I have the Armstrong Alvina Buff flooring installed now, and it is everything hoped for. It is beautiful and my friend likes it. The color blends with both Kohler Almond and the Calacatta Porcelain tile. It works with other colors like my wall paint and black also. And, as I hoped, it has a grippy texture. It is noticeably more grippy than any of my existing vinyl flooring. Not just in the faux grout lines, which do have a helpful slight depression as expected, but everywhere. It has a grippy look and a grippy texture, and in no way seems like a cheap product, despite not being in the most premium line (which didn't seem to have anything like it).
The floor guys quickly agreed to caulk the bathtub seam using the GE Silicone II Almond Door, Window, Basement I had purchased, which has the required mold protection as well as being 100% silicone.
I know this is not the recommended Tub and Tile caulk, but it similarly has mold and mildew protection, it says so in bold print on the label. Given that they both have mold and mildew additives, what is the difference? Does the Tub and Tile have more mold protection? It is unclear, but the Tub and Tile does have a specified mold warranty. Perhaps the warranty is the only difference. It would seem that they couldn't say mold protection if it wasn't fairly universally effective…some outdoor climes are worse than bathtub. Perhaps tub and tile is softer so it can work with hard tile? Not a problem in my case since I have vinyl flooring, not really tile. So perhaps for me Door & Window is the preferred choice because I'm not really sealing porcelain to tile. Anyway, I don't think it should make much difference so long as I have the floor cleaned regularly and keep the caulk intact. I erred in not buying the exact recommended choice, but it hasn't seemed worth making another trip to Lowes to get the other kind instead when in this case there is little explicit difference. I've read some guys say they use "all purpose" for everything, even the bathtub seam.
It didn't look like a perfect caulking job either. Perhaps that's why the store recommended the tub strip. The flooring guy said right off it could use a second covering of caulk. I'm not sure if that's the right thing to do, usually caulk removal is recommended more than adding to caulk. I had purchased some tiny backing rod (which might have been to large anyway) but never got around to offering that…the flooring job was done so fast. Tom re-did the caulking. I'm not sure about perfect anymore, but I think it's good enough now. It might have been better done with backing rod as I had purchased but never got around to advising the floor guys about.
Technically, I bought Armstrong Lacerta Carrera, which the store (a top tier Armstrong dealer) said was identical but gave me a Lacerta Gold Warranty. As far as I can tell, it is the identical Armstrong product, listed on Armstrong website, with the identical 15 year warranty, but part of the Lacerta collection sold by certain stores. The stores possibly get a cut on the advertising and warranty when they sell Lacerta (which they have samples for) and the warranty (which they are expected to provide). Though listed on Armstrong website, if you start from the top of the Armstrong website you'll see the Alvina Buff instead of the Lacerta Carerra. I actually did my searching and deciding on the website, though I did ultimately visit the store to see a sample. They wanted me to see a sample, I said I couldn't make it that day, but ended up going to the store anyway and they had sent the Carrera sample to another store so the saleslady could snap a smartphone picture for me. But at least I was able to verify the texture.
The randomness of the Alvina fits the Callacatta Porcelain tiles also, in a curious kind of almost photographic negative way, though nothing comes close to the Calacatta tiles in inspiring endless and effortless hallucination. What objects can you see pictured amidst the dark colored veins that change slightly from different angles and in different lights?
No photograph I've been able to make with my smart phone fully captures the way it actually looks. The photo on top is with the halogen ceiling light (used to be "heat light") running, which gives nice colors except the main beam is in front of the tile and causes the flooring to wash out a bit in the photo and look whiter than it is toward the bottom of the photo. That was also w/o flash. Here's are two with and without flash, using only the vanity light (now with two bulbs). The vanity light gives the bathroom a very warm hue, but not quite as overwarm as the picture looks.
Tile, tub, and floor colors work in any light, and probably even better than shown, if still arguably not perfect. But the floor works as well with both tub and tile as anything I can imagine, since those were already pushing the threshold of matching (but still do, I think).
It's beautiful and comfortable. Two days after installation I'm beginning to see it as more "premium" than I did originally too. It doesn't look or seem cheap in any way. It has comfortable padding but not so much you worry about it. (Less give than the Luxe Plank Best with Quiet Comfort underlayment I have in the King's Room itself, but the give is more localized around the contours of your foot. You can barely feel the padding, but it adds to the comfort. The texturing is more than any other floor I can remember, secure but not rough on feet.
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