ALLL about our LVP flooring decision

When touring our (now) home, I knew instantly that I would not want to live with it's current floor. In pictures it didn't look terrible, but I knew having a white based tile could not be an option. We had just lived with white tile and no matter how much I cleaned, it never looked good. Especially the grout. It showed every speck of dirt and with two tiny little boys...there is always dirt. Also, having a baby learn to sit up/crawl/walk on tile was not my favorite. Lots of boo-boos. 

Anyways, we knew this needed to be our home, but the floors needed changed. The tile was everywhere but the bedrooms. We bought the house in May but didn't move in til late July (part of the plan) so that gave me 2 months to read all.the.things and get samples from all.the.stores on every type of flooring imaginable.

We definitely didn't want carpet throughout the living areas so it was between hardwood, wood-look tile, laminate and luxury vinyl plank (LVP). Hardwood was obviously the most beautiful but was more than we wanted to spend and we didn't think we'd get our money back in resale for the area we're in. I nixed out the wood look tile mostly because I didn't want something so hard again and I honestly couldn't imagine the look Richard would give me if I said, "Hey honey, I hate this tile. Let's rip it out and put in a different tile." That left us with laminate and LVP.

Very early on I fell HARD for this Copper Sands Oak laminate from Lumber Liquidators. It was very inexpensive, had lots of texture to it (a must for me) and was the perfect mid-tone color. I wanted warm, but not orangey, and old looking but not rustic. I also found some good stuff from Costco, and Flooring Liquidators but never fell in love with anything from Home Depot or Lowes. Copper Sands Oak was the top laminate contender for me.



However, it wasn't water resistant. We considered leaving the tile in our kitchen and bathroom areas and just replacing the living area. While there is an "okay" cut off spot separating our kitchen, in my heart I knew it would look best being continuous and seamless. I had heard horror stories from my friends about their laminate getting torn up from getting wet, so I looked into water resistant brands like Pergo outlast. I fell in love with Harvest Cherry and Prairie Ridge Oak


Harvest Cherry


Prarie Ridge Oak

I felt pretty settled on these moving forward, but I still needed to research LVP. I had heard GREAT things about it from my hairdresser (thanks Jenn!) as well as most of the workers in the flooring stores. However, I just never really liked the samples in the stores. Everything was just too flat (no texture, shiny, felt plasticky). Also, since LVP is a newer product it was really hard to find something that wasn't super trendy like gray or something really rustic.

I swear I looked online for hours and hours and hours. I'd finally decide on some samples to order only to have them look/feel very different in real life vs on the screen. I ordered a few samples from Floor and Decor but was still scared about making a decision based on a tiny 5x5 sample square. However, just for funsies this was the final contender: Satchel Farms Oak Matte

So it was between Pergo Outlast (laminate) or the Floor and Decor (LVP) products. Before pulling the trigger on a product, we booked a guy to install and had him come out to give us a quote for both. He looked at the existing tile in our home and since it was level, didn't have deep grout lines, and in good condition said he could install the LVP right over the top of it.

....WHAT?!

That would literally save us thousands of dollars in demo costs. But of course, we were skeptical. The "right" thing to do would be to rip out the tile, but the idea was so tempting. He assured us that he's done it many times before and after researching a bit, most LVP fine print say that it's kind of made to do that. It's a part of the warranty. That money we'd be able to save could be put towards paying off my student loan and that's what did it for me, LVP it was! We had him take off and re-install the baseboards and install in the kitchen, dining room, living room, and both bathrooms.

For those of you unfamiliar with LVP, it is a click and lock product similar to laminate however it is 100% waterproof. It is similar to good ol' linoleum with a greatly improved look. The trick is finding one with a lot of very deep texture to it doesn't look so fake and cheesy. The Floor and Decor option was looking like the winner but I was still terrified of ordering from a company that didn't have any representation in the central valley. If something went wrong I don't even know what I'd do. I guess I'm old school but I like dealing with a person face to face if there's issues and not a customer service hotline.

So, Richard and I went out for one last shopping trip around town and stopped into A&M Flooring. They had a huge selection so he was sure there would be something I would like. He was right, but the showroom was pretty intimidating so I thought the products would more than likely be out of our price range. Richard assured me that since we were saving so much on the install, we could afford to go up a little bit per square foot. I started just grabbing every LVP sample I liked without looking at prices. Naturally I grabbed samples in the $5-7/sq foot range. However, there was a sample that I really, really, liked. It was a little over our budget but I took it home anyways. I stared at it for 2 days straight and only liked it more. After googling about it all weekend I found it for almost a DOLLAR/sq foot cheaper at a different store but really felt comfortable with A&M. Plus they let me tear up their showroom for like two hours and answered all of my crazy questions ;)

So Richard being the superhero he is, called A&M and was able to get them to MATCH THE PRICE! He then took the liberty to pull the trigger because he knows his wife and knew I would more than likely never be able to.

Our install guy Trevor (who Richard found thru Home Advisor) got our whole house done in 3 days and he did an outstanding job. We literally could not recommend him more. He was a perfectionist and patient and very reassuring. If anyone wants his contact information, please contact me and I'd love to share.

We ended up going with a brand called Gemcore in the ancient oak color (same sample different lighting)

 

It's a stone center with layers of vinyl around it. It's in our bathroom and the boys splash hard and you'd never know. It also disguises SO MUCH DIRT. I love my vacuum so I don't mind cleaning, but honestly I wouldn't even have to. Water spots don't show, it's slightly cushy on foot and it doesn't dent. The kids ride their little trucks all over the house and drop their forks and spill their water and there hasn't been one sign of it. I will admit it doesn't look as good as laminate or hardwood products. It just doesn't. It doesn't have the beveled edges and as much texture because it's not thick. It's about half the thickness of even the thinnest laminate. However, for the amount of money we were able to save with install (and put towards student loans) we are thrilled with the results.

Anyways, that was the longest story. Here's some pictures!

Before (was so much worse in person. Tile was beige with pink and blue speckles?)

After:

Oh and one last thing. I saw this sample below and LOVED it and for a hot second wished we had shopped around just a liiiiittle bit more. I got the sample home, layed it on the ground and it's like the exact same as our floor lol. I've never felt so relieved and validated. Choose your love and love your choice is applicable for more than just your spouse.

Still a good amount of work to do but we're getting there!