Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) is the fastest-growing type of flooring worldwide, but it is often confused with laminate or other types of hard flooring.
Today, I’m exploring what LVT is and how it’s made, as well as clarifying some common misconceptions about Luxury Vinyl Tiles, to help you understand whether LVT is a good fit for your next flooring project.
What is LVT?
Luxury Vinyl Tile is often mistaken for other hard flooring types such as laminate or Vinyl Composite Tile (VCT), despite its distinct construction and aesthetic differences. With a wide range of design choices, LVT can replicate the look of natural hard flooring, such as stone or wood, without the installation or maintenance costs associated with either.
LVT was originally known as “hot pressed tile,” which is a good indicator of how it is made. LVT consists of several layers that are fused together under heat and pressure:
- Protective clear layer known as the ‘wear layer,’ finished with a polyurethane coating that is sometimes reinforced with ceramic bead, silica bead, or aluminium oxide for advanced scratch and stain resistance
- Print film layer (featuring your chosen design)
- Vinyl core
- Vinyl backing
The wear layer and polyurethane coating of your LVT play a major role in determining the longevity of your flooring. Wear layers of 0.5mm and above are ideal for use in heavy-use commercial environments.
4 Common Misconceptions about Luxury Vinyl Tiles
Luxury Vinyl Tile was created more than forty years ago, and despite advancements in construction and print technologies, some misconceptions from the past still persist:
1) Risk of Walk-off
One of the most common concerns about printed tiles is the risk of walk-off: the idea that, over time, you’ll wear away the design. However, Luxury Vinyl Tiles have a transparent, durable top layer above the printed design film layer, which guards against scuffs and scratches, protecting the design, and often resulting in product wear guarantees of 10 to 15 years.
2) No Visual Texture
Forty years ago, when they were first introduced, the printed design on Luxury Vinyl Tiles appeared very flat, with little texture or depth. However, with advances in material technology, the surface wear layer is now embossed to give realistic texture, often combined with a matte finish, significantly improving the authentic appearance of these tiles.
3) It’s Another Name for Laminate
A more unusual misconception is that LVT is just another name for laminate flooring – possibly due to the visual similarities between laminate and wood-style LVT. However, laminate flooring is constructed very differently, with a core made from wood powder, whereas LVT’s core layer is made of vinyl.
This distinction means the two types of flooring react to moisture very differently: while vinyl isn’t affected, wood will warp and buckle if exposed to excessive moisture, such as during wet cleaning.
4) It’s Costly to Maintain
This misconception arises from confusion between LVT and VCT. Vinyl Composite Tile doesn’t have a clear protective overlay like Luxury Vinyl Tile, which means it requires a vital maintenance process involving waxing and polishing the tiles to ‘seal’ the surface and protect against wear and damage from heavy use. The wax and polish are then regularly stripped away before reapplication to remove any build-up.
In contrast, the wear layer and polyurethane coating on LVT provide excellent resistance to stains, scratches, and scuffs, eliminating the need for waxes, polishes, and harsh chemicals for cleaning and maintenance.
