How does anyone choose LVT flooring?

[thenewaveragebear1983]

When there are a million different, almost identical types and when the samples arrive they look Nothing like the pictures??

every sample I have had just looks plasticky and cheap, no colour variations at all and very unlike wood, which is categorically not how the website describes them!

Amtico quote is £3500, which is way above our price range. There must be a decent mid price option?

please help me, I’m going stir crazy!!

I love solid wood. Installed red oak in my first home.

Real wood is way above my price range, reclaimed wood even more so. We do have some original hardwood floors.

This was 2 years ago, but we got 60m sq of amtico laid for £4k. The engineered wood option was actually quite a bit cheaper. Since we were doing entire ground floor we were starting to hit maximum continous length for eng wood, and you can lay amtico forever. 2 years later I'm happy with the Amtico. It's very hard wearing, and is a simple wood pattern that looks good.

There are some fantastic laminates now that look like real wood and are not shiny crappy stuff that cracks at the joints - I like Quickstep a lot - but - unless you don't yet have your skirting boards fitted it will look awful because of the horrid beading that screams laminate. Imo. I couldn't find a fitter who would remove skirtings so it had to be LVT but actually I'm very happy with it.

I get bored extremely quickly looking at stuff like flooring, so I’d advise you just decide what vague colour/shade you want, then just pick one of the many available. Light/dark…….. brown/grey……. Then pick one quickly.
People agonise over slight differences in shade and it’s really pointless.
Life is too short!!!

Went through exactly the same process and agree they all look plasticky especially in the sun. In the end we went with Evocore nature from direct wood floors for the kitchen & bathrooms. It has a real wood top layer so looks natural because it is. The boards are the same thickness as lvp floors.

We have Amtico, their lowest priced. Same price as Karndean in he quote we received. We've had Karndean in a previous house. They are both great, hard wearing and easy to clean. The karndean was down for 10 years before we moved and had 3 kids and a large dog and always looked perfect.
Amtico is standing up to a puppy and high traffic and so fat really pleased.
I think they are worth it in the long run but not much to choose between the two.
We've also had the Howdens LVT range in a bathroom and that was fine.

We just had LVT put down in our whole ground floor. It looks great! But the fitting costs 😱

My Amtico… 6 years later, looks as good as the day it was installed.

If I were you, I would shop around for a better Amtico quote

Same (12 years for me). I really wanted wooden flooring but my kitchen designer was adamant that any dinks or holes would fill with grease and be hard to keep nice.

It was stupidly expensive even then (I think about £10k as my kitchen isn't small). People have mistaken it for wood but PPs are right, you can see the top lustre at certain angles.

Two downsides - we have it in the bathrooms too and if you have kids that seem to leave pools of water after showers and baths, the corners can start to lift. It doesn't scratch for everyday things but we had some bar stools with a sharp metal base and the kids dragging them around has left some scratches.

We have both engineered wood and LVT. The LVT is much more hardwearing we have little dints all over the engineered. Our LVT was from a company called Project Floors and it’s been great. You need to go into a shop as they have the big sample board so you can see the thickness of the plank etc. it’s never going to look like real wood so I wouldn’t worry too much about that

My advice is not to get wood in a kitchen unless you are meticulously clean. We had it in one house and the area under the sink was always covered in grease and wet spots that looked awful and impossible to clean, it also needs oiling at least once a year which is a big job if you have a large area and DC/dog to remove while you do it.

Lvt is good but a lot of the reputation has come from commercial use. Places like supermarkets used amtico but it was industrial grade, very hard wearing. It's not the same stuff that gets out in domestic houses. But we do have lvt and it's easy, clean, warm so it serves us well.

If they are lifting, then poor installation.

in my children’s shower room where Amtico installed… often puddles and no where remotely lifting

perfect for bathrooms. Unbeatable!

But I wouldn’t ever have LVT in lounge or kitchen. Wood in lounge and stone in kitchen here

We have quickstep laminate and it looks great. We had the skirting taken up and replaced, which makes a massive difference. If you go for a joiner rather than a floor fitter they're happy to do the skirting as well.

We had Amtico fitted in our kitchen over 20 years ago and it's been great!

I got a LVT floor from Tapi, it's beautiful. A dark walnut colour. When they told me the tiles could be lifted & relaid I was like 'Yeah whatever...'. Until I needed to get to some pipes. We had to lift a few tiles and relay them & you know what? You couldn't tell. They look excellent! Very pleased with mine.

We had engineered wood floor in our open plan living/kitchen/dining room. It’s withstood a lot! It has been damaged but can be sanded out and re-oiled

Yep we've had our Karndean down 15 years, still going strong!

We used Howdens LVT when we renovated & are really pleased with it. It was the fitting that expensive not the product.

I have Karndean, basic range, in my bathrooms and I love it.

The actual Karndean showroom in Evesham is amazing and made us change our mind on colour seeing all the displays.

If you are in the Midlands I then highly recommend A&L for installation.

Never really looked at LVT as couldn't get past the plasticky feel. We're mid renovation too and have a room coming off the garden - ideal would've been a beautiful reclaimed wood floor but not practical for the room we have (nor the children ). We've chosen wood effect tiles.

I drove myself mad trying to choose between hundreds of variations in Karndean and Amtico and then deliberately restricted myself to to smaller range in Tapi - cheaper, they were actually able to explain how they classified their price bands and the quality difference between them (groove depth, who knew!) and we chose a dark walnut which I still love three years later and which stands up to five people and a dog. There can be Too Much Choice.

@Misiecle definitely too much choice.

I’ve been to a local showroom today, he’s quoted me £1875 fully fitted and I’ve come home with 3 samples that I could have at that price for me to ponder over. 1 is definitely out, 2 are strong contenders, just waiting until the evening to see how they look in the changing light as it’s an easy facing room.

thank you everyone for your comments, I have read and considered every single point, thanks all 💐