I hate my LVT floor

[lightningatmidnight]

I had a medium oak Brampton Chase LVT floor installed two years ago on the premise that LVT would be long wearing and tough. I researched wear layers and it seemed to be a decent brand etc.

However it seems that just living our life in our living space causes minor to significant scratches every other week. It’s covered. Yesterday I dragged a cardboard box that was too heavy to lift through my house and it turned out there was a small piece of grit wedged in the cardboard and it’s left a shallow scratch the full length of the house. I’m gutted. Just constant little accidents that cause damage.

I thought it would be so much resistant to this sort of thing, and I have friends with dogs, renovations and kids whose Karndean that looks as good as they got it.

Also any advice on fixing this massive light scratch?

Hmmm I was considering LVT for our kitchen diner, but maybe not now! I have Karndean in the living room and hallway, it is very hard wearing, but can definitely scratch, although I will say scratches don’t seem to be highly visible. I do have LVT in my bathrooms (it’s waterproof), but I guess there isn’t much to scratch it in there.

I can't imagine dragging something through my house. Maybe you are expecting too much of it.

You can buy scratch repair kits with coloured filler.

Dragging anything through the house with something sharp on the bottom is going to mark any floor

I think it's a little bit brand dependent tbh, but I'd also never drag something over the floor. Lvt does scratch and certain colors and finishes will show up damage more than others. I've had better experiences with karndean and amtico than I've had with other brands.

Absolutely love our Karndean floor in the kitchen etc. Had it 7 years, it's like new. We did go for quite a heavy duty one though. Washes like a ribbon. Warm underfoot. I love the look of it. Dithered ages about choosing it and felt like such an investment, but worth it. We've a few workmen to the house since on other issues and they all comment on it being a much wiser choice than wood, to avoid water damage etc. Admittedly I haven't dragged anything heavy the length of it though.

Is the scratch in wood effect flooring? Screwfix do a wood effect filler which I used to fill the gaps at the edge of the flooring when first installed, just like you would seal a door frame. It blended perfectly. Might be worth colour testing. Squidge it on and smooth with a damp flat plastic edge (old credit card or similar). Can wipe it off before it dries if it doesn't look good. Tubes relatively inexpensive.

Hope you get something to fill it that works for you.

I’m not sure you can blame the LVT. It’s hard wearing not indestructible. I always put a blanket under anything I have to drag. Wood scratches. Tiles break. Carpet stains. It’s part and parcel of life. You can get scratch fillers or wax sticks that you can use to blend out scratches. It’s frustrating though when something like that happens though. We’ve all been there.

I found that even Karndean scuffs so I think it’s an LVT thing. My Dad is a flooring sales rep and he actually doesn’t rate LVT for this reason.

I hate mine too. Two years and it's disgraceful 😭

i agree. Ours hasn’t been as hard wearing as I was expecting

We hated ours and ultimately removed it. An expensive mistake.

We've had amtico for 5 years and although it does get scratched I think they are not easy to notice unless you get right down next to the floor in the right light.

I doubt there is any hard floor in the world that could withstand a heavy box with a small piece of grit being dragged along it. Wood would scratch, tiles would scratch.

Grit was alway my main concern which was why I put felt feet under all furniture and got a wand type vaccum. I always imagined the damage that might be caused if a bit of grit got caught in the wheels of a heavy Henry hoover being dragged over the floor.

Cmon OP, a window is expected to last a long time, but not if you throw a brick at it

I recommend tiles. We have porcelain tiles on the ground floor. They're very tough. They were installed in 2009 and still look the same as the day they were laid.

We have a white with sparkles in it in our shower room. Amtico. "stain resistant". Bollox. It has been ruined by our pedal bin which has a black rubber (?) bottom and has left a horrible yellow circle on it. https://www.amtico.com/products/ar0agg11/

Totally know the box thing isn’t the LVT’s fault but it was my final straw! The floor is covered in scratches, many of which I don’t know how they got there - I thought a decent range of LVT would be more hardy to day to day life, and chose it over engineered wood on this basis, but it’s not. Unless I’m missing something and Karndean is the answer to all my problems, I don’t think it’s compatible and I’d rather a scratched up wood floor than a scratched up plastic floor!

For anyone considering it i’d thoroughly recommend it ! I’ve had mine 5 years and it’s still like new & I’ve got a big dog , can hear his claws tapping it but never marked it ( touches wood )

Pretty much everything will scratch apart from maybe tiles which are very hard, but they tend to break when you drop heavy stuff on them and are a nightmare to replace.

You need to take more care of your flooring. Don't drag heavy stuff on it, either furniture or boxes that may have staples. You should put pads on the furniture feet. Also don't wear shoes inside the house as they will scratch if you get small stones caught in the treads. When you do stuff you actually have to think, will this scratch the floor and if so not do it !

Polish it regularly and then you get a build up on the surface that protects it. Rugs on high traffic areas can reduce scratches and wear.

And finally the top tip is to keep a box or so back of the original flooring. My engineered wood is easy to take up and replace bits. Although redoing a scratch that was the length of the house might be a real job.

A quick cheap thing you can try for the scratch is to cut a walnut in half and rub it with the cut surface. It genuinely works.

Ooh what would your dad recommend instead? About to choose a floor for our kitchen and LVT was our top choice...

I chose commercial LVT flooring for my hallway, this was intentional knowing how hardwearing I needed it to be. It's been pretty good tbh, I do have a small scratch due to dragging furniture but this is understandable imo.

Our entire downstairs is LVT - Howdens own light coloured oak in Herringbone pattern. Its been down 4 years now and we are a heavy wearing household with a dog. Its practically bomb proof!

There are some slight scratches which I only notice when Im mopping it but they are from a big heavy chair being constantly moved in a small area so DH can watch tv from a different angle (he just drags it rather than lift it - ffs) but its not noticeable unless Im looking for it. I know I could get the scratches kit to get rid of them but they aren't noticeable enough to bother.

I genuinely recommend ours & love the colour and style of it.

Can't help with the scratch, although I scratched ours too, dragging the very heavy electric Laz-y-boy across to hoover underneath. We got the textured version so the dogs wouldn't slip. It is an absolute twat to clean, it needs either hand scrubbing or hours with the Aircraft scrubber (recommended on here, thank you to whoever) which is not designed for a 20x10 space. Never again. I wish I'd insisted on tiles like I wanted. So easy to clean!

We have the same but the planks, We've had it in our kitchen for 4 years with no issues. There is a slight scratch where DH pulled the fridge out but that's it and it's barely noticeable

I like mine, but I wish I’d not chosen such a dark colour it really shows every mark.

Yes we’ve had Howdens own LVT (harvest oak) laid in our two bathrooms, looks lovely. Too soon to say how it will wear, only had them done in last 6 months, but scratches in a bathroom are unlikely anyway.