Shhh . . . Our Secret Flooring

We installed a product that looks and feels like true walnut flooring. It is a thick, durable, water-resistant vinyl and we're incredibly pleased with how it turned out. The installation proved all it was hyped up to be: Not difficult at all, just a little time-consuming in terms of all the cutouts we needed, due to fixtures in the way and some not-perfectly-square walls.

The resilient product was designed to work in wet places: bathrooms, mud rooms, kitchens. We're using it in the main bath and entry hall. You don't have to nail it or glue it: the adhesive is built right in (photos after the jump).

Here's the hallway, with the first two rows put in, right on top of the old parquet-patterned vinyl tiles, which were starting to curl up at the edges.

The greyish-black stripe along the edge is the adhesive under-edge that's attached to each piece of flooring. This strip sits along one long side and one short side of the rectangle. The other two sides are the over-edge, to fit neatly on top of the neighboring piece. Easiest. Puzzle. Ever.

Here's the finished hallway:

We're most excited about the "water-resistant" part of it. A wood floor wouldn't fare too well against snowy icy salty boots! It came with a 25-year warranty so check back with me in, oh, say, a couple decades and I'll let you know if it's held up.