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?

I have no foot pads on furniture and four cats. Still not a mark. I don't understand how pps are living to get proper LVT in such a state, unless they're also dragging heavy things across the floor like OP?

Flotex. It’s what we have, easy to clean, looks smart, ideal with dogs, cats and kids. Long lasting, gets heavy use. We had tiles, but I got fed up with heaving to get on my hands and knees to clean them, they were cold to walk on, hurt if you slipped on them, things broke if you dropped anything by mistake, bloody stupid having tiles or flagstones on a kitchen floor…just my personal and lived experience!

I've had the second cheapest Karndean down for six years. Not a mark on it anywhere, even in the hall, and I don't make any effort to look after it particularly. Having said that, I wouldn't drag a box from outside over it!

I had Pergo laminate put all over my ground floor 29 years ago. It was sold with a lifetime guarantee and I can see why, not a scratch or chip on it, could have been put down yesterday. I've had children, grandchildren and cats and I'm a shoes on household. It wasn't cheap but was so worth it.

OP, I was in despair of my LVT (Amtico) which was a huge amount of money and constantly dirty/couldn't get it clean/scratched. I became obsessed with it. And then I discovered that Amtico sell a restorer product and a maintenance product. I spent one day last year stripping it with their specific stripper, and then coating in their maintenance product. It transformed it. I did immediately scratch it with a chair, but I am confident that when i do this again next summer, the scratch will come out. Honestly, I fell in love with my floor all over again and it cost me about £30 an a day's hard graft. It is so easy to clean now and looks like new. Interestigly I visited an Amtico showroom and the sales guy didn't know what I was talking about, but I got the stuff from Amazon. Amtico brand. Good luck!

Yes when I had my Karndean laid they sold me the same stuff. Any decent fitter should know about this.

Amtico used to be the best of this type of thing, Karndean was considered a cheap substitute, but I think the quality of amtico isn’t what it used to be (I could be wrong but they were going in the direction of cheapening the brand about 15 years ago and quality normally suffers in this situation)
If you want truly bombproof hard flooring then Marmoleum is amazing stuff and properly laid and looked after will easily outlive you. This is why they lay it in hospitals and the like.
It will cost an arm and a leg, but you will likely never need to buy hard flooring again. I’ve even repaired a massive dent in ours that happened the week after we moved in when I dropped a sharp lump of concrete on it. (Ground up a spare piece as it’s basically chalk, dye and linseed oil, then mixed it with epoxy to fill in the dent. You can’t even see where it is and it’s right in front of the sink. The only thing about is that it will eventually fade in bright sunshine, so the darker the colour the more you may notice it, although we are only aware of it when we lift the rug. Also does smell weird for a good few years when you mop it, due to the linseed oil it’s made with.

Indeed, it was standard to provide a bottler of stripper, cleaner and dresser to the customer when the stuff was laid.
you're supposed to do the same with marmoleum and one reason it was so shiny in hospitals is the regular buffing with those big machines.
my marmoleum has had nothing more sophisticated than hot water, and a bit of fairly liquid once a week and isn’t in the slightest bit shiny, but if I was to spend the time like the other poster, it would probably look amazing, however I am far too lazy.
decent quality cushion vinyl is wonderful stuff - but not that durable in terms of dents and scratches, but with the right underfloor prep it can look amazing (think 4mm ply, well fixed on firm floorboards, or screed on concrete) and lasts for years if you treat it well.

While we are talking about floors, has anyone any feedback on Tapi? Are they a franchise ? I’ve seen them all over the place and have noticed they are now in John Lewis as well. Does anyone know if they employ their fitters (it used to be that self employed fitters were better but it’s a long time since I bought flooring).