5 Reasons Why We Chose Vinyl Plank Flooring for Our House Remodel

If you’ve ever considered replacing the floors in your house, then you know just how stressful it can be to choose a new flooring type. 

There are tons of different options to consider like carpet, tile, laminate, hardwood, polished concrete, and others! 

We replaced the floors in our house and picking a certain type of floor was not easy.

We considered refinishing the hardwood that was already in parts of the house as well as a laminate floor in other rooms.

At the end of the day, we decided to go with (drumroll please... ) vinyl plank flooring! I’ll share with you the 5 reasons why we chose vinyl plank for our house remodel and why you should consider it for your place or sometime down the road.

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1) Vinyl Plank Flooring is Waterproof

This is the absolute number one reason why we went with vinyl plank flooring. It’s waterproof! 

We have a couple of dogs, and while they are potty trained, they sometimes like to track in mud and water from the great outdoors. Luckily, with luxury vinyl plank (LVP), we don’t have to worry about the water messing up the floor at all. 

Water can cause some serious damage to hardwood laminate or hardwood. I used to work for a flood restoration company, and I saw the damage that water did to these types of flooring. 

It was absolutely devastating in some cases. Not to mention weeks or months to fix and replace!

And then there’s laminate. Laminate can easily bubble up and be ruined once it gets wet. If hardwood gets wet and isn’t dried out properly, then it can be thousands to replace. That’s not a bill I’d like to pay - especially if I can prevent it by installing LVP in the first place.

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2) Vinyl Plank is Very Scratch and Scuff Resistant

Besides being waterproof, vinyl plank is scratch and scuff resistant. I saw this time and time again after we installed it and actually subjected it to daily use. 

Brief sidenote: We have 2 dogs that weigh 80 pounds each that often get the "zoomies" and love to play any chance they get. (one’s a mutt and one’s a rough collie - one of their pictures is below). With that being said, we can continue.

Our dogs would run and slide across the floor and I always thought their claws would do some permanent damage to the floor. But, guess what? They didn’t scratch it at all! 

And when furniture did get slid across the floor or something got dropped, it would scratch off a little of the protective layer. But, it wasn’t noticeable once you went over it with a cloth and wiped it off. It was like nothing happened.

The resistance of your flooring is obviously dependent on the cost and quality. However, I was rather impressed at how solid it held up over the span of the year since we installed it - especially considering we have two large and rambunctious dogs.

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3) Bang for Your Buck

If you’ve looked at prices for flooring, then you know just how fast the cost can skyrocket. Its price tag can easily rival that of cabinets if you choose tile, hardwood, or even higher-end carpet. 

We were looking for a flooring option that wouldn’t break the bank but still looked great - and vinyl plank was that answer. 

Like I mentioned above, we spent $1.50 per square foot of LVP. We bought 1200 square feet worth so you can probably figure out the grand total.

We got our LVP from Lumber Liquidators and I’m very happy with the Tranquility brand that we bought. Did I mention that it has a 20 year warranty? 

That warranty in itself tells me that they stand behind their product 100%. 

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4) Easy to Install Yourself

Another fantastic benefit of using vinyl plank flooring is how relatively easy it is to install yourself! 

There are different systems, but I would recommend the click and lock planks. These planks are rather common and you install just as the name implies - click and lock. 

I had very little experience laying floor and I was able to install it into an average-sized room in just a couple hours by the end of it. However, there are a couple of tools you’ll definitely want to get for vinyl plank installation. 

The most important tool you’ll want to buy to install LVP is a rubber mallet kit. It comes with a rubber mallet, tapping block, pull bar, and spacers. It is well worth the money to get a kit like that - trust me. 

For smaller edge pieces of flooring, you may want to consider using floating floor glue to make sure pieces don’t unlock on the edges of the room. I used some and it works quite well.

Aside from that, you’ll just need some type of saw to cut the vinyl planks to size. I personally used a jigsaw, but a circular or miter saw would also work. 

If you want to add a little cushion and help even out the subfloor before installing the LVP, then you can put down some kind of underlayment.

If you’re on a tight budget but want beautiful floors, then consider installing vinyl plank flooring by yourself. You’ll save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

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5) LVP is Easy to Clean

This is another one of my favorite things about vinyl plank - how easy it is to clean! 

Tile can be a little difficult to clean sometimes, especially when stuff gets stuck in the grout. You also have to be careful with what you use to clean hardwood. There are special machines to clean hardwood so you don’t ruin it.

And then there’s the huge world of carpet. Carpet gets dirty too easily in my opinion, and you have to pay for professional carpet cleaning if you actually want it to be clean.

I used to clean carpets for a living. If I ever get carpet in my house, it would only be in my bedroom. Otherwise, it’s just a headache - but that’s just my opinion.

If you spill soda or anything on LVP, then you just grab a paper towel or a rag and wipe it right up. That’s not quite the case with carpet (as I saw many times when I had to clean that kind of stuff up).

And there you have it - those are the 5 reasons why we got LVP for our place!

If you’ve read this all the way through so far then you can probably imagine that I’m rather happy with our purchase and the end result.

Luxury vinyl plank is something that is waterproof, resilient, aesthetically pleasing, and easy to install yourself. 

While we haven’t started building our dream home yet, I will be very tempted to install vinyl plank in the entire house - that’s how much I love it!

If you have any questions about vinyl plank flooring then feel free to drop me a line here.