Not sure if you're still shopping or not but here's my 2 cents. I have ceramic in my kitchen and love it. Tiles are 6 sided and motteled brownish. Dark brown grout. Floor is over 20 yrs. old. We have large dogs and a DH that is in/out constantly. Lots of dirt/stones outside. Floor still looks like new. Tile shop did recommend sealing grout with 10 (yes 10) coats of sealer. We've had several litters of puppies with some heavy duty cleaning going on then and never had a problem. Had new dishwasher leak several times, no worries. Would do it again in a heartbeat. I don't really notice a back/leg problem even working in there for long periods. Don't really notice that the floor is particularly cold and we don't have alot of heat in that room (baseboard hw heat and only a small undercabinet section of heat in that room). We also just replaced our dining room carpet with the Allure wood-look vinyl. Love that as well. It's a dark walnut color and has some 'distress' marks built into it. The Allure comes in 2 versions. One (more expensive) has a life-time water warranty. The other (less expensive) has a 20 year water warranty. It's a 'floating' flooring system, so no glue, nails, etc. DH installed in in a day for a 10 x 15 room. Younger dog is afraid of it but older dog doesn't care. More expensive version is also a little thicker than less expensive one. When it's time to replace the carpeting in the LR, I'll go for the Allure in here as well. Do need to get an area rug for the DR as it's a little 'echoey' and would have to do the same in the LR prolly. But you can't tell that floor is not wood. Clean up is with a water-dampened mop or dry mop. We have vinyl sheet flooring in upstairs bath. Had that in previous kitchen and due to outside elements and lifestyle was toast in about a year. Upstairs its fine as most of the offending elements are already off your feet by then. It's 20 years old as well. Except for color fade, it's just peachy. It is Armstrong brand. The cost of it and the cost of our ceramic was the same per sq. ft. at the time. My only advice would be to consider your lifestyle and the outside elements you have to deal with before deciding which product works best for you. As well as cost, obviously. Good luck!
FYI The Allure can also be installed over existing flooring provided it's stable. Friends installed it over their existing ceramic and love it.
Last edited by NJ Quilter; 06-25-2012 at 04:23 AM.