Stepping on a new home or renovation is not an easy task, and getting the right flooring type is an important decision. While carpet can be replaced every few years, hardwood, tile, or laminate floors are likely to stay in place for ten years or more.

Hardwood floors, engineered wood, tile, and even stone all have their place, but they’re expensive and present challenges in terms of durability, cost, and warmth; so they are not practical for many families.

Laminate has been a popular flooring option for the past two decades, it’s generally inexpensive when life is considered, looks good, and can be installed by DIY experts.

Another type of flooring that most are familiar with from the two biggest brands Amtico and Karndean is Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT). Luxury vinyl tile was traditionally a dry backed product, glued on high quality plywood or smoothed concrete underlayment. Today LVT is available on click, with a similar installation to most laminates, making it easy to install. Most flooring specialists would still recommend the glue product, as it is considered more robust and generally cheaper than its clicker counterpart.

Luxury vinyl tiles are generally more expensive than laminate flooring, but while the two best-known brands are on the more expensive end of the market, there are hundreds of other brands and manufacturers to choose from at all ends of the market. spectrum.

While laminate floors can be cold underfoot, luxury vinyl tiles are warmer, can provide excellent texture and are not limited to wood planks but can provide durable stone, marble and tile effects and more practical. For many, the most important characteristic of LVT flooring is that it is water resistant. While laminate is made up of layers of wood or particle board, LVT consists of layers of PVC with a high definition print. Because of this, it is structurally more stable and the ingress of water will not cause it to swell or warp, making it not only ideal for treating spills, but it can also be used in bathrooms and kitchens, which means a type of floor could be used throughout the house. . The technology in some of the most advanced luxury vinyl floor plans and tiles allows them to be rendered and textured to follow the natural grooves, waves and knots that would be found in real wood, stone or tile. Laminate boards, although thicker from top to bottom, generally have thinner wear layers, while LVT boards and tiles can carry not only domestic but commercial warranties of 5 to 20 years.

While laminate and LVT installation can be done by a competent DIYer, laminate is a bit more forgiving. Luxury vinyl requires an underlayment that is smooth and flat, small bumps or imperfections that would be hidden by the laminate, if large enough, will show up on a luxury vinyl floor, causing the underlayment preparation and associated cost are higher.

In short, both laminate and LVT have advantages over hardwood, tile, and stone floors, as well as each other.

Laminate is:

• Generally cheaper than other types of flooring.

• Relatively easy and inexpensive to install

• Stain resistant

• Relatively tough

• Easy to clean (although care must be taken to get it too wet)

However, it suffers from some drawbacks:

• It can be cold underfoot

• Doesn’t handle water or humidity well

• It is limited to the wood effect.

• Has a lower wear layer

Luxury vinyl tile is:

• Hot underfoot

• Provides an excellent and realistic texture.

• Offers stone, tile and wood effects.

• It can be customized to create borders and designs such as herringbone, basket weave, chevron, and more.

• Thicker wear layer that makes it more durable.

• Easy to clean

• Waterproof

But it does have a few drawbacks, including:

• More complicated or expensive installation costs

• Generally more expensive than laminate (although cheaper ranges are available)

• It doesn’t deal as well with flame exposure.