[masraum]

Originally Posted by rwest

The LVT that I have seen scratches real easily- get a sample piece of whatever you are thinking of and give it heck first.

I got some samples delivered from for Mannington and Lucida brands. Both seemed to have pretty good specs (thickness, scratch resistance, etc...)

I scratched and the Mannington and Lucida that we got with some tools that had sharp machined corners. Most would scratch a bit, but then the scratches mostly wiped away. Then I beat on them with a hammer using the edge of the face instead of the flat. The Lucida stood up to the hammer better. I then put them on a thick cushioned shaggy carpet and beat the snot out of them with the hammer (kind of like when the mythbusters blew stuff up at the end just because they could). Both caved under the pressure (as expected).

What I noticed between the Mannington and Lucida is that the top scratch resistant layer of the Mannington under the worst abuse would separate from the lower layer. The Lucida layers stayed stuck to each other (but the abuse that it took to do that was pretty extreme). I would probably have gone with the Lucida, but the wife preferred the pattern that we were able to get on the Mannington. Don't drop a cast iron head or starter on the floor and you'll be fine.

One test that I was able to replicate was the scratch it with a quarter test, and in that test, the floor wears a quarter down like it was being run over sand paper.

Gregpark likes and recommended IVC to me in another thread.

Originally Posted by gregpark

Google the IVC brand and look through their commercial Luxury Vinyl Tile. Pretty extensive collection of what you're after and IVC makes top quality stuff