New Flooring FAQs: Answers About Installation, Care & Warranties

We’re working on a larger post about our finished renovation, but I wanted to answer the many questions about the new flooring we installed across the entire first floor (bathrooms stayed tiled). The floors have been one of the most asked-about details on Instagram while we shared the progress in Stories, so this post explains what we chose, why we chose it, and how the installation went. It’s our first time using this material and we have some clear takeaways.

We’ve always loved salvaging and refinishing original hardwoods—our previous homes proved how beautiful restored wood can be. In 2020 we refinished the downstairs yellow pine here with the same optimism. Over time, though, those floors didn’t hold up the way we hoped. After six years of living with them and then deciding to move walls and add square footage during this renovation, it became clear that patching and matching would be difficult and short-lived. Replacing the floors during the remodel was the sensible pivot.

Why Did We Replace the Floors?

In short: the original downstairs was yellow pine from the 1990s, not the denser, historic heart pine we have upstairs. Yellow pine is a softer wood that dents, scratches, and splits more easily—especially in a busy, beach-adjacent house with sand, water, and lots of foot traffic. Over the years we found poorly filled areas, gaps where boards separated, and sections that splintered. Those issues were amplified by previous repairs and an installation that, in hindsight, didn’t allow the wood to acclimate properly.

When you remove walls and add a new room, you often end up with edges and transitions that are hard to blend into an existing, imperfect floor. While we have successfully patched and matched hardwood in past homes, this time the base material’s durability and the uneven condition made patching feel like a temporary fix. It was the right moment to replace the entire downstairs so the new layout and flooring would be consistent and long-lasting.

What Flooring Did We Use?

We installed LVP—luxury vinyl plank—throughout the renovated first floor. I know that surprises some readers who love traditional hardwoods, but LVP has improved dramatically over the past decade. It now looks and feels convincingly like wood while offering greater durability in wet, sandy, or high-traffic conditions. For context, our initial instinct was to install new white oak nailed and finished in place, but after seeing LVP installed in a local home by our contractor, we were impressed enough to choose it for our project.

The product we used is a wide-plank LVP in a warm, light tone that mimics natural wood grain. We sourced it through our contractor and local distributor. Choosing a high-quality LVP with realistic texture and a wide plank helped the rooms feel larger and more cohesive.

Why We Chose LVP

Three practical reasons led us to LVP: durability, installation speed, and suitability for a beach house environment. LVP is waterproof and resists damage from moisture and sand much better than softer pine or even some hardwoods in coastal settings. Installation was dramatically faster and less disruptive than a traditional hardwood refinish: our installer floated the planks over the subfloor and completed the job in days instead of the weeks required to sand, stain, and seal site-finished wood.

A floating LVP installation also allowed the contractor to work in sections, so we didn’t have to move everything out of the entire downstairs at once. The lack of fumes and immediate usability—walk on it the same day—was a huge quality-of-life improvement compared with in-place hardwood finishing.

How We Picked the Specific Color and Size

We picked the exact plank after seeing it installed in another house the contractor was building. Seeing and walking on the plank in a finished space made the decision easy: the color, wide plank width, and grain pattern fit our aesthetic and felt right for this home’s scale and beachy vibe. If you can inspect a sample installed in situ, that hands-on experience makes choosing a finish far simpler than ordering lots of swatches online.

Do We Like Our LVP Floors?

Short answer: yes—very much. The new floors feel even, quiet, and polished. They lift the overall look of the downstairs and provide a more durable foundation for daily life. The wide planks give rooms a larger, more modern appearance, and the color complements our beach-style decor.

There are a couple of differences to get used to compared with hardwood. Barefoot, LVP doesn’t feel identical to real wood—the material is denser and less slick underfoot—though with shoes or socks you can’t tell. Initially the texture felt slightly coarse until everyday foot traffic softened it, after which it felt smooth and comfortable. Also, unlike hardwood, dents or gouges in LVP can’t be sanded out; they require plank replacement. We kept extra boxes of the same LVP on hand for that reason.

Overall, the trade-offs feel worthwhile: significantly better performance in a wet, sandy climate, faster installation, and a look we genuinely enjoy.

What About the Upstairs Floors?

We left the upstairs alone. The upstairs retains the original heart pine floors we refinished in 2020, which have held up well and are a different, harder material than the downstairs yellow pine had been. The two floors don’t meet directly—the painted stairs with a sisal runner separate the levels—so the contrast doesn’t bother us. If it ever does, we can decide later whether to bring the upstairs in line with the downstairs, but for now we appreciate preserving the original hardwoods upstairs.

That’s the overview of our new floors. Replacing the downstairs with LVP solved multiple pain points: durability, cohesion with the new layout, and suitability for a beach house lifestyle. We’ll return with a fuller renovation post soon that covers the rest of the transformation, including the new bathroom and other updated spaces.

If you’re researching floors, consider durability for your climate and lifestyle, inspect samples in real spaces when possible, and remember that modern LVP can offer a wood-like look with practical advantages for busy or coastal homes.