Yup. I have this issue in the living room. Some very dark patches from previous owner who lived there several decades…
If it’s real wood you can still “sand” it and varnish it…(is that the word btw?)
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Yes. Something I might do once the kids are older and stop destroying it more! 
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How old are your kids and what kind of destructions can they do? 
We have simple rules which were enforced by relentless repetition: roller skates always OFF and scooters always left behind the entrance door no matter “how quick” they’ll want to venture inside to grab something they forgot!
A good parquet floor does endure some level of scratching and all sort of liquids dropped around! 
And it looks fantastic and it is easy to clean. And you can sand and wax it multiple times btw.
Do your things, with kids everything will come together if you establish some rules and play some tricks. I am still not able to keep the walls completely clean…because “sticky fingers” and kids doing gymnastics exercises for which I am partially to blame because I showed them “wall walks” lol. Anyway, for art projects they have a large table with a rough carpet beneath and are not allowed to leave that to chaotically spread all those materials they use around the house. And no, some rules do NOT hinder their creativity and joy, trust me. They have to learn some respect for things (their things too) and responsibility for own activities.
They get it, after a while… Repetition is the mother of “learning”.
They are 3 and 5. The youngest is still drawing on the walls…
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Been there too, this too shall pass…but there’s more to come!! 
I would definitely choose vinyl plates, there are also like quartz vinyl plates, as they indeed less and less toxic nowadays, but so much more durable and washable as you like, and they really look and feel like wood. In my rented apartment i can only look at this parquette with tears, in less than 8 years became some scratched all over sh* and i barely even walked on it, also where sun got discolored, really don’t understand how one can put it in rented apartments…
Rented apartments have notoriously poor quality parkett floors, especially the ones built after '00s on fast-forward mode. I can explain a bit why is that but I don’t have the time now.
Unfortunately, you don’t have any say when you’re a renter. But they do increase your rent constantly, eh.
However, I wouldn’t dismiss wood or parkett floors. I am thinking actually to replace our old parkett with “engineered wood flooring” i.e. multilayered wood otherwise called Landhausdielen…it looks great and it gives a very nice touch to the apt. As you can notice I’m partial to wood, but vinyl plates have great qualities too…if you like that stuff.
Yes, I used to think that a parquet floor is made of wood pieces glued to the cement. The handover protocol of my current apartment had written “parquet floor” where the actual floor is a parquet imitation made of floating planks. I don’t have much to complain about the durability of the surface but the floor is moving/wiggling when I walk
AFAIK: Parquet is solid wood panels (so you could re-sand them after x years) often nailed or glued. Laminate is exactly that, a composite. I successfully laid click and lay wood laminate in a bedroom with an insulating underlay to reduce the noise. The floor then “floats” as there is a small gap between the panels and the walls. Some laminates my have been glued down. Water spills need to be removed immediately but it should last at least 20 years though it may start to look tired. Vinyl composites are layed in wide strips.
…
Yes and no ( I am glad you are open about being unsure, so there’s no offence. Here are my ‘2 cent’ comments plus a new question about fire rating of the vinyl tile (they look like floorboard strips)
Yes, Parquet floor was originally solid patterned wood blocks VERY precisely cut and glued and arranged (like in very old Swiss apartments where they now move as you walk, and maybe kep\t being made right up to the 70’s) but now, (in German 'Parkett) Parquet is engineered easy-to-lay slotted plank stuff with a very thin 2-3 mm layer of wood on top (and yes the higher end Hochwertig stuff is called Landhausdielen on German websites). You can find them at Hardware stores.
But No…
…it can’t be sanded - to get an even finish, a sander needs to go down 2-3 mm on real floorboards, so would take off the whole lot. The decorative part is so thin… Although a light hand sand might be ok… but careful! And sometimes the cheap stuff its paper with printed wood pattern. In that case, you have no chance…(but you’re less likely to see that in Switzerland unless you have a super stingy landlord)
Parkett/floating floor is generally not clacky / noisy if done well - which comes down to levelling and preparation of the surface, as all things renovation…
There is an underlay to cushion the footfall and stop noise. That bit has to meet noise standards to be certified and thus allowed… Even solid plastic floorboards are silent if well laid, with the advantage of being waterproof and can’t be scratched easily by claws, kids, dragging furniture or (oops) dropped wine bottles. But bad / cheap stuff can and will enter the market.
I only recently discovered the vinyl tile when walking through a hardware store (not in Switzerland). It’s self adhesive to your floor and can last 10 or 20 years, which makes it great value but the display in the shop looked cupped already so I wasn’t sure… anyone have experience?
Reason I ask: considering laying the cheap vinyl stuff over the top of perfectly good Plastic/Synthetic Floorboards, as the colour is too dark. The aim is to lighten it up, in a low traffic area, but near a real fireplace. How safe is Vinyl. ???
P.s. as a resource I found this good for getting across the options and price in one place. And sense of cost… which leads me to ask - what is OFRI and have they really been going 10 years? Are they as effective as airtasker overseas?
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Welcome to the forum. I think a lot depends on the existing floor base, the purpose of the room, and how the floor is cared (or not) for. To me, it’s pretty obvious that peel and stick was used as opposed to traditional vinyl sheets. My two experiences:
- The floor base was plywood, and the material was used in kitchen and bath. The owner regularly sweeps and mops and deals with spills promptly. The flooring has stayed level and not bubbled or buckled, but after 20 years it does peel in places. The kitchen shows more wear and tear than the bath, which one would expect.
- The floor base was existing vinyl or similar that they didn’t want to bother to tear out. The owner can’t be bothered to sweep or mop and leaves the floor wet and dirty on a regular basis. The flooring is bubbly and peeling and you can actually trip on the bumps!
I can’t say how well the peel and stick variety would hold up near a fireplace.
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Thank you for your very thoughtful post!!
In the end we decided over an oak parquet (Eichenparkett). I always wanted something like American walnut parquet but the actual wooden top layer is thinner and less resilient than oak. So so beautiful though.
Anyway, I thought oak is more practical in the long run (and you can sand it 2-3 times over time).
The long tiles I have mentioned didn’t look that well upon a closer view (in the shop I mean) and are more appropriated for other types of rooms.