Luxury vinyl plank flooring is a simulation of a solid hardwood floor. Compared to standard vinyl flooring, it is thicker and has better durability. It is costly but not too pricey like real hardwood, but not too affordable, like standard vinyl as well.
The description is pretty alluring, considering you get the best of both worlds. But nothing is perfect and is a combination of good and bad. So let’s tap into Luxury Vinyl Plank floor advantage and disadvantages to know if it’s good or bad.
Luxury Vinyl Plank Floor Advantage
Contents
Low Priced
For those of you who don’t have the budget to install the luxurious, expensive hardwood floor but also want something closer, which of course is not standard vinyl, a luxury vinyl plank floor will be their best option.
It’s a replica of hardwood flooring but with significantly less expense. Unless you are a flooring expert, you cannot tell it’s not wood. Only a close analysis might let the cat out of the bag. But then, if such a price gives you a visual appearance precisely like wood, who would miss the opportunity to install it.
Beautiful
The luxury vinyl plank floor is beautiful. It is made of multiple layers, almost 7-8 layers, and among all those layers, that one layer which has prints, patterns, and designs of hardwood and the one layer that has the sheen as glossy as the hardwood floor, makes it appealing and a well-deserving replica of the inspiration.
Easy Installation
When it comes to easy installation, there is hardly any competition for vinyl flooring. You can glue it, staple it, hook it, snap it, depending on the installing mechanism. You can install it directly over a subfloor irrespective of the material it is constructed with. Glue it, and it sticks to the surface and works like a covering over the subfloor.
Water-Resistant
LVP flooring tackles moisture and water well. It is water-resistant. You can use liquid while mopping the LVP floor without worrying about it getting damaged due to water absorption. Cleaning a LVP floor without water is pretty much impossible. It’s a thing you need to do in the case of a hardwood floor, even though water is fatal to it. It might be an issue in the long run, but if dried well and immediately, the water-resistance quality is enough to protect the LVP floor from moisture.
Save
Replaceable
Replacing a floor is not a good idea, and most people ignore it. However, if you are compelled, you do not need to worry about tons of money going wasted like on a hardwood floor, neither the installation process requires professionals. You can do it yourself. Thus it is easily replaceable compared to most other floorings.
Close Replica
When it comes to perfect replicas, only the engineered hardwood flooring comes close to solid hardwood. But considering there is no wood in LVP, the perfect simulation of woody appearance and vibe is super impressive.
Easy Maintenance
Luxury vinyl plank is vinyl thus has to be easy maintenance. You can clean it with the most mundane of products and maintain it as if you are using some high-end vinyl floor cleaning machine. You can use water, do daily mopping, and do not have to be too cautious while sweeping, yet ensure optimum maintenance.
Luxury Vinyl Plank Floor Disadvantage
Not Wood
The first disadvantage of a luxury vinyl plank floor is simple. It is not wood. There is no wood grain in it; it’s all vinyl. So, for those who love wood and its feel, luxury vinyl flooring, no matter how flawless it is in copying hardwood appearance, they are not going to love it because it’s not wood. Wood is wood, and vinyl is vinyl. Real and copy, they have to be different, and you know it.
Shorter Lifespan
The luxury vinyl plank floor doesn’t have a long life span. At best 20-25 years, even then, it will lose its sheen, bend, will be full of scratches, look dull no matter how careful you are while cleaning the floor. With proper care, a hardwood floor lasts 100 years. So, hardwood flooring will be for multiple generations to come, but LVP flooring will last only one.
Cannot Be Restored
The most annoying thing about vinyl flooring, which includes luxury vinyl floors, too, is that if damaged, it cannot be repaired. You can do nothing to restore or rejuvenate it. The only way to make it worth looking at is to replace the whole of it. And replacing a floor is difficult, no matter how easy the installation is. No one wants to do so much work of moving furniture, uprooting all the planks and again spending a ton on the planks and again reinstalling them. If damaged, maximum time, most prefer living on the warped floor instead of going through all those tedious work and expenses.
Not Recyclable
Luxury vinyl planks, after the uprooting, are needed to be thrown away. And unlike wood, vinyl is not biodegradable, neither ecofriendly, nor recyclable. When you are throwing those planks, you are getting rid of every bit of it and all the money you have spent in the whole LVP buying and installation process. A little mercy that it doesn’t cost as high as hardwood installation. Yet the price it costs is not ignorable too. Hence, many go for the standard vinyl if they have a low budget or prefer spending more on the hardwood.
Water Resistant, Not Waterproof
Compared to hardwood planks, LVP handles moisture way better. But it is only water-resistant and not waterproof. The difference is you can mop it with water without hesitation and dry it. You can install it in kitchen areas. But if you are not drying it or installing an LVP floor in bathrooms, you are barking up the wrong tree. Vinyl tiles are apt for bathrooms, not LVP. In the long run, no matter how well you dry it after every wet mopping session, the moisture will find its way to seep in the layers and damage it from within. Slowly but gradually, water will ruin the LVP flooring.
Cannot Handle Sunlight Well
Vinyl flooring takes no time to lose its sheen and original color. It stains pretty easily. LVP is a better version of vinyl but is still vinyl. Direct sunlight, or even indirect, mild ones hitting the floor for days, can make it react to the rays and lose the original color. LVP flooring cannot handle sunlight. It fades. To avoid sun damage, to an extent, luxury vinyl planks are suggested to be installed parallel to the sunlight. It is not full proof but works to a great extent.
To understand how good or bad or mediocre the luxury vinyl plank floor is, and is it worth installing or not, it was essential to know all its pros, cons, upsides, and downsides. Now you know all of it, so decide you need it or can do without it.
