Had some water damage from the freeze last weekend.
I’ve been wanting to do away with most (if not all) of the carpet in my house. This little “shop house” was s’posed to be a 3-5 year plan. Well, here we are in year 17......
Divorce, 3 kids, life, whatever....

Anyway, I need to pick out flooring for my kitchen, living room, hallway, and my bedroom.

I would like for it to be tough (high traffic), waterproof (resistant), and all the same (it needs to tie the rooms together, man)
oh, yeah... I absolutely DETEST doing stuff like this. Not just the actual DOING, but the whole shopping, picking out, etc...
All I know is that I’d like a lighter color to “open the rooms up” ... if I have the lingo correct.


And....GO!

I would choose tile.

Making sure the slab is properly prepped, and the mastic is done correctly as well as the grouting, and sealing the grout.

Wood is nice, if you spend money to get quality wood, but a lot of the laminates are fast growth (read, soft), or are cheap plasticized product.

I built and remodeled/renovated houses but that was 25 years ago, so products and methods are certainly different.

But I would choose tile, and throw area rugs down in a heartbeat before anything else.

And Florida and sand also have a lot to do with that. Similar for Texas, I would think.

Thanks, sigma key.
Pretty sure I don’t want actual wood. I’m thinking some kind of synthetic or tile (porcelain?)

I live in the country. I have a 1/2 mile driveway before I get to the dirt road.
So yes, lots of dust, sand, etc.
not to mention I have cattle so there are other, substances, that get tracked in.
I knew carpet was a mistake when this place was built but it was one of those “whatever you want, dear” moments (one of many).

I swear, as long as they have crown molding and bathroom towels you can’t use, women don’t seem to care if the rest of the House is made of paper mache’ and tooth picks....

Anyway, carry on...

LOL

Truth.

Look at luxury vinyl tile. It should meet all your criteria. I had this product installed in 3/4 of my first floor. I’m very happy with the look and quality.

https://coretecfloors.com/alic...-acacia-vv022-00801/

dwp10mm

You might consider loose lay, solid vinyl planks such as http://www.karndean.com/en/flo...es/karndean-looselay ?

Unaffected by water, easy to install and come time nothing's easier to replace.... simply lift them up. Plus compared to tile it's quiet to walk on, not so cold, and no grout to seal.

We used vinyl plank in a vet clinic (think LOTS of various body fluids, scratches, etc), and it has held up well so far. Look around and you can get great deals on it, much easier to cut vs wood or ceramic tile, maybe a good option.

We recently replaced al our carpet with a very realistic wood grain tile. This one...

http://www.marazziusa.com/desi...ving-room#ad-image-0

Another vote for Karndean. We had the entire house covered in the glue-down LVF and absolutely love it. After 3 1/2 years of two active Labradors it still looks brand new, and when people come over they think it's really wood. The final tally for installation was $8.49/sq.ft.

About two years ago Mrs. 'Hook had an old quilting iron overheat which melted the aluminum through the folding table and onto the floor. The repair guys came in and simply applied a heat gun to the planks, pulled them up and reinstalled new planks. You can't even tell where the event happened, and they did the work completely under warranty. If I ever have to move to another house I'm buying this flooring again.

Can't suggest a brand, but the wood grain tiles look great and stand up like any other tile would. This means good prep work, DITRA or concrete board plus using super expensive epoxy grout to make it last.

When I did my kitchen I got a deal on the tile, I ended up spending more on the grout than the tile.

The vinyl fake wood actually holds up better than wood. bUT, I'd recommend tile, the wood looking ceramic tile is tough and looks good

My house was built with vinyl flooring in the garage shop bathroom. Water got on it at some point, so I got motivated enough to replace it. Used the weathered wood color of tile 36"x6". Works a lot better than vinyl. Here's a picture:

Sgt Neutron...
I have that exact same tile in one of my bathrooms. Not sure if I’d like it throughout the whole house....

Also, I have some cracks to deal with in my slab. One is pretty bad. How much “flex” can I expect from these vinyl planks?
I know I’ll have to do some prep work on the slab, but what about future movement?

Yet another reason I don’t like this kind of stuff....

Fill any cracks smooth with a floor patching product such as Ardex. The majority of cracks don't continue to move, but some do. They expand and contract or continue to settle. And when it does that's going to telegraph through any finish flooring you adhere down. Tiles crack or pop loose, vinyl tiles or planks generally separate at a joint closest to the offending crack.
Other than carpet stretched in over padding, your best option is probably a floating floor which would be the loose lay vinyl planks I suggested, laminate, and some wood floors. Laminate and wood will span right across cracks without even needing to fill them but the concrete really needs to be flat, these floors don't like dips or humps. Floating vinyl flooring doesn't mind dips and humps but larger cracks can show through if not filled.
All these floating floors attach to themselves not to your floor so it just lays there as one big floor covering. As cracks or joints in the floor underneath expand and contract the floating floor is unaffected, within reason of course.

Sgt Neutron, outstanding work there. Looks great!

We have laid ceramic tile, floating planking, glued down vinyl tile, glued down vinyl flooring.

Ceramic is a pain to lay. It's cold and anything breakable that is dropped on it is likely to break. It can also get very expensive.

We put that floating planking in our family room and absolutely love it. It called for adhesive in those "locking joints" which we did. Newer versions do not require it. Since it floats should there be any movement in a concrete slab under it, the planking simply floats and the motion (unless excessive) is not even noticed.

We used the wood look porcelain tile in our basement and have been very happy with it. The color we chose hides the dirt of the kids coming in and out very well. It looks like the picture below.

How does the porcelain hold up to having hard, heavy stuff dropped on it?

quote:

Originally posted by hudr:
How does the porcelain hold up to having hard, heavy stuff dropped on it?

it is tile, it can crack.

I have used vinyl plank in my office and really like the way it looks and is holding up.

I put it in my camper trailer, which is not recommended, and it is doing well there too.

Vinyl plank. Easy to repair if need be. You can do it yourself.