ᐅ Does hardwood flooring have only advantages compared to luxury vinyl flooring?

Yes, you can also see this in hardwood houses, where the floor looks completely normal despite heavy use.

The fact is that every type of flooring has its own advantages, and you have to decide personally what kind of floor covering makes you feel comfortable in your house or apartment.

Personally, I prefer wood and believe that most negative reviews come from floors that may not have been properly maintained.

We are still exploring options and have currently chosen a floor from Solidfloor, which has a slightly “hand-planed” surface. The feeling underfoot was so convincing compared to a smooth parquet floor that this will probably be the one. The only major downside is that the surface becomes smooth after sanding, but so what…

As is often the case in life: it depends.

For example, if you want the kitchen and entrance area in this look, I would lean more toward vinyl. If you have three small children and two large dogs, vinyl would also be my choice.

In all other cases, I would prefer hardwood flooring. We have lacquered hardwood on the ground floor living area, which is very durable. Once a year, we apply a wipe-on sealant. So far, scratches and dents are barely noticeable.

Upstairs, we have oiled hardwood. No one wears shoes up there, and it still looks like new.

Overall, it is easy to maintain. Vacuuming is sufficient, especially since we have a small child and no pets. Mopping is done only very rarely, and it is rarely necessary.

In the basement, we have a fitness room with vinyl flooring. I don’t like the feel as much, but the durability was decisive. In the living areas, I would always choose hardwood again.

What about tiles? At the moment, we want to lay tiles throughout our new build. We are strongly against using vinyl because we don’t want plastic flooring, even though it was initially considered. We are concerned that hardwood flooring might wear quickly and not look good in some rooms (living room near the dining table and office), especially when rolling a desk chair around in the children's room and office.

There are felt pads and soft wheels for that.
But with kids, hardwood floors don’t work for me either, because they like throwing metal toy cars around, dropping scissors and hammers, dragging and dropping stones, and generally treating expensive hardwood floors costing 100 EUR/m² (about 9 USD/ft²) no better than laminate flooring costing 5 EUR/m² (about 0.45 USD/ft²).
That’s why there are tiles on the ground floor and laminate upstairs—starting with the cheapest laminate that has a reasonably decent pattern. It will stay until it either completely falls apart or the children reach a somewhat mature age. From age 14, they are allowed to work under certain conditions, so any damage will have to be compensated for.

I’m not really afraid of plastic—80% of all children’s toys are made of plastic. Some even chew on plastic. I trust that the lawmakers enforce sufficiently low limits on hazardous substances.

A few signs of wear don’t bother me in a wooden floor; that’s just part of life. Still, I had the guys lay laminate flooring themselves in their apartments with my help—hoping they’ll respect it more and knowing that I won’t be upset about a wooden floor being treated with typical teenage carelessness when it comes time to renovate after they move out. We can always install a wooden floor later.

Tolentino schrieb:

I’m not really afraid of plastic; 80% of all children’s toys are made of plastic. Some even suck on plastic.

I’m not afraid of plastic either, as there are countless types, including bioplastics. Some of the plastic found in children’s rooms is different. If plastic smells bad, it sets off alarm bells for me. I find vinyl flooring unpleasant because of its smell. It’s a simple, subjective choice: anything that smells bad stays out.

Tiles? Plastic? Hardwood flooring?: the never-ending story.., oh sorry: always a new topic on the same old subject 😉