[jnieman]

Originally Posted by dotti105

When we built we thought we wanted laminate in all the living areas and carpet in just the bedrooms, but because The Villages does not offer laminate we had wood grained vinyl installed in the foyer, kitchen, hall, laundry and guest bath. Carpet everywhere else. our only tile floor is the mater bath.

We thought we would tear out the vinyl ASAP, but we love it. It is easy under foot, doesn't show dirt, easy to clean and really much more attractive than we ever thought it could be.

When we get ready to make a change, we will look at the Luxury Vinyl. It is a beautiful, durable, comfortable product.

We have talked to several who put in laminate as we had planned, and have been disappointed. Foot prints show, it's loud, dust shows. So we are not in a rush to change anything. But when we do, we will look at vinyl first. We love our builder vinyl! What a surprise!!

With the piano finish on our laminate our cat used to wet his feet and walk all over the laminate floor. His footprints dried and showed until I mopped it. With pets I would think the hand scraped look might work better because they aren't so smooth and shiney to show the footprints. However the laminate we have installed is not loud at all, it is high grade and came with a sponge coating on the bottom of the planks. We put in one area rug and it was enough to take care of any echo. You do not hear anything when you walk on it.