Kitchen Floor recommendation

[house92]

I'm looking for recommendations for a kitchen between vinyl flooring that snaps together and linoleum. Keep in mind, it's just an old farm house that needs something new; it's not a high-end upgrade on a mansion.

I've always been fine with linoleum. The one there now is probably pushing 30 years old and I'm ready to replace it. I have a couple of friends who put down the vinyl flooring that snaps together in their house and say they like it better, and they say it is easier to install; I will install it myself. I'm not crazy about the hardwood-floor look, and thats about all I see in vinyl.

So, is vinyl better, and is it easier to install? What would you recommend in my situation?

 

[bud16415]

There is laminate, vinyl and sheet floorings (linoleum) to chose from in your price range. Linoleum is the old name and process that hasn’t been made in many years. I have done all of them as DIY and when I did a kitchen many years ago with Armstrong Congoleum I made a huge paper template of the whole room all taped together and then cut the room out in a larger floor and it laid in perfect. It was quite a project compared to snapping together planks cutting and fitting as you go. I did a 500 sq ft 4 room laminate once that had no seams between rooms and that was back when the pieces were T&G and had to be glued. That made a very water tight floor and was also a tough job. In recent years I did our kitchen with the snap lock stuff and that was much easier. I helped my nephew put down a vinyl plank floor that was very thin and snapped together and it looked great but later we found when the sun would shine in on it the material would grow and pop apart. he reset it a bunch of times and in the end wasn’t able to keep it from coming apart. I don’t know if they have improved it to not do that. I recently knew someone who had a wood floor in a old home covered with the real thin stuff and she has a wheel chair and it destroyed the thin vinyl stuff in short order. It was nice as being thin didn’t cause problems with doorways and such but really looked bad after 6 months.



We have been happy with our laminate kitchen floor. Ours tries to look like an oak plank floor but really isn’t fooling anyone. It has held up great for 10 years and our floor was not super flat and I wondered how it would conform to the dips in a 100 year old house. It had a little bounce in spots for a while but with time took the shape of what was below.



My vote is for laminate planks for holding up and ease of installing.

 

[house92]

Thanks!

 

[Rusty]

Linoleum was a linseed oil based product that is seldom found any more. Sheet goods are usually vinyl. Personally, I like sheet goods better than planks, but it is whatever you like.

 

[Eddie_T]

Do laminate planks nowadays have a better substrate? My son has Mannington and had some some damage from a leaky garbage bag. I have Armstrong for 10 years or so but not in kitchen. If I can find a scrap I'll water test it.

 

[Sparky617]

There are stone look vinyl plank. I'm going to use one in my basement project.

Stone Look Vinyl Plank

 

[house92]

Linoleum was a linseed oil based product that is seldom found any more. Sheet goods are usually vinyl. Personally, I like sheet goods better than planks, but it is whatever you like.

I’m good with either one, I just know that the planks that snap together seem to be the rage with a lot of people these days. I am behind on my terminology. I did t realize linoleum was I longer a thing, but I was referring to the sheets. I have put the sheets down in the past and thought it was no big deal. I don’t see how the snap things could be easier to install, but if there is a benefit, I’m willing to go that route.

 

[Sparky617]

Linoleum is still a thing, but you won't find it at a home center, and probably not for a DIY installation. What most people call linoleum is sheet vinyl. If you decide to go with sheet vinyl get a heavy one that can be either perimeter stapled or glued rather than having to glue the entire floor. Much more DIY friendly.

 

[Rusty]

Linoleum is still a thing, but you won't find it at a home center, and probably not for a DIY installation. What most people call linoleum is sheet vinyl. If you decide to go with sheet vinyl get a heavy one that can be either perimeter stapled or glued rather than having to glue the entire floor. Much more DIY friendly.

The vinyl-backed vinyl does not need glued or stapled. I have not seen a vinyl that was made to be perimeter stapled since the 90s. And they were a disaster.

 

[Ron Van]

We have had wood laminate and Sheet Vinyl (Linoleum). I have personally installed tile and Vinyl Plank and LVP (Vinyl Plank) is way easier than tile. I have had sheet vinyl but didn't install it.

My beef with vinyl sheet was that we had several places where something heavy got dropped on it and the vinyl split and developed a blister in that spot.

The wood laminate will swell if it gets wet like if your water line to the refrigerator develops a pin hole leak and it goes undetected for a while, the wood will swell (ask me how I know this!).

I recently installed 1100 S.F. of Mannington Adura Max Plank 7" x 48" - Sonoma Cork color. There's a guy on Youtube that tests the click mechanism on LVP and rated Adura Max high on strength. If the click joint fails, the floor fails = no good. Our Adura Max is 8mm thick with a 20mil wear layer, which is good for residential.

Vinyl is waterproof but I don't think that means water won't get through it to the underlayment...it means the vinyl won't swell or get ruined. I think it will hold water for a while but eventually, it could get through.

If the existing floor is not perfectly flat then a thicker product is probably in order. Mannington says 3/16" of unevenness in 10' is allowable but I think I may have had spots that were worse. The Adura Max has a built on pad so no underlayment is recommended or even allowed.

I installed the LVP over existing tile. I filled in spots with floor patch that can be feathered to a fine edge. and even grinded some corners of tile that had lippage.

I laid LVP in our kitchen last April and so far it still looks beautiful. I laid LVP in out TV room in September and the last area I finished in November. They make stair bullnose and transition strips to match the product. In my case, I rebuilt a step from the TV room to the rest of the house which required bull nose.

I removed all the baseboards so I didn't have to use 1/4 rounds to cover the gaps . . .I think quarter rounds look tacky...but that's just me.






Old Step . . .big dust maker


new step

 

[Sparky617]

The vinyl-backed vinyl does not need glued or stapled. I have not seen a vinyl that was made to be perimeter stapled since the 90s. And they were a disaster.

I'm not familiar with that product. My laundry room has had perimeter stapled vinyl since 1999 and it has held up well. I've installed some sheet vinyl in my day, not a pro by any means, and the stuff that is completely glued is not DIY friendly. At this point nearly 24 years in the only reason I'll replace it is due to changing styles, not any performance or appearance issue, despite being in the entry from the garage to the rest of the house.

 

[mabloodhound]

We used the snap lock laminate 5" wide boards in our kistchen and it came out nice and was fairly easy to install. One mistake we made was the laminate was NOT made for water repelling and if any water gets into the joint it caused swelling. A no-no in a kitchen. Make sure the laminate is water repellent.

 

[Rusty]

I'm not familiar with that product. My laundry room has had perimeter stapled vinyl since 1999 and it has held up well. I've installed some sheet vinyl in my day, not a pro by any means, and the stuff that is completely glued is not DIY friendly. At this point nearly 24 years in the only reason I'll replace it is due to changing styles, not any performance or appearance issue, despite being in the entry from the garage to the rest of the house.

The vinyl-backed vinyl can be wadded up and it will straighten out. It is very DIY friendly.

 

[Eddie_T]

Ron your step design is so neat that it makes we wonder what in the world was the original owner thinking of‽

 

[Sparky617]

The vinyl-backed vinyl can be wadded up and it will straighten out. It is very DIY friendly.

Per the Home Depot webpage vinyl backed vinyl should be perimeter glued and is recommended for professional installation. Fiberglass backed doesn't need glued. I've installed the felt backed, not DIY friendly. I have some perimeter glued in my current house that was professionally installed by the builder.

Vinyl sheet flooring has three different backings with different installation requirements.

• Adhesive vinyl flooring typically has a felt-backed vinyl sheet, and the entire floor must be covered with adhesive or glue.
• A modified loose-lay vinyl sheet has a fiberglass backing and doesn’t require adhesive.
• A vinyl-backed sheet is usually only glued at the edges and should be professionally installed.

Types of vinyl flooring

 

[Ron Van]

Ron your step design is so neat that it makes we wonder what in the world was the original owner thinking of‽

This old funky house was built over a 50 year period. Numerous additions...Some were good ideas and some were not so good. This step was originally outside the house and stepped up to one of the entry points to the house. Originally the step was much smaller but they made it bigger to have an outside landing at the entry door. As you point out, The original step was 9" tall to split the 18" climb in half. This really should have been three steps but I guess they wanted to integrate the step that was already there.

As I was hammering the step out, I discovered there was another smaller step under it. You can see in this picture that I had already removed some of the exterior wall but it used to have a 36" wide entryway door right there. That was the door from the outside before the TV room was added on. There is a foundation wall under that wall and behind the sheetrock, there is exterior wood siding. After the TV room addition was built, they simply took the door off and dressed up the door frame to make it look nice. I removed it all. You can see the 1970's homemade kitchen cabinets too.



Ruby painted the steps white. They were a dark stone, almost black.





I still have this stone slab out in the carport. I not sure what I can use it for but there's got to be some use for it.

 

[Rusty]

Per the Home Depot webpage vinyl backed vinyl should be perimeter glued and is recommended for professional installation. Fiberglass backed doesn't need glued. I've installed the felt backed, not DIY friendly. I have some perimeter glued in my current house that was professionally installed by the builder.

Vinyl sheet flooring has three different backings with different installation requirements.

• Adhesive vinyl flooring typically has a felt-backed vinyl sheet, and the entire floor must be covered with adhesive or glue.
• A modified loose-lay vinyl sheet has a fiberglass backing and doesn’t require adhesive.
• A vinyl-backed sheet is usually only glued at the edges and should be professionally installed.

Types of vinyl flooring

Sorry, you probably installed a floor once. I only did it for over 40 years. I bow to your expertise.

 

[Sparky617]

Sorry, you probably installed a floor once. I only did it for over 40 years. I bow to your expertise.

Rusty, no need for that. I've installed a few and don't claim to be an expert. I'm just going by what I read. I said at the outset I hadn't heard of vinyl backed vinyl. I did a small amount of research and reported on what I read.