Would you put vinyl flooring in your house on purpose?

[Poohforyou]

We actually have vinyl in our kitchen and purposely put it there when we had our house built 5 years ago. So many people have mistaken it for ceramic. Our reason for doing it was my concern over my then small child dropping something and having it shatter. Things have broken on the vinyl but haven't shattered all over the place. Our house is open concept so with ceramic glass shards would have gone everywhere.

 

[mhsjax]

Never, ever, ever. I hate the look and in my experience, it is way harder to clean than tile. To each their own, but around here,no one uses it, that I know of.

 

[LisaR]

Thanks for all the opinions. I am glad to see I am not the only one that hates ceramic tile.

One thing we might do is start with our master bath. My mom (82) stays with us in the winter and she has to use our master bath to shower since that has a walk in shower. DH and I are so afraid she is going to fall on the slippery ceramic. I do put rugs down for her but I am also afraid those might trip her up. We could try out the vinyl or linoleum in that bathroom and see how we like it and how it looks before doing main areas of our house.

 

[golfgal]

Thanks for all the opinions. I am glad to see I am not the only one that hates ceramic tile.

One thing we might do is start with our master bath. My mom (82) stays with us in the winter and she has to use our master bath to shower since that has a walk in shower. DH and I are so afraid she is going to fall on the slippery ceramic. I do put rugs down for her but I am also afraid those might trip her up. We could try out the vinyl or linoleum in that bathroom and see how we like it and how it looks before doing main areas of our house.

I would be concerned as well-tile is slippery and area rugs are tripping hazards for elderly with mobility issues as well. If you ever have a home health care agency come in the first think they do is take up all the area rugs. Go look at a home center at the options or even look at some of the manufacture websites (Armstrong, etc.) and I think you will be surprised at the lovely choices out there. Vinyl has come a long way since the 80's and the little geese in the corners of the squares on the vinyl.

 

[disykat]

I have vinyl and carpet for two reasons: 1) acoustics 2) cushion for my bad feet.

I would never do ceramic tile. I do like the looks of hardwood, but even that is too hard surface for our purposes.

 

[mtblujeans]

We put vinyl down where the room will have the wettest and dirtiest floors, ie. mud room and laundry room. Our mud room is at a back door and the guys come in with manure on their boots back there. Vinyl is easy to wash repeatedly and can be replaced frequently, if need be. The laundry room floor gets dusted frequently and, if something were to over flow or break down there (washer, water softener, etc.) the floor could easily be replaced there too.

The rest of our house has carpet and red oak laminate.

 

[LisaR]

I would be concerned as well-tile is slippery and area rugs are tripping hazards for elderly with mobility issues as well. If you ever have a home health care agency come in the first think they do is take up all the area rugs. Go look at a home center at the options or even look at some of the manufacture websites (Armstrong, etc.) and I think you will be surprised at the lovely choices out there. Vinyl has come a long way since the 80's and the little geese in the corners of the squares on the vinyl.

It's such a catch-22; let her slip on the ceramic or trip on the rugs. My husbands greatest fear in life is that he will have to pick his MIL's naked body up off our bathroom floor!

We are definitely going to shop around and see what is out there.

 

[Nohal]

We put sheet vinyl in both bathrooms. We bought the best quality as it is a small area and I really like it. In the kitchen we went with laminate that looks like ceramic tile. I didn't know if I would like it or not as you aren't supposed to get it wet and only use a swiffer to clean it. It stays clean using the swiffer. DS brings his 100lb lab over and the floor has never scratched. Love my laminate floor.

 

[ckret01]

We just re-did our kitchen floor with vinyl tiles that are groutable. We couldn't afford tile so we went with this instead. Here are a few pics of our new floor.

 

[Buckalew11]

I only have tile in my baths and mudroom. I have really liked it. I put laminate in my salon because if I drip color on it, so what? And, to replace will be easy. People thing it is tile though.

I have hardwood throughout the rest of the house (kitchen included) and love it.

In my old house I had high quality sheet laminate and it was great. When the man put it down he said, "Be sure you love it because it will last way past when you get tired of the look." That was true. And I have been in houses from the 70's that have the laminate down that I grew up with in the 70's and the stuff STILL looks good! (dated, but good shape)

 

[Buckalew11]

We just re-did our kitchen floor with vinyl tiles that are groutable. We couldn't afford tile so we went with this instead. Here are a few pics of our new floor.

and it looks great!!

 

[ckret01]

and it looks great!!

Aww Thank you

 

[TinkPirateMom]

We have duracermaic tiles in our bar and in our laundry room. They look a lot like ceramic to me and have held up well and are pretty easy to clean. We had to rip some of it up and replace it when we moved the bar over a bit and that wasn't too bad either because you can easily heat them and cut each tile to fit the space you need (tiles spread a bit so when we replaced the tiles where bar was we had to cut the new ones a smidge to fit them in).

We also have a plain old vinyl off the roll that looks like tiles. With that you can totally tell the difference, but my old kitchen floor was driving me batty and that was what we could afford at the time. In comparison to what was there before it is way better although it wouldn't have been my first choice.

 

[LisaR]

and it looks great!!

I second that!

 

[LisaR]

We have duracermaic tiles in our bar and in our laundry room.

I was just on Consumer Reports and they rated the Dura Ceramic tiles by Congoleum number one!

 

[rie'smom]

We converted a 3 car garage to a family room and had vinyl planks installed. It's looks nice and we love it. Unless we tell them, people think it's wood.

The vinyl grouted ceramic looking tiles that ckret01 posted are gorgeous!

OP,even if you're planning to sell your house , I'd say put in what you want and like. A nice looking vinyl floor will be more appealing to a buyer than cracked tiles and messy looking grout.

 

[Disney Doll]

Put in what works for you now. If you aren't planning on selling in the next 5 years, then put in what you want to live with.

We have hardwood through our whole main level, including the kitchen, except the bathroom, which is tiled. The tile is ceramic, however it is not perfectly smooth...it sort of has divots or dings in it....kind of like tumbled marble, I guess, even though it is not marble. Anyhow, because of the divoting, it's not slippery at all. That being said, I hate ceramic tile in a kitchen. My late DMIL had a perfectly smooth ceramic tile in her kitchen and I lived in daily fear that she would slip if ti got wet and break a hip or two. I soent more darn time mopping spills up off that floor when I was there....

If I didn't have hardwood in my kitchen, I'd go with a high end vinyl or some kind of laminate. As a PP said, the vinyl flooring has come a long way from the "fake brick" lookof the 70s.

A PP advised you to be cognizant of putting vinly oiver ceramic with regard to kitchen cabinets, the dishwasher etc. I would advise the same.

 

[tvguy]

I can't think of a house I have been in around here that didn't have at least some vinyl flooring. My house is mostly carpet, with vinyl flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms, and ceramic tile in the entry way. My wife hates the pattern on the ceramic tile, but the cost of replacing or removing the ceramic tile is so high, it stays. And she's been wanting to pull it out since we moved here 28 years ago!
My wife grew up with hardwood, and she said never again, the up keep was amazing. The house I grew up in has hardwood floors, but since they all covered with rugs, my parents have never done anything to them in the 51 years they have lived there. Even the carpet is original.

 

[airhead]

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.

 

[wdwmom2]

We did it and love it! We did the Home Depot Allure vinyl planks.

This is what we just installed in our kitchen. LOVE IT!!