- Ceramic tile
- Hardwoods
- Marble tile
- Stone
- Bamboo
What Is Luxury Vinyl Flooring?
Luxury vinyl flooring is the structural composition of luxury vinyl flooring that enables it to realistically mimic other flooring materials. It is typically manufactured from a mixture of vinyl and minerals, with minerals represented at a higher percentage in the LVT when mimicking materials like stone.
Luxury vinyl tile is waterproof and can be installed as a free-floating floor or glued down with adhesives. It consists of four individual layers, each providing its own unique benefit to the finished product.
- Top layer: This layer of a mixture of aluminum oxide is what gives luxury vinyl flooring its resistance to scuffing and scratching.
- Film layer: Sitting beneath the top layer is a much harder one that prevents tears and rips in the flooring.
- Design layer: Through the use of modern digital photo technology, this layer gives luxury vinyl flooring its distinctive look. To prevent a repetitious, unnatural appearance, it is not uncommon to find many different varieties of the same image, thus mimicking hardwood.
- Backing layer: Here is where the strength and structural integrity of the flooring is found. This layer often contains up to as much as 90-percent of the overall thickness.
Related Articles: Types of Waterproof Flooring
What Is the Difference Between Luxury Vinyl Tile and Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring?
The short answer is the aesthetics of the products. Vinyl tile flooring, because it is designed to mimic large sections of ceramic, marble, or stone flooring, is manufactured and sold in larger, square cuts. Unlike real tile and stone, if something heavy is accidentally dropped on luxury vinyl tile flooring, it will not break. Vinyl plank flooring is primarily designed to mimic hardwood floors and therefore is manufactured and sold in planks, just as hardwoods are. Because they can come with a snap-in feature that locks the planks into place and provides a further way of waterproofing, luxury vinyl planks are ideal as a free, floating floor that requires no gluing down.How Does Luxury Vinyl Flooring Differ From Other Types of Flooring?
When you look at the costs of ceramic tile and hardwood floors, luxury vinyl floors can often be purchased at a much lower price than those flooring materials it is able to so accurately mimic. On almost any level, practical or aesthetic, luxury vinyl floors make a valuable addition to any home. Here’s why:- Durability. Luxury vinyl flooring has it all – they’re waterproof, highly resistant to scratches, tears, burns, and breakage of almost any kind. They’re manufactured to last for many years, all the while retaining their original beauty and structural integrity.
- Maintenance. It’s a safe assumption that luxury vinyl flooring is among the most stress-free and easy types of flooring currently on the market in terms of cleaning and maintaining. Due to the structural components of its protective wear layer, luxury vinyl floors are easy to maintain with just routine sweeping and mopping.
- Design. The varieties of designs available in luxury vinyl flooring are far too many to list. Suffice it to say that you can find a flooring option that accurately mimics just about any type of floor you’ve seen. And because the design layer rests under the protective wear layer, the original look of your floors will not easily diminish, even over many years of use.
