Options for Flooring – LVP vs Laminate Vs Hardwood?

Updating the flooring in your house can be expensive. Not to mention the stress of picking out the right type of flooring for you and your family. Perhaps you have a rental property, and you want something durable? Maybe something waterproof? Unless we are talking about tiles, can flooring truly be water proof? Well, keep reading, will get into that in a little bit.

Laminate

Let’s start off with traditional laminate flooring. Laminate has been used since the late 1970’s after being invented by a Swedish company by the name of Perstorp. Laminate typically consists of several layers fused together by extreme pressure. The core will most often consist of compressed saw dust and wood chip shavings, and the top will be a printed layer manufactured to represent a wood like appeal. Most often Laminate will be the cheapest choice of flooring, but there are a few things to consider. Laminate typically is not as durable as let’s say hardwood or Luxury Vinyl Planks (LVP). You can expect laminate to expand more during changes in weather, because of its wood type core. This means expansion gaps during installation will call for 3/8’s vs the traditional LVP expansion gap of 1/4. Something else to consider is how easily the top surface can be scratched. This will really depend on the type of laminate flooring you buy. Typically the more expensive the floor, the harder the top surface is. Although, we have seen a few exceptions to this rule. Recently a lot of companies have started to advertise, “waterproof” laminate flooring in order to compete with LVP and linoleum type floors. I would personally be very careful with this. Companies advertise this based off what they believe to be a flawless, perfect installation, among other specs such as vapor resistant sub-floor, silicon bid around baseboards in areas where water is present, and other things. If all things done correctly, is it truly possible? In my personal and professional opinion not really. Laminate floors come with cheap tongue and groove joints, or clip in joints. If the floor is not 100% level, which it rarely ever will be, as you walk and as the floor expands, the floor will move around, exposing some of those jointed areas. You may not be able to see it with your naked eye, but I guarantee if you spill a bottle of water on that floor, water will get underneath. Laminate might sound like the cheaper option in the meantime, but in the long run you will pay more to replace it. However, we still recommend laminate over carpet, especially if you have allergies and don’t like dust accumulation.

LVP

Like our friend Laminate, LVP comes in many lengths, widths, sizes, and purposes. You can find LVP that will range from about a 1$ per square foot to 6$-7$ on the high end. A good LVP floor with will be between $3-$4.50 a square foot. Anything more expensive than that, and you should be looking into hardwood. Out of all the floors LVP is going to be the one we recommend the most. For the price of floor and installation, it will give you solid durability, better surface protection, and better waterproofing ability. In addition to this, LVP can handle some subfloor imperfections, as it is a much more flexible floor than say laminate or hardwood. Often times LVP will come with their own padding, and will eliminate the need for you to purchase extra underlayment. The only type of underlayment we do recommend is a vapor barrier if installing directly on concrete slab. This will ensure their is no mold growth underneath your floor, and will ensure your floor lasts a long time. LVP can be used in laundry rooms and bathrooms. LVP is a vinyl based material and is much more durable when it comes to water. Even if a small amount of water were to penetrate somewhere, this type of floor does not have a wood core like laminate. There are many styles of LVP, much that mimic real like wood styles, and some that are way out there, and meant to be unique. You will find that most LVP floors that range between the 3-4$ mark, are very hard to cut with a standard utility knife, and are hard to scratch period. This makes them great for homes with small kids, and or pets. Most LVP floors will still require a 1/4 expansion gap even though they are not made from wood. LVP is a great choice of flooring, and is one we often recommend to our customers.

Hardwood Flooring

If this is your forever home, or a home you plan to live at for a long period of time, hardwood is your best choice. Hardwood flooring is made out of real wood, with a tongue and grove style of install. If you have a concrete slab the floor will be glued down. If you have a wooden subfloor, hardwood will often times be glued down and nailed, or just nailed. Hardwood flooring most often comes in oak or red oak, but can come in more expensive and exotic types of wood such as bamboo, etc.. Hardwood flooring will be the most expensive flooring on this list, for both material and install. Often times you can expect to pay between $4-10$ for real hardwood flooring, and installation can range between $5-$15 a square foot. This does get really expensive, really quick. However, out of all the floors this is the most durable. Yes, hardwood can be scratched, chipped, and no you’re not supposed to spill water directly on it. However, hardwood can be sanded multiple times, re-stained, and top coat of polyurethane added for protection. You can change your style of floor without changing your actual floor. The polyurethane clear coat will protect against water, but I still don’t recommend this type of floor in rooms that often have water splashing; bathrooms, laundry rooms with large sinks, etc.. Yes, a lot of people put real hardwood in their kitchen, and while this is okay, you just don’t want to splash around too much water. A great alternative to this, is tiling your kitchen area, and doing hardwood up to the tiles. To put this in perspective, there are 100 year old houses with real hardwood still inside them, that looks brand new because it was re finished. You will not find laminate or LVP thats been in a house for 100 years. Mostly because it hasn’t been around that long, but also because those types of flooring are not meant to be as durable as real hardwood.

Tip of the Day: Never install laminate, LVP, or any other type of floating floor underneath kitchen cabinets, or other types of stationary cabinetry that has heavy counter tops. These floors are meant to expand, and move. If installed improperly they will buckle.