Luxury vinyl plank
Designer Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring
Some rooms make a hard case for solid wood: below grade, over radiant heat, or anywhere water arrives regularly. Designer luxury vinyl plank flooring answers those rooms, and it responds to layout and border work the same way a wood floor does.
Where it earns its place
Rooms that ask for it
Four conditions where a plank of solid wood is the harder choice and a good vinyl plank is the better one.
- Below grade
- Basements sit against soil and take on moisture through the slab year-round. LVP handles that condition, which lets a finished lower level match the tone of the floors above it.
- Over radiant heat
- Radiant systems cycle a floor through a temperature range daily. Most LVP is rated for it within a set surface temperature; the rating comes from the manufacturer, and we install to it.
- Rooms that see water
- Mudrooms, laundry, a bathroom that a family actually uses. Standing water in these rooms is routine rather than exceptional.
- Commercial floors with real traffic
- Hospitality and retail entries where a wood floor would be resanded on a schedule.
LVP vs hardwood
How the two compare, honestly
Hardwood can be sanded and refinished repeatedly, so a solid floor outlives several surfaces of anything else and takes on color as it ages. That is the case for wood, and where the room allows it we will say so.
LVP holds up to moisture and temperature swings that would move a wood floor, installs over slab, and reaches a walkable state faster because there is no sanding or finishing stage on site. High-end LVP flooring has also improved at the part that used to give it away: plank width, embossing that follows the printed grain, and repeat lengths long enough that the eye stops finding the same board.
The comparison usually settles itself once the room is named. A great room on a joisted floor points one way. A finished basement with a bathroom points the other. Most houses we work in use both.
Designed, not just laid
Layout work carried over from wood
A vinyl floor is usually installed by starting at a wall and running to the other side. The same floor can be laid out to a centerline, run to the direction of the light, and framed by a border of contrasting planks.
Herringbone and chevron layouts are available in plank formats, and a two-tone border at a threshold or around an island does the same job it does in oak. This is where a designer LVP floor separates from a builder-grade one, and it costs layout time rather than material.
The project
What an LVP project includes
- Product selection against the actual condition of the room, including moisture in the slab
- Subfloor assessment and flattening, since plank floors telegraph what is under them
- Layout drawn to a centerline, with the run set against the room's light and sightlines
- Border, herringbone and chevron layouts where the pattern earns its keep
- Transitions to wood, tile and stone at thresholds
Consultation
Match the floor to the room
Name the rooms and what happens in them, including anything below grade. We come back with product options that fit the conditions and a layout worth looking at.