Luxury vinyl flooring

[Serenaballerina37]

Does anyone have luxury vinyl flooring fitted instead of real wood or laminate flooring?

Please can you let me know if you like it and whether you would recommend it? We've recently moved into a fixer upper and are looking to stay here for a good while so are looking for flooring that lasts for the entire ground floor (open plan kitchen, lounge and dining area, study, downstairs loo). We have two young children under 5.

Thanks in advance.

[wowfudge]

Yes - it's warm underfoot, wears well and is easy to clean and maintain. Fitting is expensive and the subfloor it is glued to has to be absolutely level.

[MotherofBoy]

Yes. Well we have engineered wood is that the same thing? (Thin real wood layer on top of plywood). We love it, looks like real wood, feels like real wood yet slightly cheaper and like pp said warm underfoot :)

[MotherofBoy]

Oh - we fitted it ourselves. Tricky to get it under the skirting but my dh is a pro at carpentry bits and bobs. I silicone sealed all round the edge to the skirting so no naff wooden join pieces and it looks fab

[Tobuyornot99]

Interesting thread OP, I'm thinking of LVT. wowfudge do you have to use approved fitters or risk voiding the guarantee? How much does fitting work out per m2 if you don't mind me asking?

[Serenaballerina37]

Thanks for posting. I'm glad the consensus is good so far!

Went into a flooring shop in our small town today. Real wood was £60 per square metre, laminate was £40 per square metre and luxury vinyl was £25 per square metre. I presume those quotes are before fitting. So luxury vinyl flooring would be a lot cheaper than the other options. Warmer than laminate and easy to clean. Also you don't have the fear of anyone spilling drinks on it which used to drive me mad at the old place!!

What happens if you drop a knife on vinyl flooring?! Is it possible to scuff / trash it with furniture if you're not careful?! Thanks.

[wowfudge]

Engineered wood is not the same thing.

Not sure about guarantee - most of what is in our house is inherited, but we are having LVT in our new kitchen. Fitting is around £12 psm off the top of my head, but there are other costs such as ply, screed, adhesive, etc.

[wowfudge]

You have to put felt pads on the feet of furniture. It can scratch but you just need to be sensible. You can have it cleaned and sealed and that will cover any scratches.

[Serenaballerina37]

Thanks wowfudge. Sounds good.

[Lucisky]

We have got sheet vinyl throughout our downstairs. Is this the same thing? We couldn't afford wood flooring, but people are totally fooled by the vinyl and think it's the real thing. Essential though that your sub floor is totally smooth as any little bump will show through - where our fireplace was removed it's a bit uneven, but fortunately that's where the bookcase goes. Easy to keep clean with just a mop, and we have some lovely rugs to tart it up. It is guaranteed for ten years.

[Emily7708]

We've just had the entire downstairs of our house fitted with Polyflor Camaro LVT. It looks incredible, we are so happy with it. We had similar flooring in our last house and after 15 years it still looked brand new. We actually removed real wood flooring here to install LVT and it's fantastic.

[Serenaballerina37]

Thanks Lucisky and Emily. Have had a look at the Polyflor Camaro and think the Vintage would look good with the new kitchen worktop. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Emily7708]

Oh that's what we've got - vintage timber but in a parquet design. I'm so happy with it.

[OrlandoTheCat]

We have Amtico vinyl flooring. Looks so convincingly like wood!

I really like it. Doesn't seem that easy to scuff...that said, we only have it in the bedrooms, not in the really hard-wearing rooms of the house like the kitchen.

[Serenaballerina37]

That looks great Emily. Thanks for the pic. Can I ask how much you paid for fitting per sq metre?

Thanks Orlando will take a look.

[Fluffyears]

We have it in kitchen, WC and bathroom. It's really hard to tell that it's not wood, I actually thought we were looking at wood in the showroom. The shop sent out two carpenters to fit it.

[Fluffyears]

Lucidly, it's not the same as sheet vinyl. It's thick vinyl mounted on plywood so is fitted similar to laminate.

[Lucisky]

Thanks Fluffy, I did wonder. Wish I'd known about it, might have been a better choice, Oh well!

[Emily7708]

OP it was £16 fitting cost per square metre but that included fitting ply in two rooms and screeding in other rooms. We are in London.

[picklemepopcorn]

We have porcelain wood effect tiles which look great.
For LVT you need to screed the floor which in our hall was impossible. We couldn't avoid walking on it for the allotted time.

[bojorojo]

Be careful of vinyl everywhere in an expensive house. Ok for an average semi but high value will require wood, porcelain or stone in a lounge.

[BuzzKillington]

We have - but I cant remember what it's called as it's 3 years old. It's in our open plan kitchen/diner and hall, utility and ds loo.

It took someone about 3 days to fit (including screed) but it looks bloody amazing and doesn't show any dirt!

It gets a quick vacuum every day with the cordless but we hardly ever wash it. It's been stripped and refinished twice, but dh did that with a kit from John Lewis.

It was v expensive, but worth it.

[picklemepopcorn]

I got confused with the kid's bedroom flooring thread. I don't think you want atlas or jigsaws on your open plan downstairs!