ᐅ Which type of flooring is best? Tiles, vinyl, or hardwood? Any tips?

Hello,

we first need to figure out how to deal with the floors in our home.

The house, a two-family house, was built in 1960, and none of the floors are really level. Currently, we have laminate and carpet. Apparently, there is some kind of thick, hard PVC underlayment in every room. We can’t check exactly what it is without removing something, so we don’t know the details. In any case, we understand that it was likely installed to avoid having to repair the subfloor.

I suspect that tiles are only an option if we repair the floor first. Tiles are currently only installed in the bathrooms. The kitchens previously had PVC flooring.

I originally wanted tiles in the living room, hallway, kitchen, and bathroom. Now we have been shown vinyl flooring, which we were not familiar with before. (As you can probably tell, we are completely new to this topic.)

Does anyone have experience with vinyl?
Can anyone share pros and cons of vinyl versus tiles?

We are quite undecided and appreciate any thoughts, opinions, or brainstorming.

We have been told that vinyl is actually great for kitchens and bathrooms. I can’t quite imagine that for bathrooms, maybe for kitchens. The PVC in the kitchen is okay, but somehow I find tiles more comfortable, especially when cleaning. I fear that vinyl might be similar to PVC in that regard.

Ideally, we would like to have the same flooring in the living room, kitchen, and hallway because all three spaces flow into each other and it would simply look more harmonious.

I don’t want laminate. About a year and a half ago, we had laminate installed as part of an insurance claim. At that time, both our children were under 2 years old, so we clean the dining area floor 1-3 times a day, and the laminate is already lifting slightly. Definitely not nice.

I would really appreciate any suggestions and tips.

Vinyl is great. It’s much more comfortable to walk and stand on because it’s not as hard and doesn’t feel cold underfoot like tiles do. Cleaning is easy, and if it’s glued down, even a spilled bucket of paint isn’t a big problem, unlike with hardwood or laminate flooring, where it can cause serious damage.

Cleaning is also easier than with tiles since there are no grout lines.

By the way, I’m biased—I hate tiles. We only have them in the bathroom; everywhere else is vinyl.

First of all, it is important to know what kind of substrate you have. If the lower layer looks like PVC, it might be asbestos-containing boards. You need to check this before you start tampering with it.
If you are laying tiles, those boards should be removed. The same applies to any other type of adhesive layers—they should be taken out. However, you cannot just tear them off, as asbestos fibers are very hazardous to the respiratory system.
Regardless of that, you need to see what is underneath. I assume it’s wood?
The substrate must be load-bearing, meaning stable. Then, if necessary, a leveling compound can be applied, followed by flexible tile adhesive.
It’s best to take a look at the different surface materials available at specialist stores.
Is it your property that we are talking about?

We have tiles on the ground floor and glued vinyl on the upper floor.
I love our tiles and am just about getting used to the vinyl. I find the tiles much easier to keep clean, and vinyl feels cheap to me. I’m always worried about breaking something if anything falls on it. By the way, the vinyl was not cheap.

However, since we have underfloor heating in the new build, the tiles feel very comfortable. In areas without underfloor heating (for example, the shower in the guest bathroom), the tiles are quite cold.

I definitely couldn’t imagine having vinyl in the kitchen or bathroom. To me, it feels only slightly better than PVC flooring, and that says it all.

We decided on vinyl (or bio flooring without plasticizers, etc.). Especially because of its impact resistance – with small children and toys, we have already seen the damage caused on hardwood floors. We also had similar concerns with tiles. Warmth, reduced noise, and more comfortable walking helped finalize our decision.

In our house, all the "wet rooms" and the vestibule will have tiles, while the rest of the house will have hardwood flooring.

Even though vinyl is better than you might expect, it still feels too much like plastic to me. It simply can't compare to real wood…