Looking for a Great Flooring Option?

Cheyanne Blue, RLPS Interior Designer

Are you trying to figure out what flooring to put in your home (whether a new build or remodeling)? Here is one idea: Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP). (It’s also known as Luxury Vinyl Flooring or LVF.) The folks over at The Spruce website explain it like this: It’s a multi-ply product that features four layers:

• A topmost layer of aluminum oxide, designed to prevent light scratching and scuffs.
• A clear film layer that protects against more severe ripping and tearing.
• A design layer that provides the photo-realistic look of wood or stone.
• A backing layer made of fairly rigid vinyl, comprising almost 90 percent of the total thickness of luxury vinyl.

Luxury vinyl is therefore almost five times thicker than traditional sheet vinyl, allowing it to be semi-rigid. It also tends to have deeper embossing and better graphics, rendering it a closer simulation of wood and stone than previous iterations of sheet vinyl flooring or plastic laminate flooring.

Rarely does it cost as much as genuine wood flooring and it is one of the easier flooring materials to install yourself—comparable to plastic laminate flooring planks. While the cost is about the same as for laminate planks, vinyl planks are arguably a superior flooring material.

Another benefit is that LVP is one of the easier floors to maintain: simple sweeping daily, and weekly damp mopping with a mild detergent and mop, or with cleaning pads. (These floors should never be steam-cleaned, however. It can potentially drive moisture down through the seams to the wooden subfloor.) And, LVP is waterproof! So this is an excellent choice if you’d like your home to have a more consistent flooring room to room for a seamless look. This means you can use it in kitchens and bathrooms! And it has a life expectancy of around 20 years.

[Source: The Spruce.com]

In our showroom, we offer the Vita Bella Collection by smart:wood, and SolidTech by Mohawk. They are eco-friendly, designed specifically for Arizona, free of formaldehyde, SCS Certified, and include padding. Both brands come in many different colors/patterns. If you’re interested in learning more, stop in for a visit. Maybe LVP is right for your home!