vinyl plank flooring vs engineered hardwood

12 Comments

  1. Lots of great information. I have to say we both learned quite a bit from this article which is going to be so helpful deciding on our future flooring projects.

  2. Hi! is thicker LVP better? we are deciding between a 5 mm (lifeproof) and closer to 20 mm thickness (cali vinyl) but not mildew resistant… everything else the same resistance

  3. Hi Jessica! Okay this is a great question. Double check on the numbers- there’s the thickness of the plank which is in mm, and then the mil which is referring to the wear layer. So when you said 20mil that is probably referring to the wear layer (it means 20 layers which is great quality!) The higher the wear layer, the longer the flooring will last! I was looking at one cali vinyl option and it had 6.5mm thickness and a 20mil wear layer which is awesome! I was looking at the flooring option we chose and that is 7mm thickness but only 12mil wear layer- so it just depends on your situation. Hopefully that’s helpful!

  4. Nearly ten years ago I had 1000 sq ft of engineered wood flooring installed. It is a beautiful walnut, which has a really stunning grain. But if I had to do it over again with the options available now, I would install LVP. It would look the same at half the material cost. This — back in 2013 — was $10/sq ft installed…$6 in materials and $4 for installation. (We could have installed it ourselves but I moved in first due to a job transfer and my husband followed 4 months later, and I had to get it done before he arrived with all the furniture.) We will do a major kitchen remodel in 1-2 years, and when we do that we will update the flooring with LVP ($4-5/sq ft), and spend the savings on new trim for baseboards and doors. There are so many options available now and in many cases you can’t tell the difference without getting on your hands and knees to really examine it. I have loved the walnut, but it scratches wayyyy too easily, unlike the 3/4″ oak we put in our last house. We have to have a floating floor because we have a concrete slab and gluing down wood is a really bad idea.

  5. Hi Janet! Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I’m a huge fan of walnut too… but I totally understand your reasoning behind going with LVP this time around! You’re right- there are so many beautiful options and I think they would be a great choice for your kitchen remodel. Best of luck! <3

  6. This was extremely helpful. We really like LifeCore Engineered wood planks in Allegra Refresh but unsure as whether or not it will stand up to our 8 year old who loves slime and our dog. After reading this article, I am now leaning more towards a high-end LVP. Thanks for the information.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *