Feel like the flooring options for your home have gotten confusing? There are so many different types and brands now that keeping up with everything can seem overwhelming. Most people don’t buy new flooring that often, so when you start looking for options, it may feel a little out of your league. One type of flooring that we hope to explain in this article is luxury vinyl.
In addition to carpet, hardwood, and laminate, vinyl is a popular choice for flooring in your home or business. Vinyl itself comes in various forms. There are vinyl sheets, which are glued directly to the subfloor. Laminate vinyl has come a long way with a realistic tile, wood and stone look. The other option for vinyl is called deluxe vinyl, which comes in tile or plank.
Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) looks like stone or ceramic tile. With natural colors and surface texture, these tiles look and feel like real stone or ceramic. Luxury Vinyl Planks (LVP) offer the look of wood planks in various species and colors. Surface textures can even include scraping or embossing to enhance the realism.
Whether you choose vinyl, LVT or LVP sheeting, you get a sturdy floor, known for its warmth and comfort underfoot. However, its true claim to fame is its resistance to moisture, which makes it the best choice for a bathroom or kitchen. It is also much less expensive than real ceramic or wood.
So maybe you’ve decided that luxury vinyl is the way to go for your new bathroom installation, now all you need to do is decide on style and color, right? Not quite, there are still a lot more things to consider and this is where it can get confusing.
First, you can choose how you want to install the luxury vinyl flooring. There are still a few that you can paste, while other options include floating click and loose placement. With a floating click, the planks or tiles are brought together to form an airtight seal. Loose floors allow you to simply position each piece to cover the floor. This type of flooring is easy to repair as you can easily remove a piece in the middle of the room and replace it.
You will also have options about the thickness of the tile or boards. The core of the board may have an additional cushion to dampen sound and provide more comfort underfoot. Other types can be stiffer, allowing them to hold up better in heavy foot traffic.
There are a few other acronyms used to describe the core of luxury vinyl: WPC and SPC. Depending on the manufacturer, these represent different things. For example, WPC can mean wood plastic composite, waterproof polymer core, or wood polymer core. Likewise, SPC can stand for Stone Polymer Composite, Solid Polymer Core, and other variations. So you can see where the confusion could settle!
If you are looking for a new flooring and decide to research luxury vinyl, you may be frustrated with the different terms and lack of consistency. All manufacturers tend to have their own name for things, which makes it difficult for the consumer to know what is what. With just a few internet searches, you will soon realize that there is a lot more to luxury vinyl flooring than you originally thought.
This is where your local flooring store may be your best option for expert flooring advice. They will know the differences between manufacturers and the type of products they make so you can better compare. Plus, you can simply explain to a flooring store expert what kind of look you want, where in the house it will be used, and what kind of traffic it is likely to receive. They can then offer suggestions and help you traverse the flooring jungle to find the best luxury vinyl option for your needs.
