Luxury Vinyl Flooring or Laminate Flooring?
You love the texture and natural beauty of wood flooring, but you’re on a tight budget and you have a strict deadline. Immediately, you think of stylish laminate flooring and innovative luxury vinyl flooring as possible alternatives, but you’re not sure which is a better fit for your home. What are the advantages of each product and how do they differ? Which will last longer? Let’s take a closer look!
About Luxury Vinyl Flooring
Combining the fashion of hardwood with the benefits of resilient flooring, Luxury Vinyl Tile delivers toughness and elasticity that can handle foot traffic, spills, and dropped items. Luxury Vinyl is comfortable underfoot, resists dents and cracks, and provides inherent water resistance at a cheaper price tag than almost all hard surface products. With improved texture and visuals for , LVT is thriving thanks to its affordability and versatility when it comes to installation and maintenance.
About Laminate Flooring
As a longtime favorite option for capturing hardwood aesthetic, laminate planks are composite wood products with quality multi-layered construction. In addition to affordability, laminate is also prized for its long-lasting durability and ability to handle moisture better than hardwood. The realistic textures and deep embossing on laminate planks gives homeowners and designers plenty of to create from. Look for the NALFA (North American Laminate Flooring Association) Certification Seal on your favorite style to ensure years of stellar performance.
Installation
Homeowners cherish both LVT and laminate for the ease of installation- tremendously easier than installing hardwood floors! Not only does LVT have easy to use locking systems for floating floor installation, these floors can be installed in high moisture, high traffic, and below-grade areas. Laminate products can often be installed as a floating floor with DIY capability, but it’s important to verify the installation requirements of your product before assuming it can go where you envision the finished floor.
With both laminate and LVT flooring, you can have hardwood allure in areas that are not a great fit for real wood. Whereas some laminate products are water-resistant, LVT is waterproof! So for rooms that will see continued exposure to water or possible standing water such as bathrooms or laundry rooms, LVT is a better fit. Also, some laminate products are not suitable for below-grade rooms, but LVT will be fine for these locations. However, for kitchens, dining rooms, bedrooms and living rooms, laminate will lend outstanding durability with less expanding and contracting than true wood floors during seasonal change. Both flooring types are great for active homes, just be sure to heed the manufacturer’s recommendations.
Maintenance
Although you won’t be able to wet mop your laminate floors, clean-up is still easy and effective by sweeping, dust mopping, and vacuuming, with spot treatment when necessary. Since LVT floors are waterproof, you can mop with warm water whenever you see fit. In the unfortunate event that a section of your laminate or LVT floor become damaged, you will be able to repair both types of floor expediently and quickly.
The great news is that you can capture realistic, durable hardwood beauty in either flooring option at Vic's Carpet & Flooring showroom in Oconomowoc, WI today. We can help you match the style points you love, with the performance characteristics that will best serve your home!
