I was a hardwood floor purist until I helped install LVP at my brother's house

My brother wanted luxury vinyl plank for his basement in Columbus and I argued with him for weeks about it. I kept saying real wood or nothing, that vinyl was fake and cheap looking. But last month I helped him install it and man, I changed my mind completely. The click-lock system took us 6 hours for a 400 square foot room versus the 2 days it took me to nail down hardwood in my own place. Plus his basement had a minor flood last week from a washing machine leak and the LVP was fine, no warping or damage. Has anyone else switched from real wood to engineered or vinyl and actually been happy with it?

2 comments

2 Comments

vera_roberts11d ago

That's a good point @jennifer_fisher, but I think there's something else nobody's talking about with LVP... the sound difference. My brother put LVP in his basement and when you walk on it, it has this hollow echo that real wood doesn't. Especially with the concrete subfloor down there, every footstep sounds like someone dropping a book. He had to put down those thick felt rug pads everywhere just to muffle it, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a hard floor. Real wood has a solid thump that I actually miss when I go to his place now.

jennifer_fisher11d agoMost Upvoted

Wait, hold up, I think you might be mixing things up a little lmao. Luxury vinyl plank and engineered hardwood are totally different things - you said you switched from real wood to LVP but then asked about engineered too. Engineered wood still has a real wood top layer and can warp in floods just like solid hardwood, so don't get those confused lol.