Most of the time, when homeowners think about the type of floor they’d like to have in their home, the typical choices are hardwood, carpet, or some kind of stone or tile. But there is one often forgotten choice that is both durable and beautiful. That is luxury vinyl.
So what is luxury vinyl, and how can it make a difference in your home?
The Vinyl Floor
Vinyl flooring is considered part of the “resilient floor” family. It’s a synthetic, flexible compound, and other substances typically used in resilient floors are rubber, plastic, PVC and linoleum. Because of the durability and flexibility of these floors, resilient floors have traditionally been seen as utilitarian in use. Gyms used rubber floors to withstand the wear and tear of heavy equipment, exercising people, and accidents with weights or other equipment.
Vinyl flooring is similar in this respect to the other members of the resilient family. It is incredibly durable, flexible, and very easy to clean and maintain. Once it’s been installed by a professional flooring contractor, only the most extreme incidents and conditions will visibly damage it.
So What is Luxury Vinyl?
The big difference between a regular vinyl floor and a luxury vinyl floor is the quality of work that has been put into the appearance and texture of the luxury vinyl. It is not just higher quality in physical material, but aesthetics as well.
Luxury vinyl flooring can be very difficult to distinguish from the floor materials it resembles. Luxury vinyl flooring is typically built to resemble either stone or wood, and can even come in planks to lend more authenticity to the look. Standard vinyl usually has no resemblance to natural materials at all, being just smooth and flat with coloring. Standard vinyl flooring is also usually laid out as a sheet.
However, the higher price point for luxury vinyl means that you get a walking surface that doesn’t look like vinyl, but has all the benefits of vinyl. It is easy to maintain, durable, and dramatically reduces the chances of accidents through slips. This alone is a significant reason vinyl is such a popular choice in working or retail environments.
You can enjoy the warm, inviting look of a walking surface that resembles your material of choice, whether teak wood which would normally be very expensive, or tile which would be difficult and costly to install. Luxury vinyl flooring gives you the best of both worlds: a premium floor surface which is less expensive than its real-world counterpart that also provides all the durability and flexibility of an industrial grade surface.
If you’re looking for a unique, resilient, cost effective floor solution for your home that looks great but is low maintenance, consider a luxury vinyl floor.
If you’d like to know more about luxury vinyl flooring, please get in touch with us today and see how we can make the floor you stand on stand out.