ᐅ Which type of flooring is best? Tiles, vinyl, or hardwood? Any tips?
Created on: 25 Oct 2018 23:34
C
CiJay
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.
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.
It might be interesting to note that vinyl is basically the same as PVC. Just a newer or different name... Maybe partly different manufacturing processes, but the material remains the same (PVC = polyvinyl chloride).*
That doesn’t make the flooring bad, but if someone says, "Definitely don’t choose that harmful chemical PVC," and instead recommends vinyl (which happened to me in a specialty store...), that’s almost funny.
* If anyone can explain the difference here, feel free. To me, it just seems like marketing to get rid of the negative associations with PVC.
That doesn’t make the flooring bad, but if someone says, "Definitely don’t choose that harmful chemical PVC," and instead recommends vinyl (which happened to me in a specialty store...), that’s almost funny.
* If anyone can explain the difference here, feel free. To me, it just seems like marketing to get rid of the negative associations with PVC.
We installed click vinyl flooring from Parador in the children’s and bedrooms. It was quite expensive. We chose vinyl because of the kids and wanted the same flooring in all rooms – everywhere else has tiles.
In hindsight, I don’t understand what makes this material so costly… When I was a student, I installed laminate flooring for 5€ that didn’t look any worse. The vinyl in the children’s rooms already looks like it’s been there for 5 years. It’s not very durable.
If I could decide again, I would have gone with real wood planks right away and sanded the children’s rooms after 10 years. If I install wood in 10 years, I would have a step at the transition to the hallway, since vinyl is noticeably thinner than wood...
In hindsight, I don’t understand what makes this material so costly… When I was a student, I installed laminate flooring for 5€ that didn’t look any worse. The vinyl in the children’s rooms already looks like it’s been there for 5 years. It’s not very durable.
If I could decide again, I would have gone with real wood planks right away and sanded the children’s rooms after 10 years. If I install wood in 10 years, I would have a step at the transition to the hallway, since vinyl is noticeably thinner than wood...
Lumpi_LE schrieb:
We installed click vinyl flooring from Parador in the children’s/bedrooms. It was quite expensive. We chose vinyl because of the kids and didn’t want to have different flooring in those rooms – everywhere else there are tiles.
In hindsight, I can’t understand what makes this stuff so expensive... When I was a student, I installed laminate flooring for €5 in our apartment, and it didn’t look any worse. The vinyl, however, already looks like it’s been there for 5 years in the kids’ rooms. It’s not very durable.
If I could decide again, I would have chosen real wood planks right away and sanded the children’s rooms in 10 years. If I install wood flooring now, in 10 years I would have a step at the transition to the hallway, since the vinyl is significantly thinner than wood...Which model did you choose?
We also want to install Parador flooring throughout the house. We really like the Modular One locking plank.
H
hemali200326 Oct 2018 21:43We meant well and bought non-toxic vinyl flooring. The problem was that, due to the lack of plasticizers, installation was extremely frustrating – the tongue and groove joints practically broke apart in our hands.
After a few months, the vinyl (from a well-known manufacturer) no longer looked as good as at the start: the surface became shiny and had a very plastic-like appearance. However, thanks to the strong pattern, the many scratches were hardly noticeable.
Unfortunately, we were also sold an underlay for soundproofing that was too thick for this type of flooring. This caused the vinyl to develop new cracks every week, some as long as 30 to 40cm (12 to 16 inches)!
In the end, we at least received a refund for the product value and tore everything out to install tiles instead. The tiles feel a bit colder but have almost the same impact sound levels.
Honestly, I’m done with vinyl.
There is certainly attractive and durable vinyl out there, maybe even at a reasonable price. But you can easily make a bad choice with this material. It’s simply not something you can generalize about.
Our old laminate flooring, which cost around 7 euros (about $7.50) per square meter (we actually wanted to spend more but couldn’t find a suitable color), was by far more attractive and durable!!!
After a few months, the vinyl (from a well-known manufacturer) no longer looked as good as at the start: the surface became shiny and had a very plastic-like appearance. However, thanks to the strong pattern, the many scratches were hardly noticeable.
Unfortunately, we were also sold an underlay for soundproofing that was too thick for this type of flooring. This caused the vinyl to develop new cracks every week, some as long as 30 to 40cm (12 to 16 inches)!
In the end, we at least received a refund for the product value and tore everything out to install tiles instead. The tiles feel a bit colder but have almost the same impact sound levels.
Honestly, I’m done with vinyl.
There is certainly attractive and durable vinyl out there, maybe even at a reasonable price. But you can easily make a bad choice with this material. It’s simply not something you can generalize about.
Our old laminate flooring, which cost around 7 euros (about $7.50) per square meter (we actually wanted to spend more but couldn’t find a suitable color), was by far more attractive and durable!!!
We have both. Tiles in the hallway, kitchen, bathroom, utility room, and guest toilet. The rest is vinyl. No experiments with eco-friendly materials. It is a standard vinyl from Floor Projects, 20 euros per square meter (about 1.86 square feet), oak soap finished, installed with traditional full adhesion onto leveling compound and heated screed. It causes no problems, feels warm and softer than tile, has no odor, and will certainly last for decades. My brother and I installed it ourselves; it wasn’t entirely easy but definitely manageable. Of course, real wood would be nicer, but vinyl or PVC, which is essentially the same, is simply more compatible with underfloor heating. Karsten
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