Vinyl flooring for a living room??

[ItsAGo]

So looking at the laminate vinyl tile stuff, but the underlay and floor levelling etc is getting complicated. We currently have standard vinyl sheets in the kitchen and bathroom, and was thinking about getting standard vinyl rolls (4m) to do the whole of the downstairs in? In a textured wood effect? To save the cost and having to rip of the skirting board and get an extra floor layer?

Is this crazy or has it worked for others?

Day time bump

I think you will still have to add a floor underlay and make sure the floor is level regardless of what you use. Otherwise it will be cold, bumpy and uneven.

We've got vinyl sheet flooring (wood effect) in our whole downstairs. We used to have carpet, but I was sick of the dirt with dogs. A lot of people don't realise it's vinyl. It's a good quality one with a 10 year guarantee. We do have a lot of rugs though, some sisal, some Persian, to make it more cosy. Buy the best quality you can and make sure you get really good fitters. Don't use carpetright.
Cleaning is a doddle and there is a lot lest dust than with carpet. I still have to shampoo the rugs from time to time but I can live with that.

I've seen a couple of houses with vinyl, and it looked and felt great.
You can get quite textured stuff now, and its really easy to keep clean, as well as not sounding like Michael Flatley every time you cross the room.

I wish I had used it instead of laminate.

Just to add that for it to look good the underlayer has to be completely smooth, whether you are using the tiles or a roll. Imperfections will certainly show through.

Have you looked at Karndean flooring? It's essentially vinyl tiles in wood, stone or tile effects, glued on a self levelling screed that's poured on to plywood on top of your floorboards. It's warm and easy to clean.

We have that sort of vinyl in two of the DCS bedrooms. IIRC they had to put a wooden layer down ( I think it was a thin sheet of plywood).

It looks great but in one room has had some damage - I think a chair leg managed to puncture it. ( You have to buy lots of little cup things for furniture legs to sit on so this doesn't happen but this was one that escaped. It was ok I just glued it back into place and you can't even see it.)

Both rooms look very nice and it was cheaper than laminate. One thing I have noticed though is that in very hot weather one of the rooms starts to smell awful. I suspected it was the glue they used for the vinyl but now i think it could be the vinyl itself - it doesn't happen in the other room which gets a lot hotter and would have had the same vinyl glue.

I have the same vinyl throughout my flat in an oak textured effect it looks great, I don't have any issues with it being cold & as PP's have said most people don't realise it's vinyl.

When I see the amount of hair that I sweep up every day I'm so glad I don't have carpet

Karndean and Amtico hard floors look good and are harder wearing because the pattern or grain goes through the tile and isn’t just surface.

We have underfloor heating, so it makes sense from that point of view too.

Have a look on eBay for the LVT Vynal Tiles
They are a third of the price in shops

Different Brands, some are commercial left overs - they have 20 years guarantee

I think if you do this cheap you’ll pay twice

We used porcelain wood effect tiles. We were looking for vinyl tiles but couldn't manage the screening process. Actual tiles were laid and walked on within a day. They look gorgeous.

I had it and it was very practical. Got a good quality one and it looked great.

My only issue with it was heavy furniture (sofa, dresser, huge wooden table) pushed it, so it caused a ripple around where the feet were. I also managed to cut some small holes in it by dropped sharp/pointy/heavy things.

I'd give it 7/10 taking everything into account.

Thanks, we were going to go with LVT, but the fitter said we’d need to remove the top layer of concrete downstairs and ave a new surface poured, then upstairs needs plywood laying as it’s chipboard. So would take at least a week. But sheet vinyl could be laid in a day of moving in, so we were thinking of going back to that or maybe having to go back to carpet.

Think about the porcelain tiles downstairs. It was the best thing we've ever had. I use vinyl in the bedrooms, but downstairs needs something a bit more substantial, I'd say.

Mine were cheaper than these. But these were the first I found.

https://totaltiles.co.uk/sandalo-limed-oak-wood-effect-porcelain-floor-tile.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwtMvlBRDmARIsAEoQ8zQFSaHHp8tmNIyEvdKfTcJSeQAQpkC2F5CS76NlgRFzLOavpNl3MgaAh26EALww_wcB

I’ve had to discount tiles due to dropping things and falling, I know vinyl and LVT aren’t soft, but figured they were better and would be warmer under foot than tiles.

It’s a new build we’re moving into and the fitter has said we need to do all these extra things/might take 3 years to dry out! But carpet right said no problem, don’t do anything and just whack em down.

3 years is excessive!

If it’s a new build why can the floor be ready before via the building contractor? Have you asked?

Flooring via the builder was too expensive and at the time we didn’t have the spare cash to pre order. When we did it was too late to order.

They’ve said laminate is fine as it’s floating, as is vinyl, but the LVT needs to be laid on special stuff/bin limestone concrete. But laminate would require removing and replacing the skirting boards, or having that beading added to cover the gao and I really don’t like the look of that.