Why I Chose Waterproof LVP Flooring and What You Should Know Before Purchasing

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This seems like a long awaited post because I have received so many questions about our flooring! Besides my time being consumed by a dozen home projects, I waited a few months before writing about them so that I could give you the most thorough and honest review possible!

Here is what our floors looked like when we bought the house. Dark wood throughout, except for the carpeting in the bedrooms. To the right is our office and you can see the before and after shots by clicking the links below:

Office/Guest Room Before & After Lighting Transformation

Supporting Small Businesses from Home and How I'm Re-Purposing My Old Gallery Wall Art

First of all, the only reason we ended up in the market for completely new flooring throughout our home was because we wanted hard floors throughout the entire thing, but the bedrooms all had carpeting and the rest of the wood floors in the house were no longer being produced. We spoke with our contractor and other flooring companies about how we could potentially match the current stain and there was a lot of doubt about that being a good possibility. Also, the fireplace in the corner of the family room was being torn out and it would expose a large area of concrete where the previous owners had laid the wood flooring up the edges of the fireplace. That certainly would be impossible to match, as well. You can see the photos in my previous post by clicking the link below.

Making Our Small 1970’s Living Room Feel Bigger

So, we (I, rather) went on a hunt to find some new floors! Since our last home had hardwood floors, I knew how much damage dog claws could do (I mean, have you seen Summer’s thick talons?) Plus, water really wares on them over time, as well, so I was willing to consider waterproof LVP flooring. I was already privy to the fact that luxury vinyl plank flooring had come a really long way in terms of the realistic looking patterns and colors that were available, so I did what I always do and searched for #LVP on Instagram and found a lot of different options, most of which had way too much grain for me. In my opinion, that gave away their poorly kept secret and it was quite obvious that it was not real wood. But finally, I came upon a couple of Instagram accounts that graciously gave me more information about the flooring they had already installed in their own homes! I’ll share more about that in a moment. The flooring brand is Provenza Maxcore and the collection is called Moda Living. It’s touted as a “100% Luxury Waterproof Collection”.

I narrowed it down to these four colors and ordered a sample of each: First Crush, Soft Whisper, Sweet Talker and At Ease, as seen below.

First Crush

Reviewed by House Full of Summer

Soft Whisper

Reviewed by House Full of Summer

Sweet Talker

Reviewed by House Full of Summer

At Ease

Reviewed by House Full of Summer

I was really anxious to see them in the new house, so I brought them over before all of the renovations had begun. Moving the boards from room to room during different times of day was really interesting. They appeared to totally change color.

The two finalists for me were Sweet Talker, because it seemed to have a warmer, more rich and natural tone to it, and Soft Whisper because I liked the light gray tones that seemed “beachy”.

The darker, honey colored one on the left is Sweet Talker and the grayish one on the right is Soft Whisper. Watch how different they look when moved around.

The really ridiculous thing about sending someone samples of a SINGLE board is that there are many different colors of boards. How in the world would anyone make an educated decision off of that? The board on the left is Sweet Talker. It’s one of the darker shades in the combination and had I not seen the entire floor laid out in real homes, I would have never picked it!

The reason I ended up choosing Sweet Talker is because I thought it would be a more timeless color and wouldn’t look too gray in contrast with all of the wood and natural tones I already had, such as the dining room table and natural fiber rugs.

I just have to mention that the marketing/customer service team at Provenza Flooring really cracked me up. When I messaged them on Facebook asking for some samples, they also replied with this gem and a message that said how well Summer will match the flooring I’ve selected! I was truly laughing out loud. :) Don’t even ask me where they got the photos. LOL clearly they did their research. But she is a beaut on these floors, am I right? ;)

Now, as I mentioned earlier, it’s great to review these swatches online and even to get a sample board, but let me warn you…do NOT make your decision solely off of a sample board, even if you have them in person. The reason is because you cannot possibly get a good feel for what the overall look will be until you lay out an entire floor and see the grain images and the repeating patterns next to each other. Remember, this is not real wood.

It’s going to be a bunch of vinyl planks with printed images of wood grain. That means that you’re going to see the same “patterns” of wood grain over and over again. But, it won’t be very noticeable if you choose the right brand AND ensure that you (or whoever is laying out your planks to install the flooring) is very meticulous about watching for repeating patterns and similar shades being laid too close to each other.

Not only that, if your flooring has a greater variation in light to dark planks, you’ll want to make sure these are laid out in a way that’s pleasing to the eye, not in clumps of dark or light here and there. Let me show you some images and hopefully you’ll see what I mean.

Note: For whatever reason, this flooring appears to have more of a contrast in color and in wood grain when photographed with my iPhone. When I use my camera to take the pictures, they look much closer to the way the flooring looks in real life.

How NOT to lay the floors:

The above photo was taken on the same day that I specifically asked our contractor and floor layers to avoid laying groupings of the same shade and pattern next to each other. So what did they do? They laid the EXACT same pattern and tone side by side. It would be the first thing you’d see when you open our front door. Good grief. They did fix this spot the next day after I insisted it be corrected and from that point on, I decided I had to be there as long as possible while they were laying the floor. Now, somewhat in their defense, I will admit it became increasingly difficult to space out the planks so that there was no weird and obvious repetition. This is a product issue. In my opinion, Provenza should have added two or three more patterns to the planks so that spacing them out would be easier. You really have to pay attention to both ends of the planks and plan out all adjacent planks before laying them.

This is what the foyer looked like after switching out a few of the boards that were too “matchy”.

Here are some more photos of issues I noticed after the fact. The “knots” in these planks are too similar and close together for my liking. Luckily, the edge of the rug covers part of the knot and you can’t even see it now. Whew!

If you’ve ever experienced a home renovation, you know there is a LOT of dust! It actually made seeing the true colors of the floor really difficult, which in turn made it nearly impossible to tell which shade of plank to lay next. So, I wet some paper towel and wiped up each plank so that we could see their “true colors”. Look how different the color is when washed. *Remember what I said about the floors looking high contrast via an iPhone photo.

Below, I was choosing planks for the floor layer to install next. It really was not an easy task! To make sure you end up with the best looking flooring, I’d recommend having at least two other sets of eyes on the job.

If you’re dealing with a quality product, odds are someone else has already installed it, perhaps even blogged about it, and at the very least, shared photos of it online. As I mentioned earlier, I asked two ladies, Jen @gallagherboyfarm and Kayla @kaylahaven who I found via Instagram hashtags how they felt about their LVP flooring, AND I could see their whole house laid out in the shade they chose. I also used Houzz.com threads and comments to view other LVP selections. Pinterest is yet another great source.

Although I wish some of the darker pieces were a bit lighter to lessen their contrast, I took heart in the fact that rugs would be placed over many of these spots, anyway.

Below is what the flooring looked like after it was cleaned. Excuse the glamorous toilet shot. ;)

The team at Provenza was right - these floors really do go great with Summer’s coat! ;)

Durability:

Now, let’s talk about durability and cleaning the floors. We’ve been in our house 6 months now and just a week or so after being moved in, I did notice a few “issues” with the floors. It’s probably just damage from installing them and/or not having installed them as “tightly” as possible. There are several places where I can see the gap between the two planks. The flooring is installed by shoving the boards up against each other end to end and using a mallet to gently hammer them in place. They interlock with eachother and each board has a foam backing with a small white edging to create a sort of seal when locked together. The small gaps can apparently be fixed (according to the installer when he and I chatted about them) by jumping and shoving the boards with your feet and body weight. (This would call for a heftier person, I think! lol) There’s no way I could make that happen in my own strength, so it looks like we’re going to have a few small (probably unnoticeable to guests) gaps down there. When I brought the gaps up to my contractor during move in, she basically blamed me for not wanting the boards to be laid with an obvious “step” pattern. This in no way effect the flooring gaps. They should have just been pushed closer together to begin with. Oy.

And below is what the seam should look like between two board ends.

So far, they seem to be pretty durable. Probably more durable than wood. We have slid a few heavy objects across the floor but none had sharp edges. This would be a bad idea no matter what kind of flooring you have. The dogs claws have not made a mark on the floors. If you have pets, this is a great way to avoid the wear and tear from nails!

Most of my furniture have larger feet so I didn’t feel the need to put pads on the bottom of them. My counter stools from Ballard Designs have these white, smooth, plastic nubs on the bottom of each leg. It was safe to assume they would not scratch the floors, but what I failed to realize was that they were too small! My husband likes to sit in the extra counter stool that I’ve placed in the dining room next to the console table and one day while moving the chair to vacuum I noticed a handful of small, round dents in the floor! I immediately checked the floor under the kitchen island and thankfully I saw no marks. Of course I quickly added some felt pads to the bottoms of the stools and we’ve not had a problem since.

I have noticed maybe two or three boards have very small knicks on the edges. It could be from getting banged up during installation, or simply when we were piling boards up in stacks based on their colors. Or, it could be from dropping a steak knife on the floor. Guilty.

Cleaning & Maintenance:

I use a mixture of warm water and maybe a shot of white vinegar in a large spray bottle.

This is my trusty mop. It uses soft and durable terrycloth pads that you can throw into the washer and dryer when they get dirty. I just spray a few square feet of flooring and mop clean. I was able to use the edges of the mop to get some paint flecks off the floors after, so this is really all I need!

Of course, I do vacuum first - sometimes twice a day. With a dog and constantly going in and out of the house, we get fur, dirt and even leaves in the house. My cordless vacuum is the best thing since sliced bread and it is so much easier on my back than my old one! It transitions effortlessly from the hard floors to a rug. Even my flat dining room rug is easily vacuumed up when I change the settings to “Economy” suction. It’s light enough to lift with one hand and vacuum up Summer’s large beds. It does everything from her canvas covered beds to her fluffy faux fur beds. I really can’t say enough good things about it.

Here are a few “after” photos of our flooring and decor.

Below is our bedroom in the morning sunshine. You can tell it warms up the color of the floors.

What did I miss? I think this was a pretty thorough post, but there is bound to be a question that needs answering, so please ask away in the comments below!

Sending Sunshine,

Jessica