10 Educational Facts About Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring
Vinyl plank flooring and vinyl tile have long remained favourite flooring elements for kitchens and bathrooms. Still, it has perpetually been seen as slightly cheap when related to other flooring products. But that is no longer the situation with vinyl plank flooring, also identified as luxury vinyl plank flooring (LVP) or luxury vinyl flooring (LVF). Rather than a shallow layer of very flexible vinyl, vinyl plank flooring is a much deeper flooring material that is formed in long planks with an adjusted tongue-and-groove attachment system that snaps together, regularly called “click-lock.””
Vinyl plank flooring first grew popular because it simulated wood plank flooring quite convincingly, more so than even plastic laminate flooring. But there has since remained an eruption of offerings for vinyl plank flooring, comprising of products that resemble ceramic and porcelain and natural rock such as marble or granite. The stone-look products are typically shaped in tiles and not like planks.
What Are Vinyl Planks?
At its core, plank vinyl floor, also described as luxury vinyl plank (LVP) or luxury vinyl floor (LVF), is really vinyl flooring that comes in long, slender strips rather than the conventional square tile shapes. But structurally, this is a distinct product. Sheet vinyl is usually flexible vinyl with a marked top layer coated by a clear wear layer, whilst vinyl plank flooring is a multi-ply stock that emphasises four layers:
- An uppermost layer of aluminium oxide, intended to prevent light scratching and scrapes
- A clear film coating that shields against more severe ripping and tearing
- A design layer that gives the photo-realistic look of wood or stone
- A backing or support layer made of reasonably rigid vinyl, including approximately 90 per cent of the total depth of luxury vinyl
Luxury vinyl is consequently nearly five times thicker than conventional sheet vinyl, enabling it to be semi-rigid. Rather than being spread out over the floor and glued down, luxury vinyl planks snap together collectively. Manufacturers of luxury plank flooring contribute dozens of various styles to match the unique appearance of various wood species, right down to textured coverings that mimic authentic wood grain. Plank vinyl floor also serves to have deeper embossing and more high-grade graphics, providing it with a closer mimicking of wood and stone than earlier versions of sheet vinyl flooring or plastic laminate flooring.
You can also find vinyl planks with a profoundly antiqued or distressed appearance, hand-scraped, dinged, scraped, and peppered with nail holes. But these stocks are more expensive since the planks need to be quite thick to manage such deeply textured embossing.
Vinyl flooring planks usually are 121 or 91 cm in length. The width is about 15 cm with most planks, although some go as many as 19 1/2 cm wide.
What Is Loose Lay Vinyl Plank Flooring?
Loose lay vinyl plank flooring, or luxury vinyl tile (LVT), is durable and heavyweight flooring that arrives in singular planks or tiles instead of the past sheet vinyl products. It is composed of many layers, including layers of essentially PVC and fibreglass. This provides it with higher durability than the earlier 2 mm and 3 mm vinyl plank floors.
What Are The Benefits Of Luxury Vinyl Flooring?
Preceding the release of hybrid flooring, vinyl plank flooring was the go-to flooring for most households, primarily in kitchens, laundries and wet areas around homes and businesses. It is still a primarily attractive choice in flooring for both commercial and residential application.
The benefits of vinyl plank flooring incorporate:
- Commercially ranked wear layers
- Choices for any budget
- Low maintenance and simple for cleaning
- Large assortment of options, including stone, tile and timber, and different looks
- Straightforward installation, this can be great for the time it takes to install, it can reduce costs even further.
With the correct floor preparation, it can be applied over any subfloor, including wet areas - Repairs are comparatively simple in that single planks can be substituted without uplifting other segments of the floor
Vinyl Plank Flooring Cost
Seldom, if ever, will a vinyl plank floor cost as much as natural wood flooring, which is regularly five to 10 times more costly than vinyl planks. Overall, the cost of vinyl planks is around the equivalent of laminate planks. However, vinyl planks are arguably a better flooring material.
Supply costs for luxury vinyl plank prices are similar to ceramic/porcelain tile. Still, with tile, you must factor in the cost of extra materials (thin-set and grout), plus tile-specific devices. And ceramic tile is a much more labour-intensive investment as well, increasing costs substantially.
Overall, vinyl is cheaper and can be a better alternative to ceramic tiles and do the same job, such as being wholly water-resistant and stain-resistant flooring for wet areas such as kitchens, laundries and other areas exposed to contamination and water.
Maintenance and Repair
This is one of the easier flooring types to maintain. Most manufacturers suggest simple sweeping daily weekly damp mopping with mild soap and mop or a Swiffer-type cleaning pad. Those floors should never be steam-cleaned, nevertheless. While the flooring itself is impenetrable to moisture, the strength of a steam cleaner can possibly drive water down through the joints to the wood subfloor.
Repairs can be a little complicated with vinyl plank flooring. You may be capable of repairing small sections of damage with a vinyl repair kit chosen to resemble the colour of your flooring. The patched area will typically not be a complete match, though. Replacing whole planks usually requires disassembling the floor from one wall up the broken plank, fitting a replacement plank, then reassembling the floor towards the wall.
Design
Vinyl plank flooring is manufactured in hundreds of colours and designs from the major flooring manufacturers. Interior designers and real estate professionals see it as preferred flooring to sheet vinyl and laminate flooring, but still considerably less luxurious than solid hardwood or porcelain tile.
Most plank designs of luxury vinyl attempt to mimic hardwood flooring, and they do this quite dramatically. At a random glance, vinyl planks can look quite comparable to natural wood. It can be a more desirable illusion than what is given by laminate flooring. Tile forms of luxury vinyl usually seek to imitate ceramics or natural stone—again, quite efficiently.
Vinyl Is An Excellent Choice For Residential and Commercial Flooring Properties.
Vinyl Plank Flooring Installation
Ease of installation is a principal advantage to vinyl plank flooring. Luxury plank flooring was made by professional flooring installers and for fast fittings in residential and commercial properties.
Vinyl plank flooring utilises a click-lock operation in which the sides and ends of the planks snap collectively. This flooring is frequently installed as a “floating floor” that simply rests on the subfloor with no glue-down bond required. While the subfloor and underlayment should be as level as practicable, vinyl planks are considerably thicker than sheet vinyl, making it more lenient of minor defects in the underlayment, flaws that can communicate over to the surface on sheet vinyl.
Comfort and Convenience
Vinyl plank flooring gives much of the easy-care practicality of sheet vinyl. Still, because it is a more solid material, it has somewhat more “give” underfoot, making it more pleasant. Because it is made from waterproof materials in and through, this is a much better flooring for damp spaces than laminate flooring or hardwood. In a kitchen, bathroom, mudroom, or laundry, few flooring materials are more suitable choices.
Vinyl Plank Flooring vs Laminate Flooring
Because they both attempt to mimic natural hardwood, homeowners are often confronted with deciding between vinyl planks and laminate flooring. By most observations, today’s vinyl plank flooring may be somewhat superior.
Both have very similar installation procedures, with a click-lock installation that floats above the underlayment. Vinyl, nevertheless, can be cut with a plain utility knife, while laminates need a power saw.
Vinyl is a fully waterproof element, is moderately softer than laminate and is less noisy under your feet. One of the most significant drawbacks to laminate flooring is the way it clicks and rattles under hard steps unless it is fitted with a resilient foam underlay.
Early versions of vinyl plank flooring were flawlessly smooth, without the texturising seen in many laminate flooring products. But today’s vinyl planks can produce the same embossed surface. When coupled with its other performance benefits, vinyl may be the more suitable choice for many projects such as home renovations, new builds, investment properties and commercial applications such as retails shops, offices and warehouses.