New flooring advice.

[Aardvark]

I live in a funny little 2007 town house that is 2k sqft across three levels.
The lower level and first set of stairs are Brazilian cherry hardwood.
The middle and upper floors, and the stairs between, are a vom-worthy carpet that came with the house. The carpet covers three bedrooms and a lounge area that spills out onto a rooftop patio. We want to replace the carpet and are not sure how to make the decision between carpet and Laminate/LVP.

Pros of carpet:
-Cozy homey feeling
-Cheap
-Aesthetic will work well with (1) the transition from the hardwood staircase and (2) the transition to the bathroom and laundry room

Cons of carpet:
-shorter lifespan before it gets worn through and looks vom-worthy again
-potential to get totally ruined by a spill (we are hoping to have kids and maybe a dog in the coming years)
-looks clean even when it's dirty and will probably result in us cleaning less and living in more dust/nasty stuff

Pros of Laminate/LVP:
-clean, durable, looks good
-Much longer lifespan (It would be nice to not think about this for another decade or so)
-doesn't hide dirt so we will clean better and more often

cons of Laminate/LVP:
-Cold feeling, potentially less homey than carpet... We're not sure of this point, but we do like to sprawl on the floors a lot
-expensive, at least for the good stuff. We can save a lot of money by doing it ourselves, but the stairs are intimidating, and we don't know how much time the project will take us. Don't want to live in a construction zone for months or do nothing else with our summer.


key questions:
1 - What's the argument for Laminate vs LVP vs carpet? What are the key points for us to consider as we try to make this decision?
2 - Once the above decision is made... Any more details on specifics to do/not-do? Brands to consider, etc.
3 - Comments on how DIY-able this project would be? We are relatively handy, fit and strong and in our mid 30's... but we have zero experience with flooring... what if we mess things up - can we call a contractor to save our butts?
4 - Any other questions that we should be asking?

Thanks in advance for any help/insights :)

[Aardvark]

I think we are starting to lean towards Laminate/LVP... Any help in choosing something that we won't regret would be appreciated.
...But if you want to make a case for carpet, you could still sway us in that direction :)

[Bartlebooth]

Plastic floors in general will look/feel like garbage in comparison to hardwood.  At least it won't be visible from the main level!  Everyone knows the plastic floors are junky but they are durable and economical so they are tolerated.  It is just a place to live, not an architectural showpiece (presumably).

Absolutely DIY it.  It is easy.  Even if you hire someone you end up busting ass for a week moving furniture, dealing with them, and putting the house back together.  Might as well just do the couple days of actual labor too.

Stairs can get quite expensive to do with laminate or LVP as the bullnose pieces are pricey.  $30+ per tread.  And a lot of them aren't even that nice as they lip up over the tread piece of LVP.  Try hard to do the flush-style.

[VanillaGorilla]

My wife and I went back and forth on flooring recently.

I don't love vinyl/LVP from an environmental perspective, since you're flooring your house with plastic. If you have a house fire, that's going to be some nasty, nasty fumes. And when it wears out it'll sit in the landfill for a million years. However, our contractor talked us into it, as LVP is durable, waterproof, and in vogue. We went with LVP. Engineered wood would have been more expensive and hardwood 5x more expensive. The mid-range LVP we selected (roughly $4/sqft) is quite attractive - even our contractor thought it was engineered wood when he first saw it.

I had put in cheap laminate years before, but it's not waterproof and didn't age well. Any spills from the dog bowl, water jug, etc led to bubbling and warping, and after about a decade it was high time to be replaced.

Having pulled up the old carpet myself and seeing all the nastiness that had accumulated underneath, I will be very hard pressed to volunteer for carpet in the future. The house immediately smelled cleaner once the carpet was out.

LVP and laminate are both quite easy to DIY install, as long as your subfloor is level and easy to prep, and you have patience and an eye for detail. Watch some videos on both the floor and baseboards/trim. And remember that the subfloor prep is largely what determines the end result.

So in a nutshell: laminate is cheapest, easiest, but probably the least durable. LVP is handsome and durable, but not very environmentally friendly. Engineered wood is more expensive. Hardwood is most expensive and longest lasting. Carpet is gross, unless you want pee, skin cells, dirt, and literally everything else festering beneath it for years and years.

[lthenderson]

LVP has its place. I have some in my basement where no other flooring would really work. But in my opinion, it is just like vinyl siding. It looks and feels cheap. It is a cost saving measure if your budget can’t afford putting in solid hardwood. I have solid hardwood throughout my main floor and it looks and feels like quality flooring all these years later. The LVP looked and felt cheap the day it was installed, but like I said, it has its place.

[Paper Chaser]

Random thoughts:

I'm also reasonably handy, and I'm finishing up ~1600sqft of LVP including stairs. It's pretty easy, although things like trim details will go a long way towards making the job look good or making it look like crap. I watched a lot of videos online to gain confidence and learn some little tips/tricks.

I used a decent quality LVP plank with a cork backing. I did not use any other underlayment, but I did spread a layer of self leveling concrete over the subfloor. The mass of the concrete helped to dampen a lot of the vibrations and made things feel more solid and less plastic-y, but there's no denying what it is.

Personally, I don't love the finished product of LVP. There are cases where it really makes sense, but I'd prefer real wood over imitation any day. But the LVP is acceptable and durable, and it fit the price point and the neighborhood comps.

I also think that it's important to consider what expectations are in your neighborhood. If it's a high end neighborhood, then LVP could really stand out as being cheap. If it's a blue collar area, then paying a bunch for real hardwoods probably doesn't make sense either.

Kids/dogs will have your Brazilian Cherry well worn in no time. If they're in the plans I don't think I'd splurge for hard wood unless you can tolerate lots of gouges/scratches/etc.

Carpet doesn't have to be cheap and gross. If you buy decent carpet, use really good pad, and vacuum it regularly it will stay nice for a long time. I don't love it for high traffic areas, but it can be nice in bedrooms.

[Bartlebooth]

Check out the Marmoleum stuff.  They are made of natural products (linseed oil) like linoleum was back in the day.  (At least last I checked.  I'm sure plastic will eventually creep into their products if it hasn't already.)

I see they now have a snap-together product CinchLOC that should be DIY friendly and is ~$5/sqft.  I don't love the designs/colors but at least it doesn't try-hard to look like wood.

[the_hobbitish]

Agree with all the comments about dirty carpet. You can always add washable rugs.

I always prefer hardwoods finished on site, especially for main living areas. I get that spendy isn't always an option. To me, some prefinished hardwoods look worse than LVP because of the beveled edges and factory coating. If hardwood isn't an option because of price, then I think it really comes down to the individual manufacturer and product for LVP. You need to see and handle the specific thing you're buying. If the company you're buying from can get you in touch with a previous clients who will let you come see the installed product that's ideal. If not, try to find a showroom that has the 3'x3' example floors.

There's LVP in the master bathroom in the place we just bought. It has a warmer feel than tile. There's no grout lines to clean. We don't plan on changing it. I like the way it looks in that space. We're going with hardwoods in the livingroom and main bedroom. We're getting price quotes on hardwood vs LVP for the upstairs bedrooms. Cost will likely be the main factor in that decision.

[JAYSLOL]

Plastic floors in general will look/feel like garbage in comparison to hardwood.  At least it won't be visible from the main level!  Everyone knows the plastic floors are junky but they are durable and economical so they are tolerated.  It is just a place to live, not an architectural showpiece (presumably).

Absolutely DIY it.  It is easy.  Even if you hire someone you end up busting ass for a week moving furniture, dealing with them, and putting the house back together.  Might as well just do the couple days of actual labor too.

Stairs can get quite expensive to do with laminate or LVP as the bullnose pieces are pricey.  $30+ per tread.  And a lot of them aren't even that nice as they lip up over the tread piece of LVP.  Try hard to do the flush-style.

Just get some solid wood L trim, bonus that the edges of the stairs don’t blend into each other making it easier to misjudge a step and trip

[sonofsven]

I've installed lots of LVP. I don't love it, but it has a lot of advantages in new construction.
One, it's tough and resists scratching.
It's also extremely low maintenance.
And, it's waterproof so I run it everywhere, even into the bathroom.
I usually make my own trim pieces for stairs and entry doors out of a hardwood, like Ipe.
Also, it's less expensive than prefinished hardwood, which I also don't love.
The last LVP I installed had a really thick cork backing on it, which was nice. It felt softer.
I would go into a real floor shop and look at some, rather than just blindly order online.

[lthenderson]

I would go into a real floor shop and look at some, rather than just blindly order online.

+1000

When I bought LVP out of necessity for a basement flooring project with no practical alternatives, I was amazed at the difference between brands selling LVP. Some felt substantial, were rigid and had padding/membrane on the back and others felt like a thin piece of floppy plastic. No way would I ever order this stuff sight unseen.

[iris lily]

As God is my witness, I will never live with carpet again. We just renovated our 1800 square-foot house in top grade red Oak. We are old and rich.

But I realize most people aren’t going have that kind of money. Every day I look at these beautiful floors and thank God for them. This is a 1941 cottage type house, and the living room had nice oak floors that we kept. Everything else was awful in varying kinds of cheap flooring put in over 80 years.

[crocheted_stache]

Posting to follow. Some flooring upgrade is in our (possibly near) future. I'm a little concerned about something other than carpet, because the parts of the carpet we've lifted seem to be covering a multitude of sins. (Not-quite-even transitions between what used to be separate rooms, for instance.)

[bacchi]

Check out the Marmoleum stuff.  They are made of natural products (linseed oil) like linoleum was back in the day.  (At least last I checked.  I'm sure plastic will eventually creep into their products if it hasn't already.)

I see they now have a snap-together product CinchLOC that should be DIY friendly and is ~$5/sqft.  I don't love the designs/colors but at least it doesn't try-hard to look like wood.

We used marmoleum for our kitchen remodel. We love it and it's stood up to a large dog.

Our hardwood floors are scratched from said dog...I'm hoping it's just sealant level.

Carpet: Never, ever, will it be under my feet in my own place.