Buying guide for vinyl flooring for new construction

These are very modern products with modern advertising promises. If you are interested in something like that, I would specifically search for the product name and "Erfahrungen" and see what you find. The best thing is to look for people who have installed the floor in their homes and have concrete experience with it. Whether such a floor can live up to its marketing promises is often something you cannot find out from manufacturers and sellers. Parador and Haro are both definitely reputable manufacturers, I think it is hard to objectively judge which one is better. It's like asking 100 people what is better, Adidas or Nike. ;) Overall, for me personally, €45 / m² for laminate or over €50 / m² for a vinyl floor is just way too expensive. I can’t imagine that the price-performance ratio fits there, but others might see it differently. We install parquet throughout the living area for around €45 / m² – watch out, I’m saying the bad word – :)

For example, the Parador Hydron laminate is supposedly protected against standing water for up to 24 hours

Now honestly, where do you need that? The usual moisture from wet jackets can be handled by any laminate. In the bathroom, you will probably lay tiles anyway. And if you are building in a flood zone, you should better plan to keep the water completely out ;) I also can't really understand why you are fussing over this for so long. Pick a design you like. Make sure it's from a reputable manufacturer and possibly certified low in pollutants. Remove everything that doesn't fit the budget and done. From now on, you're only optimizing small details

we don't need the 24-hour water protection

We would take laminate or vinyl from, for example, Parador or Meister or Haro.

I just want to find out if vinyl is really much better than good laminate (if both come from the same manufacturer)

Whether the extra cost would be worth it for us to choose vinyl or not

Isn't that the usual story? Laminate is more scratch-resistant, vinyl is more comfortable for the feet. Sorry, but at 45 EUR/m² I wouldn't take vinyl, but parquet. What hasn't been talked about at all yet, though... thermal resistances. Vinyl is usually better here than laminate or parquet. AND. If you lay it as a floating floor, your impact sound insulation MUST have a low thermal resistance. Common ones from the hardware store start at 0.04 m²K/W. With underfloor heating, the total construction may have a maximum of 0.15. There are impact sound insulations with 0.01 m²K/W. But they cost 7 EUR/m² then... THAT was the factor for me in the end that drastically narrowed down the search. I now have parquet with 0.63 and laminate with 0.73 m²K/W, plus impact sound insulation with 0.008 m²K/W. Laminate 20 EUR/m², impact sound 7 EUR. 27 EUR/m², thermal resistance 0.81. If you take a vinyl for 45 EUR/m², it might have 0.04. Add a cheap impact sound insulation with 0.07 (that's available) you end up at 0.11. And wonder why your tiles are already glowing but your vinyl floor is still cold on the feet...

so laminate is more scratch-resistant and vinyl is warm underfoot and more comfortable to walk on.

We would of course also take suitable impact sound insulation.

We don’t want to take laminate for 45€.

I found the following prices.

Laminate approx. 15-20€/sqm
Rigid vinyl approx. 25-30€/sqm
Design floor approx. 30-35sqm

We initially didn’t consider parquet because it is scratch-sensitive.

What kind of parquet would you recommend? Lacquer-sealed or oiled? The problem with oiled is that it is maintenance-intensive and sensitive.

We want a scratch-resistant, robust, and low-maintenance floor.

Just order a few samples or check out the floors live at the hardware store. We install vinyl as floating floors and I have accumulated a huge stack of samples. Parador, Wineo, Meister, Planeo etc pp. We were always bothered by something (color, embossing, click connection, etc.). We have now found one and will choose one with integrated impact sound insulation. It is a shop I probably am not allowed to name. The manufacturer is unknown to me. The price is about 30 euros per m2.