We are getting LVT installed hopefully some time in the next month (we are building). It looks great in the samples, we have seen it at our local grocery stores here. I will let everyone know once they are in how I like them but they seem to be a great option if you are looking for a wood look but want water proof and dent/scratch resistant without being stone/tile.

My local Walmart installed vinyl plank in a few areas to dress them up, sadly they didn't stagger the seams as you would do with hardwood, so now if you look at the floor from the side paralleling the main aisle.... now every other row the seams align.

Yes we put this down over a concrete slab on grade. It looks surprisingly good and is very easy to keep clean. No scratches yet and seems pretty tough. Wanted to go with something a bit more comfortable than tile. The only nit is that it sounds a bit plastic when you walk on it.

After much shopping around we landed on US IVC's Moduleo brand. Went with the thicker wear layer (0.55 mm) commercial variety called Horizon. It is click variety but we elected to glue it down on the suggestion of the floor guy. We also skim coated the slab and out a vapor layer underneath. Would highly recommend this product-- it's not exactly cheap (~$4.50/sq ft installed) but was less than the other higher end stuff like Alura.

Here is a link that might be useful: IVC Moduleo

This post was edited by zeitgast on Sat, Apr 26, 14 at 17:54

Thanks, all. zeitgast, that is the look I want. I've 'shopped' online and decided already that less than .5 cm seems awfully thin. There's so much to do in this house, I may have to go room by room. In that case, I have to be sure I can get more of the same product. That pretty much rules out overstocks which would be much cheaper.

zeitgast, can you tell me how your Moduleo flooring is holding up now that it is over a year? I am looking at doing vinyl plank flooring throughout our cabin and have been looking at Moduleo as well as several other brands. It's so hard to find real life opinions on some of these brands.

We've had amtico vinyl plank flooring for over 5 yrs now and are very happy with it.

Just be careful if you decide to go stained concrete. The grout lines from the previous tile can bleed through and make the concrete look very busy. I think they call it ghosting or ghost lines. I had also considered stained concrete until I was warned of this. Some people like it though and it can look nice, but a whole house of it might be too much.

Pics/links:

ghost lines

ghost lines

Annie - In what application are you using vinyl plank flooring?

LR, DR, foyer, kitchen, FR

silken1 on the positive side the LVP still looks great and shows no signs of wear or scratching. On the negative side it is curling up at the joints a bit. I hoped this was just a change of seasons problem but it isn't. We floated it over a slab that was skim coated first. Maybe we should have glued it down. If I had it to do all over again I think I would have gone with a wood look porcelain tile.

Thanks for the update zeitgast. That is not what I hoped to hear, but would rather hear it before than after installing it all. I found one at Lowes called Monarch that is less expensive than some of them, but I sometimes wonder if price even has much to do with it?? No-one seems to have heard of it and I can't find reviews on it, yet it has been around for a few years.

My husband installed luxury plank vinyl on the second floor. It took longer to install than anticipated, but he took his time to do it right. It actually looks great, and there are no issues with seams. People think the floors are hardwood, and they are a breeze to clean.

We have LVP throughout our townhouse - over concrete slab downstairs and over wood subfloor upstairs. It is a discontinued Lowes product, self-adhesive type. In installed it myself 3 years ago and it has held up perfectly - no scratches, no curling or problems at all. I followed the directions of letting it acclimate to the install environment for a few days before installing. The concrete I applied Drylock moisture seal and let that dry while I started the flooring install upstairs.

The upstairs subfloor is old and had had carpet installed many times, there were some loose nails I pulled all the ones i could find - a couple I missed eventually worked up and made a bump in the planks, it was very easy to remove a single plank with the hairdrier to soften the adhesive, pull up the plank, remove the nail, and put the plank back down!

We have had no issues whatsoever with the floor material, and many people think it is engineered wood at first. It wears like iron, and easy to keep clean. Ours is a medium chestnut color so it never looks dirty, either.

We have had ours for about two years now. We LOVE them!! Most people who come think they are wood. We have found tiny scratches..but they seem to blend or disappear after the initial SHOCK. They do not stick out like damaged wood floors. My parents went with ceramic planks, wood look. I MUCH prefer our vinyl for comfort, not as cold nor as HARD on your feet and acoustics, I cannot stand the tin can affect the ceramic gave my parents' home!!

We were looking at doing it in our cabin that is unheated in the winter (we are 3 hours N. of Fargo so it gets dang cold here) and were told that none of the brands carried by our large flooring store here are guaranteed for those conditions and that it wouldn't be a good idea. Zeitgest, is the area where you are having the lifting issues heated year round?

We went with heavy cushioned sheet vinyl (in my craft room which is in the basement)...not as nice looking as the plank, but very practical for the application and soft under foot.

The amtico was glued down to finished plywood to which, all the nail holes were filled as it requires a very smooth underlayment or the dimples will show. We have 2 corners near doorways where the tile has slightly buckled...probably due to being trimmed too close and not allowing for expansion. If they get bothersome, we'll have they guy back to fix it.

I don't think porcelain wood look is an equivalent as it is significantly harder under foot and colder. We have porcelain tile in our laundry and bathrooms, and it is definitely harder and colder.

arcy_gw do you know what brand you used?

daisychain01, that is too bad but I think there is too much shrinkage when it is cold. And maybe condensation with such drastic temp changes . Our cabin is heated year round although kept only at 50F when we are not there. We are in Saskatchewan, Canada right above N. Dakota so I know what kind of cold you are talking about!