Plucky Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 I would love to have wood but I cannot afford it and have a houseful of kids and pets. This flooring is supposed to be waterproof, hard to scratch, & easy to install. Any opinions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaT Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 :bigear: We are thinking of putting about 1000 sq. ft. of it in our basement. We did put the tile version of the same material in our kitchen two summers ago, and I absolutely love it. It is not hard like tile, so dropped dishes are less likely to break. It is very easy to keep clean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plucky Posted June 4, 2012 Author Share Posted June 4, 2012 :bigear: We are thinking of putting about 1000 sq. ft. of it in our basement. We did put the tile version of the same material in our kitchen two summers ago, and I absolutely love it. It is not hard like tile, so dropped dishes are less likely to break. It is very easy to keep clean. Does the tile look real? My dh tiled our huge kitchen, fam rm & dining area. It was worth it, but he says no more installing ceramic tile. Laminate or snap stuff he can do easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaT Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Yes, it does. Most people just assume it is tile. My husband installed it himself, and it wasn't difficult at all. I understand about dh saying no to such time-consuming tedious jobs. My dh put our bamboo down himself (about 1800 sq. ft. worth), and that is why I am interested in the plank vinyl for the basement. He is done with laying hardwood. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plucky Posted June 4, 2012 Author Share Posted June 4, 2012 Yes, it does. Most people just assume it is tile. My husband installed it himself, and it wasn't difficult at all. I understand about dh saying no to such time-consuming tedious jobs. My dh put our bamboo down himself (about 1800 sq. ft. worth), and that is why I am interested in the plank vinyl for the basement. He is done with laying hardwood. :001_smile: Yeah, I can see that. Does the wood look real? I know I live in fantasy land where dogs & cats run through the house, kids skate and slide and the floor is unscratched & looks real. Oh, and easy to install and cheap. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellen Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 We have it in our basement. I can't remember the brand but it was from Home Depot. I wish we had put a pad underneath for cushioning. Ours does scratch easily but I think we may be rough with floors. Definitely test a sample before buying. Overall I'm happy with it. The installation was easy and the price was good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devan Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 We put in laminate vinyl planks a few months ago to replace the carpet in our living and dining rooms. It's time consuming, but surprisingly easy to install. It's flexible and easy to cut with just a knife. We really like it but we have noticed that it's gotten scratched up a bit under the furniture so we put rug pads under it and that has helped. Overall, for the price and ease of installation, we like it! The one we bought looks and feels SO much like wood/laminate that no one knows it's vinyl unless we tell them. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plucky Posted June 4, 2012 Author Share Posted June 4, 2012 We have it in our basement. I can't remember the brand but it was from Home Depot. I wish we had put a pad underneath for cushioning. Ours does scratch easily but I think we may be rough with floors. Definitely test a sample before buying. Overall I'm happy with it. The installation was easy and the price was good. Good idea. Do you think dark or light would show less scratches? I prefer flooring that is the color of brown leaves & old pine needles. That matches our yard debris that kids drag in so I don't feel I need to sweep daily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plucky Posted June 4, 2012 Author Share Posted June 4, 2012 We put in laminate vinyl planks a few months ago to replace the carpet in our living and dining rooms. It's time consuming, but surprisingly easy to install. It's flexible and easy to cut with just a knife. We really like it but we have noticed that it's gotten scratched up a bit under the furniture so we put rug pads under it and that has helped. Overall, for the price and ease of installation, we like it! The one we bought looks and feels SO much like wood/laminate that no one knows it's vinyl unless we tell them. :) Oh, I love you! That is what I want to hear. We can do furniture pads. I know it will get dinged and scratched up. I just want something to last while I finish the next 10-15 years of parenting this brood. I don't want something I have to be finicky about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaT Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Yeah, I can see that. Does the wood look real? I know I live in fantasy land where dogs & cats run through the house, kids skate and slide and the floor is unscratched & looks real. Oh, and easy to install and cheap. :lol: I'm not sure if the wood looks real, we are just now considering it for our basement. We only have the tile-look so far, that's why I'm :bigear:. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devan Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Oh, and we have 2 indoor cats and an indoor dog and 4 kids, so I think it's holding up pretty well. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdventureMoms Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 We have the tiles for our basement, and we LOVE them. I've seen the wood ones, and they look mostly real, IMO. They don't feel quite the same (neither to the tile ones - a lot less hard than real tile), but they do look very nice and give the same look and "feel" as the real stuff. I've also had issues with scratching, but with the tiles I can replace individual tiles if they get bad enough. Not that I do this for every little nick, but it's nice to be able to do for a deep gouge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiveOaksAcademy Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 I will tell you what NOT to get: Do NOT get Allure TrafficMaster Resilient Plank Flooring from Home Depot. I have had it for less than a year. There is a 25-year warranty on this stuff, and seriously I can. not. imagine how horrid it would look if someone kept if for that long. I am calling to see what I can do to get money back. We put pads on all of the legs of our furniture and it scratches anyway. My youngest has some push toys, nothing with daggers for wheels, just your standard wheels. It is so scratched from those wheels!! Just minor stuff shows up. Really, I can see it lasting a few years if one bedridden elderly person had it. But heaven forbid if they have a pet or a wheelchair!! :angry: Can you tell I'm annoyed...there is absolutely no way that this stuff is anywhere NEAR the quality they led us to believe it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devan Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Ours is dark and light mixed, and we find it doesn't show the scratches easily but does show hair easily (our pets are light colored). We bought it online at a site called BuildDirect. They send you samples for free if you want. :) We found they had the best prices compared to our local places and Lowe's and Home Depot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plucky Posted June 4, 2012 Author Share Posted June 4, 2012 I will tell you what NOT to get: Do NOT get Allure TrafficMaster Resilient Plank Flooring from Home Depot. I have had it for less than a year. There is a 25-year warranty on this stuff, and seriously I can. not. imagine how horrid it would look if someone kept if for that long. I am calling to see what I can do to get money back. We put pads on all of the legs of our furniture and it scratches anyway. My youngest has some push toys, nothing with daggers for wheels, just your standard wheels. It is so scratched from those wheels!! Just minor stuff shows up. Really, I can see it lasting a few years if one bedridden elderly person had it. But heaven forbid if they have a pet or a wheelchair!! :angry: Can you tell I'm annoyed...there is absolutely no way that this stuff is anywhere NEAR the quality they led us to believe it was. Oh, no. That is what I was looking at. Do you have the wood look? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devan Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 I will tell you what NOT to get: Do NOT get Allure TrafficMaster Resilient Plank Flooring from Home Depot. I have had it for less than a year. There is a 25-year warranty on this stuff, and seriously I can. not. imagine how horrid it would look if someone kept if for that long. I am calling to see what I can do to get money back. We put pads on all of the legs of our furniture and it scratches anyway. My youngest has some push toys, nothing with daggers for wheels, just your standard wheels. It is so scratched from those wheels!! Just minor stuff shows up. Really, I can see it lasting a few years if one bedridden elderly person had it. But heaven forbid if they have a pet or a wheelchair!! :angry: Can you tell I'm annoyed...there is absolutely no way that this stuff is anywhere NEAR the quality they led us to believe it was. Oh no! That's terrible! I hope you can get your money back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsrevmeg Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Our flooring is a vinyl sheeting-type stuff that came from Lowe's. It looks like real wood. It feels like real wood. Most people do not believe us when we say it is vinyl. We have a little scrap piece that we show them. It is very cushy, so if we drop something, it does not break. (I have dropped a crystal goblet, several plates, and my KitchenAid glass bowl, with no breakage.) No scratches and easy to clean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisainOhio Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 The vinyl plank stuff is getting very popular and for good reason! It's a great product and can be used in many applications. As with any flooring product, there's a wide range of price and quality. The stuff that can be found at the big box store..especially things that seem cheap and are on sale..are often not the best quality. You can often get a better quality product for the same money or in some cases, less money. We own a floor covering business and we're currently using vinyl planking on a large commercial job. It's a very old building that is being converted into loft apartments. Most of the renters will be college students so the contractor was going for durability. We display our business at local home and garden shows and we have been putting our sample racks of the vinyl planking right at the front of our display area. People come up and touch and comment about how "real" it looks for both the tile and the wood look products. I can ask my hubby for a brand recommendation if you'd like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 It really is all the rage right now. We have two friends who just put it in. In one house, the planks have a grey color to them and theirs doesn't look like real wood. The other friend did a dark plank and I think it does look like wood. I don't know about longevity, though, as they were both put in in the last week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdventureMoms Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Oh and I had to add - don't go for the super cheap stuff. There's always something at lowes or whatever that's $0.60/sqft or so... The vinyl is incredibly thin and it will show every defect of the floor beneath it. It also will not have that resiliency that is nice with vinyl. That said, our vinyl was from lowes, but a little pricier (I don't remember exactly, but I think around $1.30/sqft) and our only actual scratches are from moving large furniture without pads. We do use ride-on toys down there, and drop stuff, and we have a futon with pads on the feet, and my kids are far from gentle with floors and none of that has caused issues. I would definitely avoid anything that scratches that easy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twilight Woods Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 wE HAVE THE laminate wood planks [not sure if it's the same] and I am goign to be replacing it with the vinyl ceramic looking tiles. A lot of my boards warped b/c of spills and have lots of chips in them. I hate the maintance aspect of them too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellen Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Allure is the brand we have as well in one of the walnut colors. Like I said earlier there are a few scratches but it's not too noticeable. I would probably choose it again but only because it is a basement with a risk of water so the choices are already extremely limited. I wouldn't choose that particular brand for a main floor. I probably wouldn't even choose that flooring type. I would save and get the builder's grade wood flooring that you can find for $3/ sq ft in this area or at least an engineered wood product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilymax Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 We have real Pergo in this house, and it has NOT stood up to our crazy family as well as the knockoff brand we got at Lumber Liquidators for our previous home. I won't buy it again. This is the next type of flooring we will buy, cork-backed laminate: http://www.petfriendlyflooring.com. I would love something that quietens the sound of my dog's claws when she walks around at night! I've seen a sample and it appears very high quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nanette Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 I have had the Allure flooring from Home Depot in my kitchen for almost 2 years and I love it. It still looks like it did the day we put it in. We have a black lab and a cat and it doesn't have scratches (or you can't see them). We have the tile look, not the wood look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twilight Woods Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 I will tell you what NOT to get: Do NOT get Allure TrafficMaster Resilient Plank Flooring from Home Depot. I have had it for less than a year. There is a 25-year warranty on this stuff, and seriously I can. not. imagine how horrid it would look if someone kept if for that long. I am calling to see what I can do to get money back. We put pads on all of the legs of our furniture and it scratches anyway. My youngest has some push toys, nothing with daggers for wheels, just your standard wheels. It is so scratched from those wheels!! Just minor stuff shows up. Really, I can see it lasting a few years if one bedridden elderly person had it. But heaven forbid if they have a pet or a wheelchair!! :angry: Can you tell I'm annoyed...there is absolutely no way that this stuff is anywhere NEAR the quality they led us to believe it was. tHIS IS what we have as well. We are in the process of ripping it out and replacing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singingmom Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 We had vinyl plank in our old apartment. It did scratch, and had a weird feel underfoot....plastic-ish, and squishy, due to the padding they put underneath....not a nice feeling. Anyway, in our new house, we have laminate. I think it looks a lot better, but we do end up wearing slippers/ flip flops around the house because of the harder surface of the floors. I also think the laminate is not as prone to scratches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfamilygal Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 We love it. We have the Allure planking in our downstairs. We put it in ourselves. Here's a pic: http://pfamilygal.blogspot.com/2012/02/our-new-homeschool-system.html One tip. Make sure every tiny bit of anything is off the floor first. In a couple places we accidentally left a carpet tack under the vinyl planking. It made a bump, which is now wearing a small hole. The great thing is, though, with a blow dryer you can heat and loosen one plank and replace just the one plank easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lailasmum Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 We have vinyl plank in our living room and dining room. I like it becuase it is incredibly easy to clean but it has worn quickly in high traffic areas and needs replacing. It's about 6 years old. I think we will will keep it in it's worn state for about 2 more years and then replace it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsheresomewhere Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 We have it in our basement. I can't remember the brand but it was from Home Depot. I wish we had put a pad underneath for cushioning. Ours does scratch easily but I think we may be rough with floors. Definitely test a sample before buying. Overall I'm happy with it. The installation was easy and the price was good. The one Home Depot sells is very thin and not meant for high traffic. Floor stores sell the thick one meant for high traffic that you can roll a chair on and it won't scratch. It was only a little bit more for it. When I can afford it, it is going in my basement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plucky Posted June 5, 2012 Author Share Posted June 5, 2012 The vinyl plank stuff is getting very popular and for good reason! It's a great product and can be used in many applications. As with any flooring product, there's a wide range of price and quality. The stuff that can be found at the big box store..especially things that seem cheap and are on sale..are often not the best quality. You can often get a better quality product for the same money or in some cases, less money. We own a floor covering business and we're currently using vinyl planking on a large commercial job. It's a very old building that is being converted into loft apartments. Most of the renters will be college students so the contractor was going for durability. We display our business at local home and garden shows and we have been putting our sample racks of the vinyl planking right at the front of our display area. People come up and touch and comment about how "real" it looks for both the tile and the wood look products. I can ask my hubby for a brand recommendation if you'd like. I would really appreciate that, Lisa. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaraSeashell Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 We used a laminate vinyl tile for a Preschool remodel at church about 5 years ago and it has worn BEAUTIFULLY! Looks very wood like and natural in the room (which is kind of a signature of the school's Reggio Amelia emphasis) yet it has been fairly indestructible with everything multiple tribes of preschoolers have literally thrown at it. There is a textured graining to the brand we used (Karndean, DaVinci series) and it does not have the hollow/echo inducing qualities of planks. (It has actually helped absorb sound, somewhat.) Have fun picking something you love! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiveOaksAcademy Posted June 9, 2012 Share Posted June 9, 2012 Oh, no. That is what I was looking at. Do you have the wood look? This is from a couple of weeks ago, but I just now saw it. Sorry. Yes, I do have the wood look. It is a dark wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisainOhio Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 I asked my husband about this tonight and he highly recommends Konecto. http://www.konectousa.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denisemomof4 Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Yeah, I can see that. Does the wood look real? I know I live in fantasy land where dogs & cats run through the house, kids skate and slide and the floor is unscratched & looks real. Oh, and easy to install and cheap. :lol: Don't forget self cleaning. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 I asked my husband about this tonight and he highly recommends Konecto. http://www.konectousa.com/ We have this stuff in the wood-look. It really does look like wood. It is easy to stand on. It was a bit tricky for the installers because we have curved steps between the kitchen and laundry room. It has held up very well to busy teens and two large dogs and a laundry room flood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXMomof4 Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Make sure you get good quality. We have a darker color and it shows scratches and scrapes terribly. It's a rental, so I'm sure it's the cheapest to be found. However, my parents put some in their house and it is fantastic. They live in the country and have my 3 neices in and out all the time, many cats and at least 3 dogs. It's a lighter color so it doesn't show all the sand and pet hair, it has a texture - I love theirs and could see it lasting for a very, very long time. If I'm not mistaken they bought commercial grade though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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