Vinyl Vs Laminate Flooring

Questions I get asked time and time again, when working on various home renovation projects, are do I go for laminate or vinyl flooring? What’s the difference between the two? Am I getting my value?

I’m going to laying out the facts once and for all about the benefits to each flooring type and which would be better suited to your project.

Let’s dive in!

Laminate flooring

Straight off the bat, let me say that laminate flooring varies in quality.

Cheap laminated flooring is not the best, as the joints are weak and a slight amount of movement or moisture can cause peaked and parting joints.

So if you’re going to get a laminate floor, go for a good manufacturer such as Quick-Step.

It’s also worth noting that laminate floors are fitted floating; although there are a variety of underlays, floating floors can still be quite noisy.
So when it’s being fitted, it’s really important to leave expansion gaps; this means either removing skirtings and replacing, or fitting beading to cover the in gaps.

It’s my opinion that a bonded floor is much nicer; however, sometimes a laminate floor can be a cheaper solution if there is subfloor issues.

Vinyl

More recently, Luxury Vinyl Tiles (LVT) have dominated the market.

This is because they can be fitted with a click system, like a laminate, but as they’re made of plastic they are completely water proof and a good solution for damp floors.

Most LVT’s are fitted fully bonded; they can be placed in just about any pattern. They can even do borders and other bespoke designs and create a real wow factor!

As they are bonded, there is no need for expansion gaps - so no need for ugly beading.

The only real drawback to LVT’s is they need to go on a near perfect sub floor.
We have a solution to prepare any subfloor even damp concrete or old floorboards.

Like in any job “the finish is only as good as the prep”.

So there you have it!