A Guide to Wood-Look Flooring
Y’all know how it is! The hunt for the perfect diet, weight loss strategy, how to fertilize a tomato plant, the best way to change a diaper, or really anything typically ends in a stressful Google experience. There are so many differing opinions on EVERYTHING these days! So what do you do when you can’t decide on the perfect flooring for you? We’ve put together this guide to walk you through four wood-look flooring options, and to give you our recommendations!
We’ll be looking at 4 options:
1. Natural Hardwood.
2. Luxury Vinyl Plank.
3. Engineered Hardwood.
4. Wood Look Tile.
By the time you finish reading, you’ll be armed with the knowledge and tools to decide which flooring is right for you!!
Step One: Lifestyle & Personality Check
For the love, please do not skip this step! This step is arguably the most important thing to look at when picking your floors, that’s why I’ve put it at the top. Before you buy flooring, don’t think about the cost yet, don’t think about the pros and cons of the material, and don’t think of anything except: A. How do you live your life?, and B. How much do you care?
How Much Activity Will Your Floors Get?
Now, be honest here because being honest about your lifestyle will help you narrow down the options and, ultimately, make the decision easier.
So what does your day-to-day life look like? Do you have pets in your home? Sweet furry friends who love to jump and play, or a lazy-lou who lays in his lonely corner and only raises his head when he hears the potato chip bag crinkle? Do you have children at your house who accidentally tromp in mud and may, or may not, spill their drink at every other meal? Have you ever had a washer/dishwasher leak? Is that something you could see happening again in the future? Are you a lively cook like me (aka a messy cook) or are you Ina Garten 2.0 (my hero) keeping your floors tidy and lovely?!
Begin to take an assessment of how you live your life, and don’t plan to change the rules all of a sudden. If your kids run in and out with muddy feet, that’s okay! Don’t be tempted to say, “Well, that’ll change when we get new floors.” The purpose of your home is to encourage life in your family! If that means running in and out with muddy feet, then let’s go with it!
How Much Do You Care About Your Floors?
The honest answers to this question will help lead you to the right flooring for you. Are you the type of person who buys designer purses or knockoffs in NYC? Do you care? Some people are committed to buying the best, real product, while others care more about cost-savings or durability.
How do you feel about potential damage to your floors? When your floor has been in for 2 weeks and is PERFECT, is it going to absolutely crush your soul to see the first scratch? What about worn spots and faded areas over time? Think about how much you really care, and this will help you know how to decide!
Step Two: Think About Your Flooring Budget
Read this carefully!!!! - EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. THESE. OPTIONS. COSTS. THE. SAME. PRICE. Boom.
Often, we see people going for one flooring material over another based on the cost, because people assume that one is more expensive. Now let me be clear, if you run out to a big box store and buy a product at $1.25 per square foot, the product you’re buying will most certainly NOT maintain the same characteristics as what I’m describing below.
To reap the benefits of each of these options, we’ll be looking at a high-quality version of each flooring product, and that’s going to put you at about $10-$15 per square foot. We are big believers in, “you get what you pay for.” We’ve learned this lesson the hard way, and we’re here to share these learnings with you!
Now that you know your lifestyle and your budget, you can freely choose which flooring is best for you! Keep reading for all of the technical details!
Step Three: Compare Flooring Materials
Wood-Look Flooring Options
1. Natural Hardwood
When we visited France in November 2019, we spent time wandering the halls of the Palace of Versailles. While there, I got so tired of walking that I bought myself a ham sandwich and sat right down on the floor. The floor I happened to plop down on was some of the most beautiful, oldest, and most definitely damaged hardwood I’ve ever seen. As I was sitting on hundreds of years of age, water damage, and countless visitors’ shoes tromping across, I thought to myself, “Oh that’s it, I get it. Hardwood has the same timeless quality as marble. Even in the damage, even in the wear, natural hardwood somehow retains its beauty like marble can.”
We LOVE gorgeous, natural hardwood floors. The earthy, organic warmth they bring to a space is unreal; it’s utterly timeless in all ways! I love it, you love it, we all love it! Now, let’s get down to the true pros and cons of natural hardwood floors.
Pros:
Hardwood floors can be patched in.
If you were to have a leak or some minor damage to an area or a plank, the area can easily be removed and new boards can be laced in. This is great news for your wood! However keep in mind, to create a perfectly blended stain match, you’d then have to sand all of your floors and re-stain.
Hardwood can be stained and re-stained.
You can stain and re-stain your natural hardwood floors up to 10 times throughout the life of the floor. If you’re thinking of getting hardwood, this can be the most encouraging and hopeful news! Even with potential damage to your floors, just get them sanded and re-stained, no big deal! Or if you've grown tired of the color, just re-stain them!
Hardwood is naturally antibacterial and antimicrobial.
Hardwood naturally eliminates 99% of potential contaminants. This is great for people who suffer from allergies, or for anyone who has little ones crawling on the floor. Even without a broom or a mop, the natural quality of hardwood lends itself to be a healthful option.
Hardwood is naturally warm and medium hard.
Remaining between 70-80 degrees, hardwood floors feel so good on bare feet. It also isn’t terrible on joints because it’s that perfect middle ground between hard and soft.
Cons:
Water damage can ruin hardwood.
A leaky pipe, the dishwasher breaking, a toilet overflowing, or a wet dog coming in to lay down can cause pretty severe damage to wood floors. Hardwood water damage can look like plank separation, swelling, puffing, or popping nails. Water is the enemy of natural hardwood floors.
Scratching and general wear.
Your wood floor will get scratched. Period. Both big gashes resulting from dragging a dresser across the room, and small nicks from dropping a spoon or walking in heels. Also, high-traffic areas will begin to wear down revealing the natural wood tone over time. They can also wear the wood down to create a divet or depression in the wood in high-traffic areas. (Check back in on step one: your personality check! Is this okay with you? Great, do it! Does this give you anxiety? Keep reading!)
2. Luxury Vinyl Plank
Full disclosure friends, I have this product installed throughout my entire house! That should speak volumes in and of itself because I truly believe in the benefits of LVP! We have intentionally placed the Luxury Vinyl Plank flooring in second place on our list because it’s ONLY truly amazing when you get the good stuff! This product is very attractive and many times indistinguishable from hardwood. Although, with a close look, you can see that it’s not natural hardwood. This product, unfortunately, can get a bad rap because of outdated items that have been sold under similar names. Shiny and unrealistic-looking planks, with hideous patterns and terrible functionality, are NOT what we’re talking about here. Check out the pros and cons below to get a better idea of what this product can offer!
Pros:
LVP is scratch-proof.
You can take a penny and scrape it all over this flooring with absolutely zero damage. It’s incredibly durable. That being said, if you’re sliding your fridge into its spot and the corner gets hung up on this floor, it will create a scar on the floor. But, read the next point and you’ll be like, “Oh! Okay, that’s not so bad!”
LVP is the same color throughout.
The entire plank of flooring is the same color as you see on the top. This is amazing because if your floor does get scarred or scratched from a severe furniture drag, you can hardly see it. After all, the material is the same color from top to bottom!
LVP is waterproof.
You read it. And there are zero caveats. The product is a PVC/plastic polymer that physically cannot absorb water. This product cannot be damaged by liquid sitting on it, even if it sits on it for hours.
LVP does not fade.
Even when located in the harshest sunlight, this product will not fade.
LVP is great for living life.
Dogs, kids, mud, spaghetti spills, bright sun coming through a window. You name it. Luxury Vinyl Plank product won’t stain, puff, fade, scratch, anything! It’s a miracle!
LVP is warm and soft on your joints.
Remaining between 70-80 degrees, this flooring feels good on bare feet. The best part is that the high-quality LVP comes with a significant padding layer below it, making it cushy and easy on joints.
LVP can be easily DIY installed.
All you have to do is click and install! Easy peasy lemon squeezy, if you’re feeling independent.
Cons:
“Are those REAL hardwoods?”
It will happen to you. And you’ll have to go through the whole spiel about “It’s called Luxury Vinyl Plank and we selected it because of the following benefits…” — If you’re the type of person who values the, “Yes! Of course it’s real Hermes,” then you better just scroll up to natural hardwood and land there!
LVP is difficult to patch.
Although the installation is a cinch, say you, unfortunately, get a slab leak in a few years, and you need to access one spot under your floor. To properly access that spot, you’d need to remove all of the floor until you reach the exact spot. This may be okay depending on your home’s layout, but it may be a true pain! (But, realistically, isn’t a slab leak always a pain?)
Products get discontinued.
As with any purchased product, they will discontinue certain colors, lines, etc., and then you may be in a bind in the future. So, think about buying extra!
3. Engineered Hardwood
If I’m being honest, this product is really difficult for me to wrap my head around. Especially knowing what I said at the very beginning about how all of this is the same cost! That being said, I will give a little bit of grace to this option only because it is fairly easy to install and, yet, still looks like natural hardwood. Peace and blessings if you choose to DIY install engineered hardwood. But for anyone out there who is NOT going to DIY this project, and is waffling between engineered or natural hardwood, quit it right now! Read the lengthy list of cons below.
Pros:
It’s easy to DIY install.
Installing engineered hardwood is as easy as clicking and installing. Perfect for if you’re feeling independent!
Cons:
It doesn’t hold up to water, scratches, and everyday wear.
All the cons of the real wood floor, except worse. Unlike the floors at Versailles that retained their beauty even through the damage, Engineered Hardwood does not stand up to damage. With these floors, since the top layer of wood is affixed to a different type of wood below it, any water damage creates puffing that can bow your flooring up and create buckling! Yikes!
It can only be refinished one time, if that.
Where hardwood is nearly limitless in the number of refinishes, engineered hardwood can be refinished only one time. Often, not even that one time because they’re made so thin, or with scraping patterns, that make this impossible.
It is difficult to patch.
Much like the LVP, this click-and-install flooring technically requires you to dismantle much of your floor to get to any underlying issues below.
Products will be discontinued.
As with any purchased product, they will discontinue certain colors, lines, etc, and then you may be in a bind in the future. Buy extra!
It will fade in the sun.
This is a pretty severe problem we’ve seen with this product. The sun does serious damage to the finishes of these engineered products.
It’s warm, but hard on joints.
While this product is warm, which is great, the process of manufacturing the planks creates rigidity and hardness not found in natural hardwood.
4. Wood-Look Tile
Quit it. Quit it right now. For my sanity, just quit it!
Okay, now that I’ve thoroughly pouted, I’ll be more positive and honest about this product. Truth be told, wood-look tile does have its place in the home, and that place should be limited to wet zones that need to be sealed. I’m talking exclusively bathrooms and possibly laundry rooms. In all fairness, I truly do love a wood-look tile in a bathroom! It’s a great option there! But if you are trying to tell me right now that you want to put wood-look tile throughout your whole house, don’t do it! There’s such better options, like natural hardwood and luxury vinyl plank!
Pros:
It’s water proof.
This is easily the top pro here. Since ceramic tiles are grouted and sealed, you really do have a 100% water-tight seal, which is so great and necessary for places like bathrooms!
It’s scratch resistant.
This product is not scratch proof but it is a sturdy material that can withstand much wear.
Cons:
It’s not color through.
If this flooring gets scratched or damaged, you will see it very clearly. Additionally, since it is a tile product, any severely damaged pieces create a safety concern, and need to be replaced as soon as possible.
Products will get discontinued.
As with any purchased product, they will discontinue certain colors, lines, etc. Buy extra to avoid being in a bind in the future!
It’s cold and hard.
This flooring is really not recommended for homes with disabilities or elderly. It is dangerously hard, has zero give, and the cold temperature is rough on people who suffer from arthritis and joint paint.
In Our Opinion
There are so many great wood-look options for anybody out there! Just remember to be honest about your lifestyle and your personality before you commit to a flooring option. Our two favorite recommendations are natural hardwood and a great quality Luxury Vinyl Plank, depending on lifestyle. Between those two, you can pretty much achieve any look!
