Luxury vinyl flooring has become the most popular choice for homeowners. They claim to offer everything we need from flooring like durability, maintenance and water resistance.I fell for these claims and installed luxury vinyl planks in my home a year ago. It was one of the worst decisions I’ve made in my home remodeling experience.
The Rise of LVP
Luxury vinyl plank or LVP have become the most popular segment in the flooring industry, surpassing ceramic tile, hardwood, engineered wood, and laminate flooring. From 2012 to 2022, LVT demand rose by 28% per year, increasing its market share to $17 billion. So what is driving this craze for vinyl flooring? Is it just clever marketing tactics like throwing the word “luxury” in front of a cheap plastic product, or are there other reasons?
How it’s Made
- Main raw material: PVC (polyvinyl chloride) resin
- Forming: PVC mix is heated and rolled/pressed into a thin sheet
- Design layer: printed wood/stone look applied to the sheet
- Wear layer: clear polyurethane layer added for scratch/stain/fade protection
- Core layer: SPC (stone plastic composite): calcium carbonate + PVC + plasticizers OR WPC (wood plastic composite): PVC + wood flour
- Bottom/backing layer: cork, foam, or fiberglass to help smooth minor subfloor imperfections
Why I’ll never use it again
Even though it’s affordable, easy to clean, waterproof and DIY-friendly, I have experienced numerous issues during installation and usage, which is why I’ll never use it again. Just a few months in, the floor started buckling, developed hollow spots, and the weight of chairs caused the seams to split. The veneer bubbled on the short ends of the planks and the top PVC layer has begun peeling off.
I followed all the installation instructions including leaving a 1/4” expansion gap around the perimeter of each room. In my opinion, the vinyl has expanded and contracted more than laminate MDF flooring I’ve used in the past. There has been a significant movement in the flooring between summer and winter. I call BS on the supposed durability and ease of maintenance of LVP.
Conclusion
In my opinion, LVP is not going to last you a long time. This is essentially cheap, disposable, plastic flooring. The thin, flexible planks you see people installing on social media are only meant to last 3 years of light use. Thicker planks may last you around 5 years. At the end of their lives, this flooring is heading straight to the landfill. While pure vinyl can theoretically be melted down or turned into chips, these are hybrids. The underlayment would need to be stripped off and the Stone Plastic Composite would need to be separated from the top vinyl layer. I would not consider this to be eco-friendly.
