Is vinyl flooring a false economy?

[BewareTheBeardedDragon]

Need some new flooring and weighing up paying less for vinyl or more for LVT. In general I prefer to buy longer lasting home stuff, and I'm fairly sure LVT will last far longer than vinyl - am I right? Is vinyl a false economy because in the end you end up paying as much through replacing it more often?

This is the forever home. I'm wavering partly because it seem that nicer designs are available in vinyl. I don't want 'wood' design because it will sit next to some solid oak floor and I doubt it wouldn't look rubbish in comparison - or at least just weird because it would either not quite match, or be wildly different 'woods', one real and one not.

I'd really like to hear that there are decent quality vinyls which will properly last...?

@Littlepixie85 I am contemplating sheet vinyl; would you recommend a particular brand? If you don’t mind sharing a photo it would be much appreciated. Proper decision fatigue with my house renovation… Thanks very much

Not liking the Karndean we’ve had put down, it scratches very easily and looks grubby, will not be having it in our next house.

What is Harvey Maria?

We have something called rhinofloor on our bathroom. It is a very thick vinal. It has been down 8 years and still looks like new. Easy to clean and when child floods water on the floor easily wipes up and looks good.

I don't know the brand but picked a good thick sheet for our kitchen/extension and it's been great so far - wipe clean with 2 small kids is perfect, and I even dropped a wine glass on it the other day and it didn't break!! I think it was £25 per square metre. I went from wanting engineered wood to vinyl plank flooring and ended up with sheet so totally get the decision fatigue!

I'll try to find a photo and post

We have got slate tile effect laminate in our bathroom. It's been down for over 20 years and still looks like new. It was from B&Q but it's much better quality than the one they sell now.

This is our HM floor

Thanks so much for the information and the photo.

oh excellent thread OP! I’m just today starting to ponder this question!

@Littlepixie85 if you don’t mind a mini thread hi Jack - did you put the vinyl straight onto the ceramic tiles?

ive got a hallway and lounge of horrible cold tiles I need to cover…

We put Quick Step laminate in my mothers bathroom and kitchen and my son has put it in his lounge, after trying to destroy a sample piece, which he couldn't.

Harvey Maria is the company you need. I used to have their Celtic Cross design in my old kitchen and now have their Lattice in my bathroom. It’s lovely stuff-looks like hand painted ceramic

I've Karndean throughout downstairs and it's been down 16 years and still looks like new. I've standard vinyl in one of my bathroom that has been down for the same time and looks a little worn but was probably fine for the first 10 years. Depends on how long you want it down.

Yes, I laid straight on to ceramic tiles in my kitchen.

heavy, good quality lino is great but certainly not the cheap option compared to budget tiles.

cheap pvc 'lino' is good for a temporary solution, for example to cover bare floorboards during a renovation. it will not look good for long ime.

We had screed put down as our extension floor was lower than our kitchen floor, although they did a thin layer all over the existing kitchen tiles to make it smooth all over before laying the vinyl

Pictures with the screed down and then the wooden floor effect sheet vinyl

@Littlepixie85 oh that looks lovely!

@Subbaxeo I love that! Really wish I'd gone for something similar in my bathroom rather than cold tiles.

We have Karndean in the kitchen. It has been ok for 2 years and seems to clean up very well.