Good ol’ vinyl wood-lookalike planks. Cheap to buy, cheap to install, easy to repair without tearing up the whole floor, glues right down to the beautiful hardwood underneath.
No wonder landlords love them
Here these are usually wood composite boards with a layer of veneer on top. Technically wooden floors, but not actually. Still a major step up from plastic floors.
You’re talking engineered wood floors and the other guy is talking about luxury vinyl plank (LVP).
Not a good option, especially for a rental. They bubble up when it gets wet. It’s better to install vinyl plank so it doesn’t get destroyed in a year.
The true landlord way is to not even bother gluing them down so you can keep your tenant’s security deposit for “damaging the floors”
You’re not supposed to glue them. It’s a “floating” floor meaning it needs to be allowed to expand and contract according to temperature and humidity. If you glue it down it’ll start bulging and joints will open up. I install these for a living and the manufacturer instructions specifically forbid the use of glue.
Relatively cheap to install especially when it can be laid over the old flooring but it’s not exactly cheap to buy though. Personally I vastly prefer the feel of LVP to laminate or parquet. It feels warmer and softer and is also much less slippery and waterproof. As a general contractor I also prefer installing it over the others.
This is my exact fucking floor.
I have a heat pump and my landlord isn’t a psycho though, so the only way I’m moving is via the coroner’s van
Yet my place, that was built in the last decade, only has AC. If I want to switch to a bi directional heat pump, they’ll need to access the lines to add insulation, which would have added maybe a couple hundred dollars to the building cost but at this point would involve opening up walls. All that on top of the several thousand to buy the heat pump unit itself plus a conversion or new air exchanger.
The technical difference between an AC and heat pump is so trivial that IMO ACs that aren’t heat pumps should be banned.
It’s like walking around on squeaky slick loud plastic.
It could be laminate which is mostly made of wood, and only a little plastic… -sigh-
Laminate swells really badly if water gets between the cracks though. Had to replace mine. Vinyl planks, while being entirely plastic, at least aren’t made of compressed cardboard.
They make even cheaper stuff now, like a vinyl, fake wood sticker that goes on. I currently have that in my apartment.
I have that floor and luxury it aint. Is nicer than carpet though
I legit have this floor, my rent is actually $3050 in the back fucking woods of Massachusetts. It was literally the cheapest 3 bedroom we could find (partners kids). New construction, corporate landlord. Literally no idea who owns the property, or to whom my rent goes.
When I moved out of my last apartment a couple years ago(which was the exact same size), gorgeous 100yr old mill housing. Has solid wood doors, real tiled bathroom, recently (within the last 10yrs) redone electrical and HVAC. Plus the landlord and his wife were legitimately rad people and lived in the building next door and we smoked weed together, had cookouts and fires. Rent was $1650.
And the BEST part, they didn’t even install the flooring correctly. It’s less than 2yr old building, screws are backing out and making bumps. On top of the tiles that are peeling/lifting.
Like, my partner and I have great jobs and it’s only manageable. I have absolutely zero clue how anyone doing slightly worse is getting by.
I have two kids, their shared bathroom was carpeted. Now it looks like this. 🙏🏼