What's up with Vinyl Plank Flooring?

What's up with Vinyl Plank Flooring?

What's up with Vinyl Plank Flooring?

Okay, so before I commence with this post about how cool vinyl plank flooring is, I need to clear the air about why there is a bit of a lapse between my blog posts….a five year lapse actually……yeah…(ahem).

I can explain.

Our little family of 3 stores is now 4. Five years ago I was tasked to create a business plan for a new concept store for our company, it was approved, and I was given the opportunity to set up and open our new store, Your Flooring Warehouse in Sarasota. You would be surprised how fast five years will go by opening a new flooring store – selling, staffing, cash flow, etc. This blog was kinda put on the back burner until things became more stable and I wanted to make sure I had the time to commit to it to ensure I did a decent job, and here I am, five years later, happily typing away. So now that is cleared up, lets talk about Vinyl plank flooring!

About the same time I took my blogging “sabbatical”, a brand new flooring category hit the market, Luxury waterproof Vinyl plank flooring. Until this point, Vinyl flooring was known pretty much as that strange sheet vinyl stuff your grandmother had in her kitchen, or the super thin and flexible glue down planks that had a very commercial look. This new Luxury Vinyl Plank came with a much thicker wood polymer composite core (WPC) and this new core was the real game changer. Here’s why-

First, the WPC core is extremely stable and virtually waterproof, and is much thicker than earlier vinyl planks. The full 7mm thickness allows the manufacturer to cut in a locking system for an easy and inexpensive floating, glue-less installation. The thicker profile also provides much more rigidity, which is a real game changer because one of the biggest problems with the earlier, thinner vinyl planks was that it had to be glued down, and this installation method combined with the very thin, flexible vinyl flooring would cause every subfloor imperfection, no matter how small, to transmit through the floor and stand out like a sore thumb. The rigidity of this new vinyl is very forgiving and also allows for this floor to be installed directly over tile -If you have ever gone through a tile removal, you understand how huge this is. Not sure what I’m referring to? well, imagine a piece of chalk -now hit it with a hammer. multiply that by 1,000,000. In addition, the fact that there is no adhesive and it is so easy to put down, professional installers charge much less to install vinyl, or for that matter you can easily do it yourself!

It gets better! This floor is very tough. There is typically a 12 to 20 mil wear layer that is often enhanced with a ceramic bead finish. This makes for a very durable floor, in fact it usually carries a light commercial warranty and in more than enough to stand up to pets, kids or pretty much anything else your household can throw at it.

I saved the best part about this revolutionary new flooring for last – this stuff is waterproof! One of the biggest downsides to a laminate or hardwood floor is its sensitivity to any type of moisture intrusion. With hardwood or laminate you weren’t able to mop the floor, you couldn’t install it in kitchens or bathrooms, and you had to quickly clean up every spill and chase after every ice cube. This flooring doesn’t care…little Billy spills his gatorade? No worries. Fluffy has an accident? Gross, but still no problem. Humidity? You’re good. Want to wet mop? Go for it.

So all of this means nothing if this floor doesn’t look good right? As this category expands, these manufacturers have really gone to great lengths to differentiate their flooring from the competitors and this has meant that vinyl plank has gotten progressively more realistic looking and appealing. You now see features like bevelled edges and embossed in register (texture matches the pattern on the plank) that really make each plank look unique and authentic.

To sum up, Vinyl Plank flooring is durable, waterproof, tough, appealing and realistic and easy to install over a variety of subfloors- all for substantially less than a real hardwood or tile floor. So is there a reason Vinyl plank shouldn’t be part of your search for new flooring? not that I can see, so get out there and see for yourself!