Would you put vinyl flooring in your house on purpose?

[LisaR]

My house is all ceramic and hardwood. No carpet and carpet is not an option. Love my hardwood and wouldn't trade it for the world. Hate my ceramic with a passion. We have had the grout cleaned. It cost an arm and a leg and only looked good for six months max. There are some slightly cracked tiles (I'm probably the only one that notices) but the tile has been discontinued and we haven't been able to order extra. I hate the color even though it is a neutral look, it just appears dirty looking to me.

I am well aware of the fact that ceramic tile increases the value of a home. We do not plan on moving until we need to go in a nursing home. However, we said the same thing with our last house and we were transferred after 5 years. I am 98% sure that won't happen again. DH is retiring in 5 years and it would be very unlikely that they would transfer him because the company pays for everything and that would be a waste if he is just going to retire.

I have seen some really nice looking vinyl tile. After putting floor leveler down, we could lay the vinyl right over the ceramic. Ripping out all the ceramic isn't an option. There is way too much of it and it would create a huge mess. Too many allergies in this house to have that much dust floating around. So, would vinyl tile look like crap or give a cheap appearance? I swear I just saw a headline the other day about vinyl/linoleum making a comeback but I can't find it for the life of me now.

What do you think? Big mistake?

 

[AKL_Megs]

Well, we purposely put vinyl tile in our basement bathroom... But it is this new kind that you grout! LOL

Home Depot DOES have some nice (and expensive) vinyl tile though. Go take a look!

 

[marie1203]

No I hate vinyl more than tiles.

 

[tink_lover]

We put vinyl in our mudroom. Rest of house is hardwood. We did it for the reasons you said - we had ceramic in the previous house mudroom and with little kids, big dogs and lots of foot traffic, it didn't wear well. The vinyl we put down is fun and colorful. Easy to clean and easy to replace.

 

[fitgirl36]

Well I'm probably the minority but I love my linoleum! My parents have ceramic tile and my feet are always cold, afraid if I drop a glass on it it will shatter and my mom watches my DD while my husband and I are at work and I'm afraid of her falling on the tile way more than if she were to fall on the linoleum (thinking knocking her teeth out-she's 11 mos old so just starting to try to walk) I know if we build another house my husband will try to talk me into tile, but I'm not a fan. So there's my vote!

 

[marybet]

I know someone who built a new home and put vinyl down because she doesn't like ceramic. I have ceramic and love it, to each his own.

I think the major problem would be if whoever buys your house would want to change the floors. By putting the vinyl over the ceramic you are raising the height of your floors. This could affect how the doors open & close, how the cabinets in your kitchen look. It could create problems you haven't even thought about.

We put ceramic down over vinyl in one house we owned. It was in the kitchen, we also replaced the countertops. Not thinking how this would affect things the result was that it was going to be very difficult to replace the dishwasher when the time came, probably have to remove the countertop in order to remove the dishwasher. So you need to think about all those things before you lay vinyl over the tile.

 

[POPCITY]

I love vinyl, not a fan of ceramic at all. We have vinyl in the kitchen, bathrooms, mudroom, and entryway. It looks great, is easy to care for, and if I get tired of it, it's easy to replace.

 

[liznboys]

I soooo dislike ceramic tile. It can look nice but I don't like the maintenance and I don't like how hard and cold it is underfoot. The house we live in now has it in the main floor bathroom and the master bath. I would love to take it out and replace it with the same vinyl that's in our other two bathrooms and the laundry room. I wouldn't want vinyl anywhere other than the bathrooms and laundry room though. (We have hardwood in the kitchen, entryways and dining room.)

 

[Pigeon]

I wouldn't put vinyl tiles down, period. I've had them and hated them, plus I think they don't look good. You still have the seams between the tiles.

But I do like ceramic. If you get a dark colored grout, you don't have the dirty looking grout issue.

For certain applications, I would put down sheet vinyl. My ILs have a house in a part of the country where there is extended mud and snow season, and the floor is too springy for ceramic. I've been shopping for flooring with MIL, and that's how she's leaning.

Linoleum is more maintenance than vinyl, and it's also pretty expensive. Some of it is very attractive, but caring for flooring is one of my least favorite chores.

There is a limit to what I'll do at this point in worries about resale value. I've got a family room that's on a slab, and is too cold for ceramic. We've got french doors, so raising the floor height to put in heating under tile is too complicated. We decided on laminate because it will hold up better than engineered wood for our application. I'm not selling for at least 15 years and will revisit it at that point.

 

[beaucoup]

yes. No tile here. Only sheet vinyl. A very good sheet vinyl. House value wouldn't support money spent on tile. I don't like tile. Its hard & cold. It cracks & chips. Hard to clean. And much harder to change when you don't like it anymore.

Vinyl more common here in this neighborhood than tile for sure.

I would never put vinyl tiles down however.

We were looking into a new home where tile was builder standard in kitchen & bathrooms. I really did not want tile in my kitcehn and was seriously considering vinyl or wood. Anything but tile.

 

[bballmom56]

We did it and love it! We did the Home Depot Allure vinyl planks. We first put it in our kitchen and were so pleased with it that we did our living room (20x24), hallway and entry foyer.

Reasons we did this were: 1.cost. 2. We had wood flooring in the kitchen for a while and when the ice maker leaked and we were not aware of it, we had lots of warping. 3. I hate tile (too cold and hard) and I hate grout.

Reasons we like it: 1. Cost 2. We have a St. Bernard and needed something that would stand up to her nails. So far so good. And if it did not, we had not spent a fortune on it. 3. It is softer and warmer than tile. 4. Easy to clean 5. Looks great - fooled my interior-conscious sister-in-law.

If we go to sell the house, the price will reflect the flooring. And if someone wants to replace it, it will come up very easily (no glue attaching it to the floor) and below it is the subfloor which was thoroughly cleaned when we pulled up the old carpet before putting down the vinyl.

We have been very happy with it.

 

[liznboys]

Definitely only SHEET vinyl, no vinyl tiles.

 

[Pakey]

I would not do vinyl. We have tile throughout our house. I don't see how anything could be lower maintenance and we have light grout.

 

[Andtototoo]

We have hardwood, vinyl flooring, Berber carpet and ceramic tile in our home. The tile is in the foyer and the master bathroom. It was brand new when we moved in ten years ago. HATE it. Both places have one tile with a crack. The grout is drying out and chipping. We have vinyl flooring in our kitchen and one other bathroom. We also put vinyl flooring in our two bedrooms in the lower level -- it looks so much like hardwood that even the realtor was fooled. I'm considering pulling up the tile and replacing it with that vinyl flooring.

 

[golfgal]

Well, we purposely put vinyl tile in our basement bathroom... But it is this new kind that you grout! LOL

Home Depot DOES have some nice (and expensive) vinyl tile though. Go take a look!

My parents and some good friends of ours just put this in. I knew that my parents put in the vinyl tiles and I was commenting on how much our friends' "ceramic" looked like their vinyl-they were vinyl. I can't even tell the difference. It looks very nice and is easy to install on your own.

I will put in sheet vinyl in my kitchen again. Personally I love it and with the new high definition vinyl that looks like tile, it's VERY difficult to tell the difference. I hate tile floors in kitchens.

I LOVED my wood floors in our old house but I would not like them in my kitchen because no one here cleans up after themselves for small spills, ice maker overshoots, etc.

 

[marcyinPA]

Well, our floor needs to be replaced. It is sheet vinyl, but it is crap. The previous owners put it in. We live in a 100 year old house, so it's always a work in progress.

Anyway, money being the issue that it is, I would put down what I like but what I can afford. At this point, it's nothing. But, in the future, probably a laminate that looks like tile. We have hardwood (old original) in the dining and living rooms.

 

[Kath2003]

We have sheet vinyl in our bathroom and I love it. It's warm, easy to clean and waterproof. We had ceramic before and HATED it.

 

[clh2]

We'll be replacing our kitchen flooring next spring (oddly - just before DD's graduation party...)

I got my choice of quartz counters. earlier this year DH really does not want ceramic tiles, and neither of us want wood flooring. I really pushed for the upgraded counters, I don't have as much of an opinion on the flooring. DH does - so we'll end up with vinyl. Has to be a super-quality though, as this is a very high traffic area in our house.

 

[Mama-san]

OP, you sound like us! When we had our house built, we put ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. Within a couple of months we started having problems with loose grout in the kitchen, which led to loose then broken tiles, which by now were unavailable any more (and our contractor was MIA). About half of the tiles ended up coming up on their own by the time we decided to rip up the rest along with the backing board (note: very tedious - rent an air hammer). We had to lay down another layer of plywood to make up for the height difference, then we put down vinyl tiles (the kind you can use vinyl tile grout with). We absolutely love it! It has the ceramic tile look while being more user friendly. I think the total cost of materials was around $500, but of course we provided the labor. Totally worth it!

As for my bathrooms, the kid's has 2 cracked tiles (no grout issues) and mine has none. Still cold though. I use lots of rugs.

 

[Maybelle]

When we renovated our entire kitchen 5 years ago we chose high quality sheet vinyl for several reasons: it is much easier on the knees and other joints as tile is so hard, it has a "warmer" feel than tile, ease of cleaning. We went with a very high grade vinyl and it was actually more expensive than tile would have been, but I love it. Cleaning is so easy with my steam mop, and I don't ever have to worry about grout.

The best part....when people come to my house they always comment on how pretty my kitchen "tile" is!!