Flooring -LVT pros and cons?

[LupaMoonhowl]

Am renovating a Victorian cottage and looking for s flooring solution that I can use throughout the downstairs, as the kitchen is not separate room, and preferably also in the downstairs shower room.
LVT looks like the best option, and chair than wood / would welcome opinions!

We have lvt throughout our house, including bedrooms. I love it - it looks fresh, clean and its really hard-wearing.

I also have it in a couple of rental properties and it never gives me an issue. At home I have a herringbone wood effect, which is lovely.

Thank you!! Trying to decide between herringbone and ‘straight’ (not sure what you call that kind 😂)

We thought about engineered wood, can't afford it, then looked at LVT. Like the look of it but stuck to the floor and seems thin and to have no 'give'. Had a look at Quickstep laminate, very impressed with the plank style. Went for that, good price and waterproof. Seems LVT is the current fashion but laminate no longer looks like the stuff that was around last century!

I am not a fan of LVT or laminate, though if it's not the fake wood look it can look OK

Is a wood floor not an option?

Have LVT in 6 rooms and find it durable, warm, easy to clean and wish I had more.

In herring bone and plank.

I've got wood effect plank glue down lvt (Polyflor Camaro) through the hallway, downstairs loo, kitchen, utility & conservatory.

Hallway & downstairs loo has been down for about 15 years and is pretty much as good as new.
Kitchen, utility & conservatory (same stuff as was wearing so well in the hallway and I like the style) has been down 6 years, there is some fading in the conservatory but it is a gentle all over fade and I only noticed where the doormat was.

I also have marble tile effect lvt tiles (Amtico Signature) in the ensuite. They've only been down a year but no issues at all.

My dining room has old style laminate flooring, been down since before we brought the house 25 years ago. I much prefer the lvt in the rest of the downstairs.

I have carpet in the lounge & playroom though and wouldn't want hard floors in there.

It's wonderful stuff. Looks good and is basically bomb proof and lasts forever.

Can you lay LVT over an existing tiled floor or will the old grout lines show through it?
I'm hopefully wishing but probably know the answer.

Ours is laid on a ply layer covered by a latex sub-layer to totally level it.
Laying over tiles will raise the floor level as you'll then need a leveling layer plus the lvt.
Whether it is advisable depends on the integrity of the existing tiled floor.

The prep work took far longer than the actual lvt laying.

Depends how flat the floor is.

I think there are two issues with LVT. The first is the joints are really weak as the tiles are thin. This means the floor needs to be really flat when you lay it, otherwise the stress on the joint when pressure is put across it makes it fail. You often see ridges along where the joints are where this has happened.

The second is the amount of underlay you can put under it is limited as too thick an underlay makes the joints flex and because they are weak they break. So if I was laying on a stone floor I would probably want to have some intermediate layer over the floor (I don't know what would be typical) in order to improve the thermals. If you are to really insulate the floor properly you probably need quite a thick layer.

I have LVT (Quickstep) precisely because I needed it to be really thin (low ceiling) and it looks and feels really good. My cleaner thought it was real wood and was really worried in case I hadn't had it treated properly and it might stain when she mopped it.

We have lvt just put in. Looks fab and is warm.

LVT needs a really smooth floor, every tiny lump or bump will show through. We have it in our downstairs and love it. We had to have new boards and a screed poured to get a smooth surface. The tiles are very thin, like the thickness of traditional lino.

I love my LVT. It must be laid by experts though. As said, total flatness is essential.

The joints on all our LVT failed because the floors weren't prepped properly/weren't completely flat. I really liked it, and I have no issue with the product itself, but if you're laying it in a Victorian cottage, don't be tempted to cut corners with the prep, and don't believe anyone that tells you it isn't necessary.

Thank you!!! Really grateful for the helpful responses. The floor man did stress the requirement for totally flat smooth surface so will be stressing this to the builder. To be fair, the builder so far has done everything to top
standard so think this c will be ok
Thank you lovely posters 😀 💐💐💐💐💐

We also went with Quick Step wide board laminate and prefer it to LVT.

Better on slightly uneven flooring (even when levelled), plus there's an underlay as well. :)

Thanks everyone, too.
Very helpful.