Is there a respectable alternative to ceramic tile?

I’m doing a soft remodel of my kitchen / laundry room(keeping the  existing cabinets). I thought I wanted ceramic tile but now I’m not so sure. With ceramic, I’ll have to remove the plywood floor and install cement board and I’m not sure how hard it will be to cut the floor around the cabinets. I want the contrasting look of stone or ceramic in the kitchen and not wood since I’m refinishing the wood floors in the rest of the house. So, is  luxury vinyl flooring a good option? Is there something else?  I’m not really planning on selling the house but I would  like to make smart decisions remodeling  in case I ever decide to sell. 

Vinyl flooring will always look like vinyl flooring in my opinion. Any potential buyer will probably be able to tell the difference. Since you aren't looking to flip, you can rest better knowing that if you install it correctly, tile will last a very long time, and should you decide to sell, at the very worst, you'll break even on the cost.

Removing plywood?

You will need to put hardy board down, but that is as simple as cutting, and screwing it down.  I'd recommend spending the money on good tile, like marble, or even sandstone if you like the look. Cheap ceramic tiles are harder to cut than quality tiles. Do it once, and forget it.

Borrow a wet saw and you can cut all the tile you want.  I generally just buy whatever is cheap and looks ok.  Once installed it always looks awesome!

Dissenting voice (partially)

I love real wood, tile, etc., and can see the difference from a mile away. 

But I have used a LOT of LVT, and it is a very good product. It's nearly indestructible, looks good, and is super easy to maintain. 

I manage a medical facility with over 100,000 SF of residential grade LVT with extreme traffic. It stands up to a beating. 

I've replaced a lot of damaged tile over the years. Never had to replace LVT. 

I've used LVT in rental properties, and in my own home for years. It's good stuff. Yes, it looks a little "fake". It's a different product. But it out performs tile and wood by a long shot.

I'll also put in a vote for some of the new MDF core engineered "wood" products. Pergo, etc.  I put this in half my house, and proceeded to continue construction renovations on top of it unprotected. It's amazing, and cleans brilliantly. Again, doesn't look like "real wood", but has its own attractive beautiful look, and amazing performance. Also very DIY friendly. I saved $4000 on the cost of my floor (over wood), and am much happier with the product. 

Tile is cold, hard on the back if you stand on it all day, and unforgiving. It doesn't mate well with wood substrates (which is why we have to make an effort to use backers like HardiBoard).  Wood substrates move, tile does not (which is why it often cracks). 

Modern LVT and engineered systems are designed to mate well with wood substrates. 

Resale is a regional thing. The Northeast thinks engineered products are cheap. The Southeast has no aversion to them. 

In reply to rustybugkiller :I’m not sure I understand you.  Are you saying you want to remove the plywood subfloor and replace it with cement board?  

Well you don’t. You simply install cement board on top of your plywood then your finish flooring on top of that. 

Cement backer board is relatively easy to install.  There are screws to hold it down designed for backer board. I’ve seen sheet rock screws used but they aren’t as good.  

As far as cutting it I just use a fresh blade in my utility knife and score ( cut) the  fiberglass backing. Then snap it at the line like sheet rock.  

Watch a video before you do it. It’s easy once you see it done.  

PS  don’t fail to buy or rent a wet saw. I paid $89.95 for mine and am still using it 10 years later ( I’ve bought a few replacement blades ). 

I prefer marble because of the look it gives but have used it on ceramic tile in the utility room .  It’s not scary like a table saw would be. 

Just redid the floors in my kitchen.  Wanted to go with ceramic tile, wife convinced me to go with groutable LVT.  I'm glad we did.  Much faster and easier to put down, much more tolerant of a less-than-perfect subfloor underneath (nicks/gouges/big hump in the middle of the floor), and tolerant of mistakes.  Also easy to replace just one section if you remodel or tear one up.   More forgiving if you drop something breakable on it, and the stuff we bought looks pretty good unless you hold it up next to the real deal.  Cost was probably not a lot different than doing ceramic - All in, it was about $350 to do our 10x13 kitchen, including grout.

Around here (Missouri) in comparable houses (150-200k), most of the houses have vinyl.  

Go stand in the middle of the kitchen and jump up and down. Does the floor flex at all, or does it feel like you are jumping on a concrete floor?  If it flexes, either don't use tile, or spend a fortune on subfloor and magic tile underlayment and tile away.  Grout hates flex.

Epoxy?  Some of this stuff looks amazing. Don't think garage floor. 

SVreX said:

Dissenting voice (partially)

I love real wood, tile, etc., and can see the difference from a mile away. 

But I have used a LOT of LVT, and it is a very good product. It's nearly indestructible, looks good, and is super easy to maintain. 

I manage a medical facility with over 100,000 SF of residential grade LVT with extreme traffic. It stands up to a beating. 

I've replaced a lot of damaged tile over the years. Never had to replace LVT. 

I've used LVT in rental properties, and in my own home for years. It's good stuff. Yes, it looks a little "fake". It's a different product. But it out performs tile and wood by a long shot.

I'll also put in a vote for some of the new MDF core engineered "wood" products. Pergo, etc.  I put this in half my house, and proceeded to continue construction renovations on top of it unprotected. It's amazing, and cleans brilliantly. Again, doesn't look like "real wood", but has its own attractive beautiful look, and amazing performance. Also very DIY friendly. I saved $4000 on the cost of my floor (over wood), and am much happier with the product. 

Tile is cold, hard on the back if you stand on it all day, and unforgiving. It doesn't mate well with wood substrates (which is why we have to make an effort to use backers like HardiBoard).  Wood substrates move, tile does not (which is why it often cracks). 

Modern LVT and engineered systems are designed to mate well with wood substrates. 

Resale is a regional thing. The Northeast thinks engineered products are cheap. The Southeast has no aversion to them. 

What is LVT?  Lux vinyl tile?  Is that a brand, or a type of tile?

I believe it's a large landing craft from WWII.

In reply to SVreX :

Thanks! Good to hear!

In reply to frenchyd :

The kitchen floor is currently a half inch above the adjacent LR hardwood floor. If I put backer board and tile on top of that the transition would be too high and unsightly.

I would definitely buy a wet saw if I were to tile. 

In reply to psteav :

Pics would be helpful. 

In reply to DrBoost :

LVT is luxury vinyl tile. Sometimes called plank vinyl. Usually comes in "planks" about 8"x 48"  

Often has a "wood" grain look, or tile. 

Its not a brand. It's a modern approach to vinyl (instead of square vinyl composition tile, or vinyl sheet goods)

I forgot about the groutable vinyl- that's really good stuff!!

rustybugkiller said:

In reply to frenchyd :

The kitchen floor is currently a half inch above the adjacent LR hardwood floor. If I put backer board and tile on top of that the transition would be too high and unsightly.

I would definitely buy a wet saw if I were to tile. 

Warning on that one...

You probably have multiple layers of flooring and plywood underlayment. It can be a real pain to remove. 

I just did my own house. Took it back down to the subfloor before laying a floating Pergo MDF engineered floor. There were 5 layers of vinyl, and 2 layers of underlayment. It was brutal. 

This LVT stuff sure is intriguing. I love the look of wood but with the dog and spills wood worries me.

In reply to Enyar :

Medical facility. We have regular clean ups of various (bad) body fluids, as well as 800 people per day walking on it, dragging chairs and pushing wheelchairs. 

LVT does fine. 

Plus, its color all the way through. If it were to have a deep scratch, it wouldn't  be visible. A scratch in wood would be visible. 

Anybody know if LVT is compatible with in-floor radiant electric heat?

In reply to rustybugkiller :

You cannot use backer board without plywood underneath it. Unless the plywood is on top of a wood sub flooring. 

In reply to frenchyd :

You said that at 7:45 this morning. 

He's not removing the subfloor. He's removing the underlayment because of floor thickness issues. 

SVreX said:

I forgot about the groutable vinyl- that's really good stuff!!

I just found this at Lowe’s. Definitely looks good but they didn’t have much selection. Stopped at HD but no LVF? Gonna try some flooring places next. 

Installed engineered wood in my house last year. Not the foam core type, solid wood all the way through. Kinda like plywood. More expensive than hardwood flooring. More dense than hardwood floor so more difficult to scratch and dent. So far it has held up great from my 2 grandsons (ages 5 & 2) beating on it with toys (cars naturally) for over a year now. Was shown some type of rubber tile that is becoming popular to use, SWMBO didn't like it for some reason. Comes in variety of shapes, sizes and design. Everything from wood look to stone look. Warmer than ceramic/stone tile. Can't remember what it's called, might be that LVT mentioned.

SVreX said:

rustybugkiller said:

In reply to frenchyd :

The kitchen floor is currently a half inch above the adjacent LR hardwood floor. If I put backer board and tile on top of that the transition would be too high and unsightly.

I would definitely buy a wet saw if I were to tile. 

Warning on that one...

You probably have multiple layers of flooring and plywood underlayment. It can be a real pain to remove. 

I just did my own house. Took it back down to the subfloor before laying a floating Pergo MDF engineered floor. There were 5 layers of vinyl, and 2 layers of underlayment. It was brutal. 

+1.

I had to redo the underlayment flooring in my ex's kitchen. Layers of inconsistent plywood and solid wood covered with 1/4 luann plywood. Whoever installed the latter must have just gotten a new toy - an 1.25" x 1/4" staple gun - because they used hundreds of staples to attach it.  I was prying out staples for months... Later after we split her brother put down quarter-sawn reclaimed oak flooring.  It looks gorgeous. 

I'm definitely looking into LVT for a few of the upcoming projects in my house.

I’m on a 1300 square foot lvt job right now.  I like it