Luxury Vinyl Flooring

Interest in luxury vinyl flooring has seen profound growth in recent years. One of the newest additions to the flooring business, it’s taken the market by storm. Luxury vinyl floors could be a great choice for your next home improvement project.

Luxury Vinyl Flooring

Luxury vinyl floors could be confused with engineered wood floors or laminate flooring, but they’re completely different.

Luxury vinyl flooring is a resilient flooring. According to the Resilient Floor Covering Institute (RFCI), resilient flooring is a “non-textile floor that provides underfoot comfort and characteristically bounces back from repeated traffic or compression”. In short, luxury vinyl flooring is a firm floor with a “bounce-back” surface. A top transparent wear layer covers a high-definition photographic design mimicking wood, tile, stone, or other material. The rigid core is the backing layer that provides solidity, durability, and dent resistance. Typically, a padding is attached to the rigid core, increasing stability. This composition of layers makes luxury vinyl flooring extremely durable, waterproof, and easy to maintain.

With their extreme range of textures and appearances, luxury vinyl floors can add distinction to any home. But these floors boast more than looks. They’re long-lasting, scratch resistant, and need little to no maintenance. They’re highly customizable. Clients may choose from a wide range of materials, thicknesses, and methods of installation. Luxury vinyl floors can be installed above, below, or on ground, over all types of non-textile, structurally-sound, clean, flat, and dry subfloors.

LVT and LVP

Luxury vinyl flooring is a rigid core vinyl flooring, and there are two abbreviations professionals use to reference it: LVT and LVP.

“LVT” stands for “Luxury Vinyl Tile.” Luxury vinyl tile mimics the appearance of stone, ceramic, or porcelain tiling.

“LVP” stands for “Luxury Vinyl Planks.” These mimic wood flooring and come as planks, not tiles.

LVT and LVP are becoming difficult to distinguish. The terms may be used interchangeably – even though, strictly speaking, they differ. To clarify, when we say “luxury vinyl flooring” we’re talking about both LVT and LVP – to distinguish these from sheet vinyl.

Luxury Vinyl Flooring Installation

Just like laminate flooring, luxury vinyl flooring planks have a modified tongue and groove making it easy for the planks to be clicked together by angling them til they fit. This system is the “click installation system.”

Even though some luxury vinyl floors require glue in order to adhere them to a subfloor, most are meant to be installed as floating flooring – that is, a floor that’s unattached to its subfloor.

With some luxury vinyl floors, an underlayment must be used, but one advantage of this flooring is that it typically comes with a pad attached to the planks and they can be laid directly on a subfloor without need of underlayment.

The expansion space left between the luxury vinyl flooring and the fixed vertical objects and surfaces (walls, columns, cabinets, etc.) must be hidden by installing a trim (baseboard and/or shoe molding). The gaps between the luxury vinyl floors and other floors in the house are bridged by transitions.

Luxury vinyl can be installed on stairs, requiring installation of planks with options for both treads and the risers or on the treads only (as other material could be used for the risers). A matching stair nosing goes on the outside edge of the step where the tread meets the below standing riser, causing the steps to function safely and look sleek.

Your Luxury Vinyl Flooring Installation Project

The installation process for luxury vinyl floors may seem simple. It appears to require only unpacking and laying down a set of planks, but there’s many complications, and consumers would be wise to hire professional installers.

If your luxury vinyl flooring installation project is in the San Diego, CA area, we can serve you! We offer professional installation of luxury vinyl flooring and stairs with profound attention to detail. We are a luxury vinyl flooring installer with over fifteen years of experience in our field. We serve our customers with dedication and expertise (read our customers reviews here). Request a free in-home estimate now! You can expect expert advice and professional service.