hardwood in the adjacent utility room. The tanks do not burst, when they fail, because well systems operate between 40 and 60 psi. The tanks typically develop a small leak. We have a moisture detector at the lowest point that alarms when water reaches the detector. That detector has saved us twice so far. The way I do tile is to use 1/4 inch Hardiebacker board that is nailed to the wood subfloor. Never had any tile crack, in over twenty years, and it can be removed years later if you want to change the flooring. In older homes, the bathroom countertops are usually too low. I raise the bathroom countertops 3.5 inches. I use 3/4 inch quartz or solid white cultured marble countertops in bathrooms. I use thick ( 1.5 inch ) quartz countertops in kitchens. Quartz never has to be resealed like granite does. Here is a tip for all homeowners. Fill out and send in the warranty cards for all new appliances. If you don’t do that, you will have to prove you purchased the appliance to get warranty work done. We had a $2700 smooth electric cooktop that was recalled due to a fire hazard. The company paid us the purchase price including tax, plus $300 for an install, plus sent a technician to remove it. It was so dangerous, we were told to turn the breaker off and stop using it. The company cannot contact you, if they don’t where it is. They know what store sold it, and when it was purchased, but have no way of knowing who is using it, if you don’t send in the warranty card or fill one out online at time of installation or purchase.

Thank you, it is music to my ears to hear you telling people to not put carpet in bedrooms. I like the feeling of walking around on a cool hard surface, and I don't have to worry if my dog has an accident on hard surfaces. What I am not sure of is putting hardwood floors in with my propensity to bring home every stray puppy I find.

We just had Provenza Moda LVP, (color is Buttercup) installed in our entire home. Absolutely beautiful and highly recommend! We also protected all our furniture legs just to be extra cautious.

Hardwood has gone through as many trends in finish as anything else. 2000s purpleheart can make your home unsellable. And hardwood is frequently destroyed in kitchens from ice maker failures.

I guess I’m just a boomer at heart because I thought the title in your house was beautiful!! Yes tile is hard and can be loud but it is durable, easy to clean,and timelines. If you want carpet throw some rugs down. Rugs create soft places, define a space and provide noise dampening.

We remodeled an older home and added engineered hardwood throughout, including the kitchen. It is warm and beautiful. On the day we moved in though, our movers gouged the floor by scooting our heavy sofa. Luckily I was there and put a stop to everything until I got felt pads installed under every single surface that was touching the floor. I can now easily move heavy pieces of furniture to clean. After 11 years, our floors look great! We also bought extra flooring, luckily, since we have had 2 water leaks. Our flooring company removed and replaced the damaged, warped pieces and you would never know it.

Homes in the southwest are almost always, slab on grade, with very little soil moisture. So, tile makes much more sense, as it can be installed directly over the concrete slab.

I am not about to sell or buy and I just love to hear her advice. lol

The real estate market is about ready to burst. Like in 2008, Hardwood is really nice, however put on slabs in Florida as well as humidity just makes it risky..we love our tile flooring that looks likes wood. It also works out well with having our dogs. Our beautiful tile is porcelain tile. Great quality. We kept every bedroom, 4 bedrooms with same floring.

I’m so glad you said LVP next because I am in the process of finishing the upstairs of my house in it with the wide plank vinyl look and we love it and we don’t hear the dogs nails on the flooring either 😅

No grout no grout no grout!! Ugghhh

we recently used luxury vinyl plank in our living room. It's excellent!

Yes we got hardwood all over the first floor and the half bathroom. However for the den which has concrete underneath, we got the engineered hardwood with 4 mm top which matches the solid hardwood on the first floor.

Thank you for this information. You Rock😊

I installed LVP on my rental side, 8mm. I like it well enough, but don't love it. On my side I used half inch laminate that I absolutely love. One of the things I first noticed with the laminate was it was far more comfortable underfoot. I fine with the decision I made and am looking forward to moving back to my side...Soon.

Love this video! Totally agree!!

We live in south Louisiana and have solid oak flooring. It does cup seasonally but that is now very minimal after 15 years. I probably would have gotten engineered hardwood if I’d known about this problem. My parent’s house had 2” solid strip oak and cupping wasn’t a problem. I have 4” and 5” planks.

I am going with Engineered Hardwood as my son is a Flooring & Tile contractor and he recommended the engineered hardwood. Its a bit cheaper and yes you can refinish a couple of times. There is some sort of vinyl floor covering on my floors now. I hate it. I don't have a huge home but I am glad my son will be the professional installer for me. 💖 All I have to do is pay for the flooring.

I used white oak laminate from Australia. I looks beautiful. I get a lot of compliments on it. When we bought this house, in Florida, it had engineered hardwood that had not been maintained correctly and was not a good quality. So glad to get rid of it.

As always a video full of valuable info….Several years ago I ripped out my three different styles of ceramic/porceline tile (previous owner installed) that was mismatched and installed a super premium (thicker protective layer) LVP floor throughout the house….it looks great! My home has same flooring thru the home which makes the rooms appear bigger - without those different flooring transition's from room to room…I use area rugs and I get many compliments on my floors. Also, it’s super easy to care for. Speaking of ceramic tile, it was a horror show removing 1500 sq feet of it and was a mess to do it….yes, it was also very expensive removal - but am so glad it’s gone! No more dirty looking grout due to constant mopping.

That luxury vinyl plank top layer looks like the Armstrong cushion-step vinyl flooring I had installed throughout most of my custom house. It's incredibly durable, easy to clean, very non-slip, warm and soft under foot, and spilled liquids don't drool down between planks of wood or engineered wood or vinyl wood planks. People look down on sheet vinyl, but I could not be more pleased with this flooring. It was top of the line, but you generally get what you pay for. It's less expensive than planks and installation should be professional to avoid seams (it's amazing to watch them work).

Great advice to talk to an agent about changing stuff. 4 year ago we bought our home from an older woman and for the sale she replaced the kitchen cabinets with new good Kraftmade quality cabinets with dovetail corners in a shaker style which is good, however she chose a golden oak color! I wish she would have consulted an agent. Also the new quartz tops are a bad color too.

Very impractical advice. I'm 73 years old. When I was a boy all new homes had hardwood floors, anything else was an upcharge. My home was built in 1921 and had beautiful white oak floors. Over the years I've had them refinished 4 times. It's a real pain to do and the floor doesn't look good for long. I put luxury vinyl plank over the wood. If people don't like it, they can pick up the vinyl and the floors will be there ready to refinish. You don't glue or nail vinyl plank down so the wood floor is intact. Engineered hardwood is not as durable as she is hoping it is. Additionally, she could have used a sheet underlayment over her tile and used whatever flooring she wanted. Simply have the doors cut down and install thresholds. Remember them? They had a purpose. Builders don't use them to save money

I just bought a house with no floors -- just bare concrete, so this video is good advice for me.

Taking out tile floors that are functional is wild to me. We made the choice to do hardwood in our kitchen and no regrets like 7 mos in.

I put carpet in bedrooms and ripped all carpet out of the main living and traffic areas and had a LVP FROM LUMBER LIQUIDATORS it looks like real hardwood floor,has ridges and is a Rustic Acacia.

My home was built in 1970 - so no hardwood unfortunately. I just replaced my badly worn carpet with a low pile neutral luxury carpet ( looks great!) because I plan on moving in 1-2 years. I didn’t want to put a lot of money into hardwood or engineered hardwood that I wouldn’t get my money back when selling. I saw one comment that the person wouldn’t even look at a house if it was carpeted. I think that a mistake. You can find a great house with carpet - just change it. Sometimes the inventory is low and you aren’t going to find a perfect house. There will always be changes you have to make. My home had dirty green carpet and ‘70’s wallpaper everywhere. We made changes and the house is beautiful because the bones were great.

Absolutely on hardwood! Bought a 1941 home and discovered Cherry hardwood under carpet. Cherry trim in formal rooms had been painted over. I do think carpet is a good choice in upstairs rooms over principal downstairs rooms where foot traffic above would be distracting.

Thank you for this information. We have a beautiful house with a mountain view that we built 26 years ago and a gorgeous natural maple custom kitchen. The cabinets are in excellent condition but are yellow now. We walked in to the design flooring store the other day and asked their recommendation for our kitchen flooring. They said that there is none right now because everything is so GRAY. The decorator said that the light gray that is in every new house right now is on it's way out and we will swing back to warmer colors. We have a ton of natural daylight and live in Alaska... so our shopping is very limited. We are also replacing counter tops and working on that choice right now granite vs. quartz. Thank you for any input that you may have. P.S. We do have a very light colored new carpet in our living room, loft and bedrooms and love it. Alaska is cold and dark in the winter and carpet is comfy and we much prefer it. We also have a chalet style that would be unbearably noisy with hard flooring everywhere. . We don't have pets and the kids are gone so it will remain nice if we sell in the next few years. Thank you again :)

This is so location based. Laminate is #1 in my area. Easy to repair and affordable as well as requested. Scratch resistant for those of us with dogs. Wood floors are a disaster in a coastal wet locale. LVP? Make sure you investigate the off gassing. Been renovating since 1988.

I love my light, natural-looking, matte, engineered hardwood floors, including in the kitchen and bedrooms. Every day I think it’s beautiful. We’re going to put luxury vinyl that matches it in our family room because of the concrete underneath.

I used a high quality white oak laminate from Australia. I looks beautiful. When compared with engineered white oak it was difficult to tell the difference. I get a lot of compliments on it. When we bought this house, in Florida, it had cheap engineered hardwood that had not been maintained correctly and was not a good quality. So glad to get rid of it. Selecting a high quality material, whatever flooring you select is a must.

Had a leak on my hardwood floor while the house was in escrow. Replacing with tile. Too many things to leak in a kitchen. Unfortunately the MAJOR manufacturer quit producing their top seller so I could not get more to replace.! I was stuck with doing the whole downstairs of a perfectly good floor save 100sf of a wet damaged floor.

We have White French Oak throughout our new home, including the kitchen. You just clean up spills immediately. There’s no gloss on it and my two large German Shepherds haven’t left a scratch.

My decision for any change in my home to sell is based on ROI. If a home decorator runs $1000 and the tile swap out is $4000 then will I received more than $5000 in sales price? I am not a realtor but I can add just fine. Valuation used to be based on comps and square feet. Small adjustments can be made from new upgrades but they are just that, small. My thoughts are different than yours, I would rather see the potential ROI as a gain and not a loss. There is no doubt that making the home the best in city will increase sales price, but spending $5000 for new floors to get the same sales price makes no sense to me. I would rather given a cash incentive to the buyer for $2000 if new floors were indeed bad. Not to just change white to beige.

I have tile in the house I bought last year. I'm not sure if they're porcelain or ceramic, but I love the flooring. The kitchen and dining room floor are made to look like wood, and the living room has a mottled warm neutral look. But the tile is amazing in the dog days of summer in Texas, and I wouldn't want to change it unless I needed to. And then I might try to find a similar tile. If I lived in a cooler climate, a different flooring would be better.

SW here, going more for a concrete tile look, not grey, but warm and light and neutral.

Thanks for the good video. And thanks to your viewers for the helpful comments too. I’m choosing new flooring for my kitchen & laundry room. To replace the very old linoleum. The rest of the flooring is the original hardwood - warm maple/oak, narrow boards. Any suggestions?

I love, love, love my solid white oak hardwood floors!! They are throughout our entire home including a powder room, with the exception of the other bathrooms. We’ve had dogs live on them and our children grew up on them, and now our grandchildren play on them. They’re a low luster satin finish, so not very shiny at all. They do have a gentle worn patina, lived in and well loved with a beautiful warmth. They’re not for everyone, for sure. But I wouldn’t change them for anything. I definitely do not like vinyl of any kind, and would never have carpet again.

Csn you do a video for design ideas in S. California and other markets? It seems that colors and styles okay in Orange County, California are not okay elsewhere, but what's best for OC vs east coast or midwest?

I'm looking at hardwood, or was thinking of laminate, which also seems almost as pricey as LVP---until watching your video. Apartments I've lived in had herringbone parquet floors which were beautiful (pre-war) and the other choice I like are the thin strips. I was thinking of asking a local agent, because I'm not thinking of selling right now. Just have worn out carpeting and need to change now anyway. Looking at comps in the area (central NJ) seems most folks have been putting in that grey LVP which actually looks cheap and horrible and fake IMO. I'm more a traditionalist in this regard---oak flooring should look like oak flooring. Thanks.

we have zero hardwood floors, spec house built in 1960's, so there's carpet in bedrooms, LR & formal DR, and vinyl in the kitchen. There was slate in the entry area and half bath but it was ugly black slate in strange shapes---we had it jackhammered away and did put in porcelain tile which has been awesome. Wood in our snowy climate would be awful in an entry area due to sand/salt, I've seen it in other homes in our area and it always fails the snow-sand-salt test.

This is a great video. Thank you. I have hardwood throughout. Except my open concept kitchen - we have slate floors. They are beautiful but, I realized I’m a bull in a China cabinet. Between my granite countertops and slate floors- my dishes and glassware don’t stand a chance. lol Just something to think about when buying your first home. 😉

Hi Kati, I have a color question. Looking into putting engineered hardwoods in our house. Trend right now is light, but i heard the trend is heading back medium to dark wood colors. We have cool tones and are looking at Mohawk Mod Revival Roadside Oak. Is that too dark of a color to put in? Our walls are Reflection by SW... or would you recommend more of a pecan color. Just wondering from a seller standpoint in 5 years or what you suggest with floor coloring...especially with a darker floor color. What would you consider to be more "classic" in a cool palette? Thank you.

Watched and enjoyed many of your videos today! Wondering what you think of polished cement floors 🤔

Transitions are super important. There are some very smooth ways to transition from wood to tile that are very nice. Hate those hump pieces! One neighbor put in water proof laminate which I thought was an oxymoron. It’s very ridged like wood and is beautiful. I like it a whole lot better than nursing home LVP.

We had a bedroom with severly damaged hardwood floors. We put sheet vinyl over it, looks great and is wearing well. Sorry!

I need info: the shower pan leaks in my travertine marble shower. The whole thing has to be ripped out . My agent suggests a kohler shower made of crushed granite mixed with a man made material to look like travertine. What do you think?

What flooring is recommended for bathrooms? My 100 year old house has tile in the bathroom that need replacing. My floors are hardwood that have always been covered with carpet. When I go to sell I plan to remove the carper, should I leave the floors with their old dark stain or refinish. If I refinish is is better to use a light or dark stain?

Hi. I enjoy watching your videos. I have a question about flooring. Over the years I have replaced flooring in different rooms. Now when I look at the overall picture I have 4 different floors as I could not finacially do all the rooms at the same time. I am thinking about moving, but I will be staying here for a while. My question is how can I make everything look more cohesive. I live in a side split so not all the floors are together. Thank you for any suggestions.

LVT is easy to install. And it's super durable. I don't take my work boots off even when I walk through the house. Whereas my 60's home originally had "hardwood" that was actually softwood and it scratched just looking at it. Ceramic tile is hard to clean, tough to walk and stand on, and a pain in the sss to install.

This advice is very regional. You are correct for the Midwest. Tile is great in a mid century modern home or ranch style home or Mediterranean style home which are fairly rare in the Midwest and northern east coast. Wood floors with wood cabinets is very hard to pull off so unless you have painted cabinets I would never put wood floors or wood look (engineered, tile or lvl) in a kitchen or great room if wood cabinets are the choice. Especially if you have a lot of wood furniture. The only way this works is in very large McMansions.

I have a quality berber in the large family room and am loathe to rip it up when we sell in a couple years. It's beige and, has warmed up a room where we primarly live in long winters. I hope it might come across as more of a neutral vs a negative. But maybe not? Matching up woods becomes an issue then, as all we had to start with was carpet and lousy subfloor so did go engineered hardwood for the rest of the 1st floor minus kitchen tile. No hidden gems under the carpet. :)

Hi Kati, What do you recommend for basements? We just had to have all of our tile taken up after our basement flooded. We want to use flooring that will appeal to home buyers. Thank you!

You better not have a big dog if you want wood floors. I put luxury vinyl floors in my whole house. They don’t get scratched by my Rottweilers so I love them.

You get a lot of hardwood in the south. The moisture does make proper expansion gaps along the walls very important to avoid cupping

We have the very worst floor you listed in our house but so does our entire subdivision and houses sell in one week when they go on the market. Our builder is now using LVP floors as a builder grade option so when interest rates drop I would like to order a new house from the same builder. I hate how the floor feels although it looks like LVP from the distance.

I had tile and engineered wood in my previous house. The tile was hard to keep clean (with all the grout lines!) and the wood scratched easily. Then, I moved to a new house in 2020. This house had the worst flooring ever: wall-to-wall carpeting on top of OSB subfloor. I paid a professional $10k to replace it all with a quality LVP. It has a natural brown wood look to it- (not the cheap flat gray LVP). I really like the LVP and it looks great constrasted with several of the area rugs around the house. I left the original tile floor in the kitchen and bathrooms--but I wish I had put the LVP down in the kitchen. When cooking, things fall on the floor in the kitchen and the old tile with the worn grout lines makes it tougher to keep clean. Another place where I didn't put LVP down is on the stairs. I had to redo the stairs, and the contractor at the time (2020) suggested that LVP wasn't a good solution for stairs, so I used oak treads, but things may have changed since then.

I'm torn. My home was originally built in 1950 and has hardwood subfloor in the original part of the house, but an addition was added in 2011 in which laminate flooring was used. Over the years the kitchen has had so many layers of plywood and vinyl added to it so that it is now a full inch higher than my other floors. The original hardwood subfloor is not in great shape. It has some large (1/4") gaps throughout and physical damage in some areas. I would like to level the kitchen floor and lay LVP through out the house to give it a more cohesive look. What are your thoughts?

We had hardwood in our main living areas in our home when we moved in. The carpeting in the bedrooms was not in good shape, so we shelled out the money to put hardwood floors that match in all of the bedrooms. Our kitchen and laundry and powder room has beige tile. It’s fine and I don’t know if we would ever change it but I think most people probably would have ripped it out. It might be a problem on down the road but I’m not sure what flooring we would put in to replace it. It doesn’t run under the cabinets in the kitchen and I don’t think wood floors can be butted up against cabinets.

what do you think about installing high quality lvp over tile? rather than removing the tile

Kept waiting for cork.

LOL..... hardwood in the kitchen. We bought a house and the only hardwood in the whole place was the kitchen and it was utterly destroyed due to a leaking fridge before we bought it. So many waves and warping on top of a horrible ladder install. We are ripping it out to replace with something more practical when we can afford it. Its a nightmare.

For rentals hardwood probably not best choice. Preferably laminate to support wear and tear/ rougher use by tenants.

Concerning hardwoods.. what is recommended if the hardwood is the awful glossy red tone finish when you go to sell? Leave it or know that the prospective buyers will factor the cost and hassle of refinishing it in the price?

We're getting ready to install LVP over our hardwood because some former owner put hundreds of nails & screw throughout. I can only assume they must have been attempting to stop the terrible squeaky 100 year old floors. It was disappointing seeing they were beyond repair.

My last house had LVP, and it looked fabulous. It did not dent or scratch and was, of course, impervious to spills. One bedroom was carpeted and there was a moisture issue, so we took out the carpeting. I wanted to replace it with the same LVP but it was not available, so I tried to match it as closely as possible. What I did not realize is the new stuff repeated its pattern too often and the locking profile was different, meaning it was designed to have a groove where the boards met. All this to say, if you are picking LVP, lay out an entire package (guessing 12 or so planks) in the store or at home, to see just what you are getting. And definitely do NOT choose grey. It does not occur in nature and looks dated. My current home came with beautiful travertine floors, which I love. Stone never goes out of style.

What flooring do you recommend in a room with a fireplace. Will LVP hold up to sparks?

I have new carpet in two of my bedrooms. I am going to leave it in. I’ve done a lot of other things that NEEDED To be done. The house is looking clean, up to date, and, will be move in ready. At some point I have to quit spending money on something that isn’t needed. I have carpet in the bedrooms of the house I’m living in now, and, I love it. Personal preference? I’ve talked to people in this part of Michigan, they prefer carpet in bedrooms

We have to replace basement carpet on concrete due to pets. Is tile better than sheet vinyl for pet odor?

What do you think about Bamboo flooring? Is it similar to hardwood?