LVT, laminate, or tiles

[mumdone]

Help!!
Which would you chose for open plan kitchen and dining? This would probably in the utility too.
My husband is keen on LVT, we’ve had it before. It’s warm underfoot, you can drop things and no grouting.
Tiles, I like but I’m clumsy and drop things!! I’ve broken tiles before. Also the dirt on the grout does bother me with 3 children, a dog and messy mum!
Or our fitter recommend laminate? Quick step I think.
Any thoughts, opinions and reviews welcome!!
Quite a large area we are covering 80sqm thanks

[AnnieMaul]

We had around 50m2 to cover in our kitchen diner and we opted for LVT click (rather than just LVT) flooring and went for one with built in underlay. I would massively recommend it, in spite of it not being the cheapest option.

As you said, soft to walk on and no real worry about dropping things and breaking the floor. No worry about cracking tiles or chipping laminate. Easy to install and replace. It looks lovely and you can sweep/mop/hoover with no worry about staining, scratching or bowing with too much water. A quick mop and it looks like new.

[BritneyS]

I believe laminate would be sheets so you’d get joins and probably obvious ones on a big area like that. Laminate not great in kitchens (or high traffic areas) because it wears down and can tear if heavy objects are moved across it.

[Hoppinggreen]

I like LVT best

[mumdone]

Thanks everyone :)

We are not able to have click as we have lots of glass and it’s south facing so the flooring can get too hot for click.

[AnnieMaul]

@mumdone

Thanks everyone :)

We are not able to have click as we have lots of glass and it’s south facing so the flooring can get too hot for click.

You can use underfloor heating with LVT click, so heat shouldn't be an issue if the person installing leaves sufficient margins around the edges of the room. That's what we were told anyway and haven't had any issues so far (with large bifolds and sun in the room/on the floor all day- when we're lucky enough to have a sunny day that is

[RandomMess]

Watching with interest, need to replace our laminate which tells you something!!!

What are the differences between LVT and click LVT?

[AnnieMaul]

@RandomMess

Watching with interest, need to replace our laminate which tells you something!!!

What are the differences between LVT and click LVT?

From what we gathered when we looked, standard LVT is glued down to the floor whereas LVT click is in planks like with laminate that "click" together.

Because of this you can use an underlay with click that makes it softer underfoot than standard LVT which is glued down directly onto the floor below. Long term, this does mean that if you ever wanted to replace the floor, with LVT you'd probably have to go over it as it's an absolute bugger to get up. We found this out the hard way when we tried to get up the LVT that was already down in the kitchen when we moved in. Even with an industrial flooring remover we hired we had no success and ended up having to go over it with the LVT click as we didn't want to have to screed the floor again.

Talking of which, our flooring guy would not even consider laying LVT standard without the floor being screeded first. With LVT as it's glued down any minor imperfection, lump or bump on the original floor below would show through, so that's potentially an added expense if you also need to bring the flooring below up to standard before you can put down LVT.

Click has the advantage that the floor beneath does not have to be 100% perfect as it's a "floating" floor. Although as it's a floating floor, it does expand and contract with heat or changes in temperature, so this needs to be taken into account when laying and you need to leave a small gap around the edge of the room, a few mm to account for expansion.

If you're going for a tile look rather than wood, with LVT you can add feature strips too I believe to look like grout, so a potentially more realistic look. If you're after a wood look, we think our click looks much more realistic than the LVT the previous owners had down, but that may be the difference in style/ product progression in the last 7 or so years.

[Dinosauraddict]

We've gone with LVT in our kitchen and dining room and it's great even with 3 dogs!

[snaxinyourslacks]

I can really recommend click lvt. I've had it laid everywhere downstairs, it's really warm underfoot and durable. I agree with others, you need to consider the state of the subfloor as it may need to be screeded which isn't cheap.

[HathorX]

Laminate can discolour in strong light and scratch under dog's claws. I'd say no as you have a lot of glass and animals.

I'd go with tiles. Choose tiles that would look good with a dark coloured grout, we had beautiful tiles with a dark slate grout in one property and they were fantastic
Bought a cheap steam cleaner and they remained perfect.

[mumdone]

Wonderful thanks everyone. It’s funny the different info you get. We’ve been told by 2 certified fitters that you shouldn’t have click in high heat areas as the wood could contract. We’ve had glue before great with kids and dogs. We will have different floors and it will all need lots of prep. Thanks

[Hoppinggreen]

Click isn’t necessarily wood, it can be vinyl though so heat not an issue.
Heat doesn’t really affect vinyl, just wood and laminate

[BimbleWimble]

I wouldn’t get laminate again. I hate it. Desperate to replace it with LVT!

[mumdone]

Just re read the specifications again and it does advise against laying in areas in direct sunlight and/or heavily glazed areas. We are south facing with huge windows, bifolds and a lantern so that option is out for us.