High Tide Aquatics

Flooring opinions?

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BlueSallymandr

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Does anyone have any strong opinions on LVP flooring vs waterproof engineered hardwood? I bought a house that needs some work, and I am going to switch out the floors. I want something sturdy, and unfortunately the original hardwood floors are no longer. I thought I had finally made my mind up to go with the LVP, but today someone was telling me about waterproof engineered hardwood. (Funnily enough, that person had some he was willing to sell me...)

I guess the only aquarium connection is that my aquariums are eventually going on this floor, haha.
 
Dunno how much you know about both. They are completely two different animals.
I’ve never installed waterproof engineered hardwood. I installed engineered hardwood, pergo, LVP and solid hardwood. The easiest is LVP , pergo, engineered hardwood and solid hardwood. As for durability. LVP is the most durable. Cuz it’s fake bonded materials. Then pergo. It will deteriorate with lots of water. Cuz the underside is bonded with glue board material. Engineered is the next. It’s a thin layer of real wood bonded to a subfloor material. Then hardwood. The last two you can refinish. The others you can not. For aquariums long term. You can’t beat LVP. Hard to scratch but I’ve scratched mine.
 
I never heard of waterproof engineering hardwood until now. Looks like the core is a composite material versus traditional plywood in regular engineered hardwood. Aside from the waterproofness, do you expect high traffic that'll subject your flooring to scratches and dings? Like dogs, kids, dragging things around? Aside from waterproofness, scratch resistance was the biggest selling point for me on LVP.

Previous house I had engineering walnut floors that I absolutely loved. You just can't beat the look at feel of real wood but the maintenance and scratch proneness was killer. Sometimes the fake look of LVP bothers me but it was 100% worth it since I have 2 toddlers wreaking havoc, have had small floods, and have no fear doing any kind of work directly on the floor without any damage.
 
Thanks! I agree, real hardwood is so beautiful, and my first choice was to restore the original floors if they were still under there (1903 house), but they were removed at some point.

I'm not anticipating a higher than normal amount of traffic on the floors right now, I don't have kids or dogs (although I do have rabbits, and they have little dog-nails. One is a tiny monster who likes to scratch at the floor for fun, but that's a different story). But I just don't want to think about the floors any more than necessary once they are in. I want them to be relatively carefree. So I've been thinking about it a lot now so that I don't have to think about it much in the future.

Re:quality, yes, I'm finding out how different the brands are. Reading all about wear layers, durability, and the like. I'm at the stage where I'm collecting samples, and it's amazing how different they feel. I thought I had made up my mind until I read the number of enraged customers online for that brand, and saw that they generally don't honor the warranty. I'm leaning towards Flooret due to some good reviews and 40mil wear layer, but I will wait to see until I have the samples in hand today.
 
I used the Home Depot Lifeproof 30 Mil LVP and I can say with a 120g tank the feet of the stand left dents on the LVP. I would suggest using an extra piece of LVP if you ever plan on getting a larger tank. Also, I had a few spills so the LVP under the tank was discolored and I wasn't able to get it back to the original Sterling Oak color even with bleach, vinegar, or citric acid.
 
BlueSallymandr said:
Thanks! I agree, real hardwood is so beautiful, and my first choice was to restore the original floors if they were still under there (1903 house), but they were removed at some point.

I'm not anticipating a higher than normal amount of traffic on the floors right now, I don't have kids or dogs (although I do have rabbits, and they have little dog-nails. One is a tiny monster who likes to scratch at the floor for fun, but that's a different story). But I just don't want to think about the floors any more than necessary once they are in. I want them to be relatively carefree. So I've been thinking about it a lot now so that I don't have to think about it much in the future.

Re:quality, yes, I'm finding out how different the brands are. Reading all about wear layers, durability, and the like. I'm at the stage where I'm collecting samples, and it's amazing how different they feel. I thought I had made up my mind until I read the number of enraged customers online for that brand, and saw that they generally don't honor the warranty. I'm leaning towards Flooret due to some good reviews and 40mil wear layer, but I will wait to see until I have the samples in hand today.
Click to expand...
Look at Amtico, which is Mannington in the US. Its expensive but worth it. I used the glue down in my office.
 
This is what my floor looks like after 5 years of heavy traffic.
20250416_145004.jpg
 
Whatever you decide it's good to buy several extra boxes for any mishaps or repairs down the road since the finishes and colors can change every couple years. Unless you decide on traditional stained wood which should always be available..
 
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