Rental Property Investor · Sumter, SC · Member since 2015 · 334 posts · 531 votes
7y
Vinyl plank all the way. Laminate is (usually) cheaper and looks great - until kids and pets make a mess on it and it starts to swell up and come apart. Or someone leaves a window open and it rains. Or someone gets crazy with wet mopping.
Rental Property Investor · Sumter, SC · Member since 2015 · 334 posts · 531 votes
7y
Vinyl plank all the way. Laminate is (usually) cheaper and looks great - until kids and pets make a mess on it and it starts to swell up and come apart. Or someone leaves a window open and it rains. Or someone gets crazy with wet mopping.
Investor · Mount Dora, FL · Member since 2015 · 92 posts · 44 votes
7y
@Brooks Rembert. I think laminate is the OPPOSITE of tenant proofing. Only thing worse is maybe carpet. For tenant proofing the way to go is lvt (vinyl)... for tenant and pet proofing we tend to go with tile.
Flipper/Rehabber · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2014 · 71 posts · 8 votes
7y
Be careful installing vinyl plank on hot days where temperatures exceed the install recommendations. I almost ruined an entire bathroom floor install on the last couple rows because the adhesive wouldn’t let me readjust the plank without ripping the vinyl!
Rental Property Investor · Higginson, AR · Member since 2015 · 123 posts · 101 votes
7y
carpet 3 renters if your lucky,
laminate can be ruined with a sponge mop,
vinyl plank , (snap together) has made it three renters and still looking good,
ceramic tile on concrete foundations lasted for years, but a cast iron skillet will break one.
warranty,
yeah right, suck it up , and get ready to buy more product.
Investor · Argyle, TX · Member since 2014 · 112 posts · 73 votes
7y
Vinyl all the way. Snap-in is better but glue-down works fine as well. Warranty is not worth the time trying to chase it down. The planks are cheap enough that you just replace the damaged ones as needed. I will never use laminate again. It is too easily damaged by moisture and has too much of a hollow/echo sound even with underlayment.
Shavertown, PA · Member since 2018 · 16 posts · 7 votes
7y
Over the past two years I have been replacing bad laminate with LVP. My units are in the northeast and repeated expose to water from snow eventually made the seems of the laminate swell... then it’s only a matter of time before the wear layer and design rip off. No complaints with vinyl as of now. Easier to install, many types (not all) are 100% waterproof. Only downside I am aware of is that the face of the planks are more susceptible to damage and there are some concerns with sun exposure. I always go with LPV. My subfloors are normally too beat up for glue down. It is also not as durable.
Specialist · Easton, PA · Member since 2018 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes
7y
As a contractor and investor, I have only done the vinyl planks in one house. It was a clients request in a flip. I was not crazy about it, and yes it did swell from sunlight in a room with lots of windows. Once we discovered it while it was on the market, we had to put blinds up on the windows.
North of Houston · Member since 2018 · 349 posts · 181 votes
7y
I used porcelain tile (pure porcelain all the way through, not just a glaze) so tough that we had to use diamond drills to drill in our anti-tip for the oven. It comes in the highest durability rating (there is scientific lab test numbers rating different tiles including the ones you guys are talking about)
The only problem for me with it was the crappy labor I had to choose from the job being near Houston right after Harvey .. that kind of hard tough tile is sharp cornered like marble so you got to get a better tile setter that will butter the tile and floor, and also float it with level or the tile will be uneven slightly enough to give sharp edges snagging peoples socks.
I am now building 14 more apartments and I got to decide on floors real soon, I want to know more about that PVC, that sounds real interesting. lot easier than tile I a talking about
That kind of hard tough porcelain tile cost about $1.10 to $1.30 a foot when buying bulk and the labor need to be over $2 a foot, Plus floating the floor when needed. It is by far hands down the toughest tenant proofer.