Best vinyl for long term buy & Hold 4-plex

[Mickey Brown]

I just bought a 4 plex in Cuyahoga Falls Ohio. It's 90 years old so the floors are really creaky. I want to get the kind of vinyl that is going to do a good job at reducing noise from tenants walking around, but will also hold up to scratches from furniture as much as possible. I'm 29 and plan on owning the house forever, so I'm in this for the long haul. I have zero experience with engineered floors and have never lived in a home that had them. Obviously I don't want to waste money but I'm willing to spend what will give me the best bang for my buck in the long term. 

[Jaysen Medhurst]

@Mickey Brown, you're kind of asking 3 things of one flooring product: durability, fix squeaks, minimize sound transfer.

Your flooring choice will only address the 1st. Don't expect any flooring to fix squeaks or reduce sound in other units (maybe carpet, but minimally).

If you want to reduce squeaks, you have to address where they're coming from. Either floorboards are rubbing together because the nails have lost their "bite" or the sub floor (individual boards in a 90-year old building) are also loose and rubbing.

Depending on how bad and how many squeaks there are, you may be able to use some well placed screws to tighten things up. Otherwise, pull up the hardwood and address the sub floor. Yeah, that's a big job. Especially, if you don't plan on removing the current flooring.

As far as sound transfer between units, search the forums. I've seen and commented on this a bunch. Here's the short answer:

• Pull down the ceiling in the downstairs unit.
• Add insulation to the joist bays (Roxsul is best)
• Run resilient channel
• Hang 2 layers of 5/8 drywall on the resilient channel with "sound caulking" between the layers

It's a big job, but very effective.