Wood and tile were some of the first kitchen and bath floors which gave way to easier to clean manmade vinyl floors. Linoleum which could be found on early 1900 floors became the generic term for all vinyl manmade floors thereafter. Years later, no wax vinyl floors came out and if you didn’t choose a premium grade, soon it was scratched and dull and needed wax! Eventually many knock off brands came out and vinyl looked and felt cheap and curled on the edges. Still yet, another attempt was made to solve the easy-to clean dilemma with laminate. Pergo brand laminate came and went and most of us found ourselves back to wood and tile. If you even mention vinyl today, people cringe and think of the old days of linoleum, so we’ve come full circle back to our roots with wood floors (or wood looking tile floors) but still hard to maintain cold tile floors. That’s a brief history of floor types which brings me to another new floor type that I love called Luxury Vinyl Plank, or LVP. (If in tile form, then Luxury Vinyl Tile, LVT)
LVP solves a bunch of flooring requirements. The floor, about 3/8” thick is floating, so it can go over top of many types of floors, it’s not glued down. It doesn’t require the underlayment and preparation that tile needs, although sometimes it does need a new underlayment depending on the situation. Some LVP products come backed with cork (decoupling the floor from the under-floor) and are made of PVC materials so it virtually becomes the room temperature thus eliminating a cold floor. It’s soft and has good impact absorption allowing comfort on joints making for more enjoyable use during long periods of standing. In the bath or in the kitchen it’s water proof, it can be soaked in water and is pet proof as well. Enhanced printing and embossing techniques on LVP produces a finish that looks and feels more real than ever. LVP comes in numerous colors and sizes and if a premium brand is selected the floor delivers very good value.
Last month we installed a large section of LVP in our showroom (show above in the picture) and we love the look and the updating it’s done for the space. Currently we are designing LVP and LVT into many of our bath and kitchen projects. We are excited to be able to offer a luxury vinyl floor design that is cost effective, looks great, is easy to clean and is warm on the feet.