The most popular and fastest growing flooring type on the market today is Luxury Vinyl Plank or Tile. LVP (wood look) and LVT (tile look) for short. But why has this type of flooring gained so much of the market and does it deserve it? In this article, we will examine what makes luxury vinyl products so popular, as well as it’s pros and cons.
Choosing The Right Luxury Vinyl
- Luxe Plank™ Luxury Vinyl By Armstrong – Two types of vinyl tiles available from Armstrong, Alterna and Alterna Reserve. Both styles offer a great natural stone look. However Alterna Reserve boasts a more stunning overall appearance that you would find with higher end stones. Luxe Plank™can be installed without grout if you prefer. Another consideration is that this luxury vinyl is available in tiles or planks. This allows you the option of using tiles in one part of your home while installing planks in another area. If you want a realistic looking floor that is modern and durable, Luxe Plank™might be right for you.
- Floorte™: Luxury Vinyl Flooring By Shaw – Floorte™ offers you authentic luxury vinyl floors with a bright, impactful color palette. This vinyl flooring is waterproof, flexible, and durable. This vinyl flooring is a great idea for bathrooms, basements or anyplace else where exposure to water might take place. Floorte™is easily installed using its FOLD N GO™ locking system for easier flooring installation.
Luxury Vinyl Flooring Popularity
So why is Luxury vinyl so popular? After all, isn’t Vinyl a bad word? Many clients have told me, “All the vinyl flooring, I’ve ever seen looks cheap.” It’s time to lose your preconceived notions and stop thinking about the vinyl flooring of yesteryear folks! Just in the last 15 years alone, the manufacturing technology has changed so much.
Luxury Vinyl Flooring Offers Realism
Today’s vinyl flooring looks amazing. I’ve seen plank vinyl that looks like REAL wood. And vinyl tile I’ve had to feel with my own two hands before I could tell if it was porcelain or vinyl. And I’ve been doing this for 15 years. I used to be able to walk into a room and tell immediately what type of flooring is. Now I have to look closer, and often times feel it for warmth or texture before I can tell. On a few occasions, I’ve even had to pull up a flooring vent to see the cut edge of the flooring before I knew what it was. At first, I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t tell by just looking. After all, I’m the Home Makeover Diva. I should just know, right? Lol. Instead of being embarrassed, I’m ecstatic that vinyl looks so darn realistic. That means the flooring industry is doing something right and continues to innovate.
Luxury Vinyl Flooring is Waterproof
I strongly believe that the biggest reason Luxury Vinyl Plank is so popular is because it gives you the look of hardwood, but in a nice waterproof package. Meaning that people with kids and pets can finally have ‘nice things’. Want to put hardwood in the bathroom, but afraid of it swelling because the kids take baths in that room? No worries, luxury vinyl has you covered. Want hardwood in your kitchen, but afraid your Golden Retriever will get more water on the floor than in his mouth? That’s okay, water cleans up easy, and won’t cause the vinyl to swell under the water dish.
Luxury Vinyl Flooring is Durable
Luxury Vinyl comes in a variety of thicknesses with a range of warranties. Some are recommended for residential use only, but many have light to heavy commercial warranties. The reasoning for this is because most luxury vinyl products have the same type of finish as laminate flooring. Aluminum Oxide finishes are tough and help keep your flooring looking newer longer. Add this to a floor type that isn’t easy to dent and you have something that can take a beating but keep on ticking.
Luxury Vinyl Flooring Pros And Cons
Writing out a separate list of pros seems redundant. The above items that make the flooring so popular are biggest reasons to purchase luxury vinyl. Add to that, the wide range of colors, styles and price points and it’s easy to see why anyone would choose luxury vinyl over another type of flooring.
Luxury Vinyl Flooring Is Durable, But Not Bulletproof
Let’s not forget that while luxury vinyl is very durable, it’s not bulletproof. It’s important to remember that no matter what a sales person tells you, luxury vinyl isn’t invincible. Any type of flooring is susceptible to damage. This is true of Luxury Vinyl, even the commercial rated stuff. If you drag a piece of furniture across it, it will scratch. If you have a large dog and never clip its nails, it can leave marks. If you don’t put door mats at exterior doors and track in pieces of gravel and debris it will scratch or dent your flooring. If you don’t use felt pads under your furniture legs, especially dining room chairs, you will scratch it. But these are all easily avoidable issues. And rules you should follow for any type of flooring. By simply using common sense you can avoid most of these issues.
Luxury Vinyl Flooring Isn’t For Excessive Amounts Of Water
As for the flooring being 100% waterproof, if your fridge has a slow leak for days or weeks, it could damage the flooring. The fact is no flooring is warrantied for a water leak or excessive water. Let me repeat that, NO FLOORING IS WARRANTIED FOR A WATER LEAK. That doesn’t mean Luxury Vinyl will be damaged if you catch the water leak immediately. It just means it will probably fail if you go on vacation and come home 3 days after your water heater floods, and an inch of water has been sitting on it the whole time.
The Bottomline With Luxury Vinyl Flooring
Luxury vinyl is a solid flooring choice. This vinyl performs exceedingly well when common sense practices are used. If I had a dollar for every bad comment I’ve read online, about a product that ‘failed’ but was really an easily avoidable mistake, I’d be writing this article while sunbathing on a tropical island.
I would gladly put luxury vinyl in any room of my house. I have two older dogs, and my goal is to replace the flooring in the entire house with Luxury Vinyl Plank. My biggest reason, being because it’s waterproof. While pet accidents don’t happen very often, I’d love the peace of mind in knowing that I can easily clean up any mess.