Luxury Vinyl Flooring - Why Do We Love It?
On Saturday's Home Repair Workshop radio show there was a caller inquiring about vinyl flooring. His daughter was doing some research and thinking about replacing the carpet in her bedrooms with vinyl. The caller wanted to know what the guys thought about the product and would they install it in their own homes...or their children's homes. The answer was a resounding Yes!
Luxury Vinyl or LVP (luxury vinyl planks - wood look) or LVT (luxury vinyl tile) as it is called is quite popular and for good reasons. This material is easy to care for (sweep or dust and damp mop with a pH neutral floor cleaner), it is child and pet friendly and when compared to other hard surface options such as hardwood and tile, the luxury vinyl is less expensive.
The LVP or LVT is a more comfortable surface to stand on than other hard surfaces because of the components of the product. The middle layer or core is rubber and many lines have an attached underlayment which provides additional comfort. The line we use in our new construction homes has an underlayment of cork which not only helps with the comfort, but also has sound dampening properties and has natural insulation properties to help with floor warmth.
At a minimum some lines of Luxury Vinyl are water resistant and other lines are even water proof making this flooring option great for all areas of a home from basements to bedrooms to great rooms and bathrooms.
One of the first homes we installed LVP in was on the water in Sackets Harbor in Northern New York. The LVP went through the entire first floor of the home and the great room and kitchen faced the water. There was a beautiful view with two sliding glass doors with transom windows mulled above each door. We were almost to the end of construction, the LVP was installed and then a rain storm came through with a driving rain and there was a leak between the transom window and one of the sliding doors. We came into the home to find a puddle of water on the LVP flooring. The water was mopped up and there was absolutely no damage to the floor! (Also, the window was repaired and the leak was fixed.)
As with many manufactured products, you will find that there are different grades of Luxury Vinyl and this mostly has to do with the wear layer of the product. In high traffic areas such as commercial areas a higher wear layer - 20 mil is recommended and this is the highest level. In a home with moderate traffic a floor with a 12 mil wear layer is good. The higher your wear layer the more durable your floor will be and the longer it will last. The wear layer protects against excessive wear and stains. There are some Luxury Vinyl products with a wear layer as low as 4 mil, but they are not going to be as durable or offer the longevity as Luxury Vinyl products with a higher wear layer.
Even with a 20 mil wear layer, LVP and LVT are not one solid color throughout. The flooring, by nature is in layers. Even with the most durable options on the market it is still possible to scratch the surface layer so it is highly recommended, as with all hard surface flooring, that homeowners use felt pads on all of the furniture legs to help prevent scratches and dents as furniture gets moved across the floor.
When it comes to style and colors available in Luxury Vinyl Planks the options are vast. There are wide planks and narrow planks. Four foot lengths and six foot lengths. Tight grain look and rustic cut. Various shades of grays and browns, red and blond tones. Although there are price ranges in the different lines of LVP if you were to try and achieve these same styles in natural wood with wide planks and staining to get a certain color, the cost would be much more expensive than LVP.
The caller also ask if there was off-gassing and the answer to that is yes vinyl floors do emit VOCs (volatile organic compounds), however that also happens with carpet and the finish on hardwood floors. There are low VOC lines out there so that is something to consider if you or a family member have chemical sensitivity. Additionally, you can open doors and windows to help air out the space to reduce the VOCs after installation.
We do still install hardwood floors along with porcelain and ceramic tile in the homes we build and there are pros to those choices as well - you cannot replicate the beauty of natural wood, but with all that being said it is certainly understandable why Luxury Vinyl is such a popular choice.