Cheap vs expensive laminate? Sealing on .55 vinyl?

We laid laminate flooring in our apartment during our student days for 5€. Even after 8 years, it still looked good. Now in the house, I installed click vinyl for 25€ in the bedrooms and if I'm completely honest with myself... it doesn't look any different.

0.3 mm vinyl is really sufficient in living areas. Also in the entrance. Also in the office. Where there are chair wheels. 0.55 mm is for restaurants and shops and such. Laminate, the renovo quality from Hagebau is, in my opinion, reasonably priced in a good way. Karsten

I personally would also pay attention to the V-joint on all sides. Then the laminate does not look so "butted" under certain lighting conditions. If I'm not mistaken, this was copied from the parquet sector. I think it looks better than "butted".

I have no experience with laminate at all. Out of interest: What does .55 mean? Is the floor 0.55 cm thick?

With vinyl, that is the wear layer (in mm, not cm). The classification is as described by :

0.55 for heavy use, 0.3 normal for living areas

You can also google "usage classes of vinyl and laminate," as you will find a nice classification. Our chosen vinyl has usage class 23/33 and is thus suitable for private & commercial use with heavy wear. Which is probably overkill.

0.3 vinyl is really sufficient in living areas. Also in the entrance. Also in the office. Where there are chair wheels. 0.55 is for restaurants and shops and such.
Laminate, the Renovo quality from Hagebau is, in my opinion, reasonably priced in a good way. Karsten

It is really important to us that we can keep the vinyl on the ground floor for the next 40 years. And that we do not have to put annoying plastic mats under the really heavily used office chairs.
However, we would definitely decide against the additional sealing (further protection).
Probably one class lower (23/32 or even 23/31) would be totally sufficient, but we have (yet) not found our favorite covering there. Even at the laminate specialist market online I was not immediately successful.

The nearest Hagebau is unfortunately almost 70 km away... but I will definitely save that for later. The selection online is quite limited though.

Good laminate is easy to lay and the connections remain stable even after years. With cheap ones, it can happen that the grooves and tongues break off during installation. Accordingly, after 3, 4, 5 years, you have to do it again. Good laminate still looks good even after years.

The installation was also mentioned to us. But I would rather struggle once in my life for half a day longer and curse my decision than spend 1000€ more.

The argument that the connections remain stable even after years appeals more to me. Because I don't want to lay it twice.
The last sentence, on the other hand, is too general for me again.

We laid laminate for 5€ in our apartment during student days. It still looked good after 8 years.
Now in the house, I laid click vinyl in the bedrooms for 25€ and if I am completely honest with myself... it doesn’t look any different.

Thanks! That already helps me a lot. Even if I plan for at least twice the period...

We had both. Good and cheap laminate.
In our apartment, fairly inexpensive laminate was installed (I think under €10 per sqm). As soon as my child rode over it with their balance bike, you could see the scratches. Apparently poor abrasion class.
In the house, we installed laminate with a higher abrasion class throughout the living area. 8mm thick and (very important!) a properly thick underlay. My son rides over it with his sandy Puky, the cats with their claw rubbing as well. Nothing to see. It holds up and was also quite easy to install. The feel underfoot is also good.

My tip: Good abrasion class, not the thinnest laminate, high-quality underlay, laminate with relief.

We bought from Laminatdepot. We paid €2300 for 100 sqm including everything.

We bought laminate at 10.95 m², it was on offer otherwise 17.49€ m², it is from Parador from the Eco Balance series, the joint pattern is M4V, it looks really nice, the usage class is 23/32 so more than sufficient for the bedrooms, it is 7mm thick + 2mm impact sound insulation. So far absolutely no negative complaints.