What kind of flooring is good for rental properties?

Question

I’ve just purchased my first investment property! It’s a single family home and I intend to do long term rentals. It needs very little work before getting a tenant in. I’m doing searches on flooring types. Currently there is carpet and linoleum. The house is 100 years old so, not sure what’s underneath those but assuming I’m not lucky and there’s no hardwoods, what kind of flooring would be good to install throughout? What kinds are waterproof/water resistant and scratch proof?

Thanks in advance!

Ezra Henderson · Answer

LVP (Luxury Vinyl Plank). I still love the brand LifeProof from Home Depot. You could drop a nuke on it and it would still look fine

Nathan Gesner · Answer

I'll jump on the bandwagon. LVP is my favorite material. Easy to clean, can withstand water damage or staining, pet and child resistant. It's worth paying for a higher-quality material with a thicker wear layer to prevent scratches from showing. I've seen some cheap stuff that wasn't worth the trouble.

Eric Puffenberger · Answer

LVP is the go to material for most, but I would challenge everyone to think about long term durability. Not all LVP is created equal that is for sure. I have seen LVP buckle, chip, and generally just look like crap after 4-5 years. On the other hand, I have lived in a few old homes that have original hard wood floors in them that are over 100 years old. I understand hard wood gets scratched and can be difficult to refinish, but it will out live LVP 10x.

Brock Dowis · Answer

LVP

Mike Morris · Answer

The best flooring is painted concrete . If you have a flood, busted pipe, ground water, you pretty much just let it dry and maybe go over it with paint and sparkles once a year. It's maintenance free. You might not be able to get away with that but I can because I rent to college kids and they want to party lay out in the sun, not have pretty floors.

Vinyl Plank is a step up I guess even though I think it's ugly, but I will say that I have had some issues with it. One girl spilled paint on the vinyl plank and her boyfriend being the savior that he is decided to try to remove the paint with paint thinner and took all the top layer of the vinyl plank off and then told me someone broke into the house and did it.

Also, waterproof is relative to how much water you spill on it, if you spill a lot of water, that water is going to eventually make it over to quarter round trim and get underneath. I laid vinyl plank in several basements in my units, and that was a huge bonehead mistake. I had to replace one floor four times due to water, flooding, and sewer issues all caused by the tenants flushing tampons and someone removed the gutter spout and water ran into the foundation during a heavy downpour. I eventually tore it all out and painted the concrete. My advice is don't lay vinyl plan in basement bedrooms. Once that water is trapped between the vinyl plank and the floor underneath, it's all over if cement is underneath, it'll eventually dry in 3 or 4 days but it just wasn't worth the constant risk of threatening lawsuits from tenants thinking they are sleeping in urine and feces. Top floors should be fine.

Capet has faded out in my rental market. Too many lawsuit complaints about mold, allergies, and asthma, landlords here won't even touch it, not to mention when the tenants sneaks a cat in and it pisses everywhere. It's also becoming harder to find decent carpet layers because there is no money in it. My tile guy gets $3.00 per sq ft to lay viny plank and $6.00 to do vinyl plank stairs, home depot tries contracting him out for $1.50 per sq ft for carpet so he doesn't even answer the phone when they call anymore.

There's no magic answer I guess.

Kelly Mae · Answer

LVP

John Underwood · Answer

I prefer LVP. It's very durable and looks great. I just put some in a 500k house.

Caleb Brown · Answer

I would do LVP. Maybe carpet in the bedrooms but it'll get torn up and stained

What kind of flooring is good for rental properties?

What kind of flooring is good for rental properties?

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