fabulous details on wood flooring options

We recently replaced all the flooring in our home and we opted for a luxury vinyl wood flooring. I will share the reasons why we opted for this choice and all the benefits this flooring offers. Previously we had a mixture of parkay wood flooring, fake wood and wall to wall carpeting. It’s so nice to now have a consistent flow between all the rooms in the house and it just seems to have brightened and opened up our home.

Although we are total traditionalists and we started off this process expecting to use real hardwood floors, as we researched and learned more about our choices it did not make sense. The price, the lead-time, the quality all pointed to a synthetic option as the best alternative. The floors look like real wood and feel like real wood and we could no be happier with our choice.

Our home is a 1964 rancher, which is about 2400 sq. ft. We laid down the new flooring throughout the entire house with the exception of the bathrooms, which we have three and the laundry | mud room. After visiting 4-5 different local flooring stores plus Home Depot, we decided on the Mission Collection from the Cortona brand in the Pure Earth finish. We absolutely love it and wish we had done it sooner.

Keep in mind not all synthetic flooring is created equal so definitely shop around. It’s unbelievable how many different varieties are in the marketplace and how the floor samples look in the store is NOT how they will look in your home. We took home many, many samples and they looked drastically different in our home than at the store. Live with them in your home for a few days looking at them in the daylight and in artificial light. Also test them with bare feet. It was super important to me how they felt since I like to walk around barefoot at home.

These are all the benefits we feel our new floor affords us:

affordability

Vinyl is the most inexpensive option from laminate, engineered and hardwoods. Laminate is a close second in pricing, but the biggest difference being that vinyl is waterproof versus water resistant.

appearance

Synthetic hardwood flooring has come a long way, looking and feeling like authentic hardwood floor. This flooring is very lifelike looking, appearing very similar to timber floors in tones and texture. I love the knots, cracks and flaws designed into our synthetic flooring, giving it a very realistic look and feel.

resilience

The flooring is extremely durable and hard wearing. It resists scratches, especially from our fur baby Bailey and also from moving furniture around. It’s also the only waterproof option, which lends itself to the kitchen.

maintenance

It’s super easy to upkeep since it’s so resilient. It just requires light regular cleaning. Our biggest upkeep is Bailey’s hair since she sheds a lot but that’s self inflicted 🙂 and we are willing to live with it because she’s our baby. This type of flooring will not require sanding or refinishing since it won’t wear and tear.

installation

The process to fit the floor planks is fairly simple with a clicking mechanism. We used wider planks and we also wanted a style that had a high number of repeats, meaning there were more plank designs to choose from when laying down he floor. We wanted the flooring to emulate real wood as much as possible. The planks we worked with were 9″ wide x 60″ long.

The main drawback is the life span of the product but this is not our end home so we know we won’t be here 15 to 20 years from now, which is the approximate life span. Real hardwood floors will last forever if maintained properly but it requires maintenance and re-sanding and refinishing, which these floors will not since it is not a natural product. Also the lead time on hardwood floors was out really far because of pipeline issues but the flooring we chose was readily available. Another plus in this circumstance, but hopefully this will no be the case always.

If I had to pick one determining factor for picking this flooring it would have to be the fact that it is extremely stress free and low maintenance with our girl Bailey. It helps us not having to worry about any damage she might cause to a huge investment in our home and it makes her life easier since she won’t be constantly reprimanded and trained to not just be a happy pup. It’s a win-win all around for the entire family, but that being said all the benefits in this list made the decision that much easier for us.

I hope this helps if you are in process of selecting wood flooring or even simply thinking about it. We absolutely love our new floors and it has made a huge impact throughout our home.

It was so nice to decorate our home for the holidays with the new flooring and I cannot wait to style it from a new perspective in 2022.

“An interior is a natural projection of the soul.”

Coco Chanel

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