Developers, home flippers - please stop with the luxury vinyl planks on main levels

[Anonymous]

The use of luxury in LVP seems to be wishful thinking. I have it in my exercise room only.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You want actual hardwood floors there's nothing stopping you from paying for them?

LVP costs $4 per square foot. Hardwood is $10 per square foot.

You can get 3/4" hardwood for $4/sq foot. Go to the Lumber Liquidators website. Plenty of choices for $4, a few for less than $4, and many for under $6. Price is not a reason to settle for vinyl. I'm sure there are many other places to find similar deals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LVP reeks to me! Vinyl is not good for your health. Trust.

The manufacture of vinyl is HORRIBLE for the environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the PP who said it reeks. I just moved into a rental with LVP and was steam mopping everything (We had hardwood and tile in the last house so didn’t even think twice about the mop) when I just got a massive headache. Realized I’m basically heating up plastic. Ugh. Now I’m stuck just mopping with soap, but don’t feel like I can get the floors super clean.

I have it in my basement and it doesn't smell at all - however, there is a wide variety in quality of LVP.

PP here. I don’t smell it normally, but it was terrible when I steam mopped. Obviously I don’t do that anymore, but it makes me nervous about having that flooring all over the house including kid bedrooms.

Yikes if there were ever a house fire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The use of luxury in LVP seems to be wishful thinking. I have it in my exercise room only.

Yes, putting "luxury" in the name does not change the fact that it's a vinyl floor. It will be interesting to see how these floors are thought of in the future. Will listings say "original LVP floors throughout!"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You want actual hardwood floors there's nothing stopping you from paying for them?

LVP costs $4 per square foot. Hardwood is $10 per square foot.

You can get 3/4" hardwood for $4/sq foot. Go to the Lumber Liquidators website. Plenty of choices for $4, a few for less than $4, and many for under $6. Price is not a reason to settle for vinyl. I'm sure there are many other places to find similar deals.

Junk is junk. Lumber liquidators sells junk and you still have to install it and in some cases finish it. Vinyl plank just goes in without fuss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was looking at some new builds with LVP all through. Why would anyone do that? Immediate no from me.

$5 a sq ft vs $20 a sq ft. That money is either profit, more room to negotiate price, or going towards fixtures and finishes that buyers care more about. They wouldn't do it if it didn't make sense for them financially

You can get decent engineered hardwood form Kahrs for the same price. LVP is trash. I don't want to have to immediately redo the flooring when I move in somewhere.

So don't buy a house with vinyl... this isn't hard. Maybe YOU should lift a finger and renovate the house yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks nice in pictures, but I find it unsettling in person. An uncanny valley thing, I guess.

Why unsettling? Is it the look or the feel?

NV Homes is no longer offering hardwood in many of their developments, solely Rigid Core LVP (or carpet). As a PP said, I think it’s due to lack of availability rather than cost.

There's no hardwood shortage as far as I know.

[Anonymous]

It seems that the summary of this thread is that flippers do it because it’s cheap and inventory is low and people are desperate and will put up with it to get a house.

[Anonymous]

1000%!! What I don’t get is when flippers tear out original hardwood floors in old houses and replace them with LVT rather than just refinishing the wood floors. It’s a travesty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You want actual hardwood floors there's nothing stopping you from paying for them?

LVP costs $4 per square foot. Hardwood is $10 per square foot.

You can get 3/4" hardwood for $4/sq foot. Go to the Lumber Liquidators website. Plenty of choices for $4, a few for less than $4, and many for under $6. Price is not a reason to settle for vinyl. I'm sure there are many other places to find similar deals.

Junk is junk. Lumber liquidators sells junk and you still have to install it and in some cases finish it. Vinyl plank just goes in without fuss.

Are you the same guy who rips out slate roofs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You want actual hardwood floors there's nothing stopping you from paying for them?

LVP costs $4 per square foot. Hardwood is $10 per square foot.

And LVP is awful for the environment. If people rip it out, it’s even more wasteful. It’s so gross.

Oh please. That's such an annoying classist thing to say. Are you saying the same to the wealthy folks who are tearing out perfectly serviceable kitchens in order to put in fancier stuff?

Or even worse, tearing down perfectly good 50 year old homes to build their monstrosities.

As the former owner of one of these homes, I can tell you that the internal systems of these houses are breaking down, especially the mass-produced 1950s neighborhoods and even with good routine maintenance. We discovered a year after moving in that the sewer pipe was only open 1/2" due to 60 years of debris sticking to rough cast iron pipe walls and that scoping it only opened it to 5/8". The sewage pipe was run under the entire length of cement basement floor (which had installed flooring), so replacing it would have required destroying the basement. The fireplace needed to be fully relined in order for us to use it (way down the priority list, never done). While we were there, we had to pier a sinking foundation, replace the windows and doors (very bad leaks), blow in insulation (still had original 1950s shredded newspaper insulation). It was a wonderful house while we were there, but it's useful lifespan was ending and it was starting to cost more to keep it habitable than made sense. Had gorgeous hardwoods, though - refinished them before we moved in and they looked incredible.

We looked at rebuilding on our own lot, but we only wanted a house about half the size of the usual build... and it cost just as much as a McMansion and tanked the resale value. Just wasn't worth it, so we moved into a house that was 20 years newer but the size we wanted.

[Anonymous]

I guess I understand why a young family may opt for it in a new home, if oddly fearful of banging up hardwoods. But also like...hardwoods in historic homes have survived generations of families and have the character to prove it.

If it’s a cost issue for a new home or a home in need of significant repairs, I get it. But the idea of replacing hardwoods with LVP? OMG no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LVP is appropriate at that price point.

+1. That is a cheap starter home. The original hardwoods must have been a mess, though maybe it was all carpet originally.

649k is a cheap starter home? Wtf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LVP is appropriate at that price point.

It absolutely is not.

What exactly are you expecting at $600K in a hot market? Granite floors? Hardwoods that cost around $25,000 for 2,000 square feet?

Other homes that did sell in that area are posted above without LVP. It's possible.

Did you notice all three of those closed nearly $100K over asking?