I plan to hit the training hard and reach a decent deadlifting level, and I'd also rather only have to buy equipment once. Though I was planning on deadlifting on rubber flooring, would this be sufficient to stop the rubber weights from cracking? I'm not one to drop weights, though I imagine as they get heavy it might not always be in my control.
When you said buy proper equipment from the start, are you referring to bumpers? Or just a a different or better quality brand of weight plates, like perhaps the ironedge ones? Though they are are still rubber coated.