Is vinyl flooring any good for living area?

[bobstersmum]

We are considering vinyl flooring for our hall and lounge areas, the nicer type that looks like wood! We have a carpet that has seen better days and really needs replacing, but not keen on more carpet as we have three little dc and a pup. Solid wood floor is out of our budget and laminate won't be suitable as will likely need regular wet cleaning, we have laminate in our kitchen that has lifted and peeled due to this.
Has anyone has it put down? Can you vaccum it or is it sweep only?
Did you find it cost effective?

Bump

Yes we like it a lot. First had it in a rental and liked it so much we put it in our own house we recently bought. Make sure you get it fully glued down so it doesn't move about. It's very easy to clean, we tend to hoover then mop. Ours looks like real wood - has fooled several tradesmen who were worried about damaging our "very expensive wooden floors". Also bonus is that things don't tend to break, glasses etc are more likely to sort of bounce.

Also you might get more responses if you move this into Property

Don't have it so no advice but am curious about it - sounds like an ideal flooring for us. Any chance of a link or name of brand?

I have it in most rooms, only my bedroom and the stairs actually have carpet still. Both my kids bedroom have it too. Honestly best decision I ever made. Not as cold as some floors but much easier to look after than carpet. Seems to hold up to wear and tear much better too.

Ours has a 15 year guarantee and we really like it. Ours is Goliath Authentic Beige Vinyl. Got Carpet Right to rip up and dispose of old carpet and lay it. Room is about 14 x 14. £140 to the fitter and £40 a month for 12 months 0% credit. We could have paid it outright but with 0% credit thought we'd take advantage.

We had it though the hall, loo and lounge in the old house and it was wonderful. It cleans well, wears well, is comfy to walk on and not slippy (ours had some wood grain like texture)

We have wooden floors in this house but cheapish ones. I would swap back in a heart beat.

We looked at getting Amtico flooring but the cost of floor prep was prohibitive. The floor has to be perfectly flat and in good condition - for us the floor prep was going to cost as much as the actual flooring. Tiles cover a multitude of sins - we had our floor tiled and the material cost the same as Amtico but prep and installation was significantly cheaper.

We have Tarkett Elegance Presitge Oak (dark brown). We did notice a lot of the same vinyls are sold under different brand names. There are apparently only a few factories but they get marketed by different brands.

Thanks so much for the input everyone I've only just read the replies as had a poorly dd all week. Looks like all good then, although I need to have a peek under our current carpet to determine the if the floor is suitable first! I have a feeling it may be asphalt so depends how even it is.

We're going to go for vinyl sheet flooring in our hall and kitchen too. I'm just trying to pick a wood grain pattern that doesn't look too shiny and flat when the sun shines on it, (which ruins the wood effect look for me).

I've looked at LVT, cork, wood, engineered wood and tiles and decided that vinyl sheet is best for us now. All of the ones we've sampled have been well rated for slip resistance, but there have been noticeable differences in how grippy I think they are to walk on with socks on. I've been testing them as I'm sure the kids will be racing around and I don't fancy anyone slipping over!

Also, some companies do a commercial range with more of a wear layer than the residential range.

For wood-effect vinyl we are really pleased with this from Tapi carpets.

We have it in our kitchen which is open plan to original wood parquet and it blends very well with an oak threshold in between. Several people have thought it was real wood planks.