Vinyl is a highly appreciated flooring material, valued in homes, offices, shops, hospitals or creches, just to name a few, because of its resistance to heavy traffic, big variety of colours and because is easy to be cleaned. Vinyl flooring it comes mainly in a two different types, in order to suit, different flooring projects with different needs. Firstly we have vinyl roll, also called vinyl sheet, the classic vinyl that we seen in our kitchens or bathrooms, secondly we have LVT – Luxury Vinyl Tiles, the most prized vinyl floor nowadays,
Vinyl tiles are available in a multitude of colours and designs, the tiles are available in custom cuts and they can be laid to form an eye catching pattern or to form a business name or logo,
Vinyl floors are very resilient, reduce noise and provide comfort to feet. They stand the test of time, being durable can take heavy traffic without to loose colour or getting damaged, spills are easy to clean, high resistance to stains and moisture. Some vinyl rolls and tiles are specially made to be slip resintant for areas where slipping and falling hazards can occur. This anti slip vinyl floors are perfect for bathrooms, commercial kitchens, hospitals or other commercial and industrial institutions,
In healthcare settings, vinyl flooring is used a lot, as is not letting liquids to pass through and offers a sanitary advantage. This institutions are using vinyl rolls, and most of those rolls can be sealed or welded at seams, not letting bacteria to hide and grow at the seams or between sheets.
Vinyl sheet floors are a viable alternative to expensive wood floors for sport facilities, like sport complexes, basketball courts, handball courts or exercise rooms.
These flooring can be fitted on wood, concrete or on existing flooring with the condition that the subfloor is clean, leveled and smooth.
LVT or Vinyl Roll/Sheet?
The big question is which works better? Let’s compare the two and then will be easy to make a more informed decision,
Both LVT and vinyl roll are made from vinyl, off course. But if you look deeper you’ll see that luxury vinyl tiles are thicker, than your usual vinyl sheet, although some premium vinyl sheet brands like Marmoleum tend to be thicker as well. LVT have more luxurious and realistic wood plank or ceramic tile look, which make it a better candidate for office spaces,
Which is more durable? One of the reasons that led to creation of LVT, was to provide a higher durability to wear and tear. Thin vinyl roll, ave vulnerable to scratches, burns or dents, and ussualy have a lifetime up to 15 years, depending on the conditions odf usage and maintenance. For LVT, the producers are advising a lifetime of 20 plus years,
Price? Here Luxury Vinyl Tiles will be more expensive than your normal vinyl roll flooring. This is one of the points that is making vinyl roll the favourite for budget flooring options, home bathrooms or kitchens, that dont take a lot of foot fall,
Better looks? LVT wins this round, as it have a better design and replication of actual wood or tiles,
Resistance to humidity, vinyl rolls dont really have seams, when installed in small rooms, and if installed in big rooms the seams can be located at a maximum of 20 metres long and 2 metres wide. Usually the seams are welded together with welding coil. So vinyl rolls are a ideal candidate to resist moisture. LVT on the other hand, are coming in small tiles or planks, that are not welded at seams, they are just placed one by each other,
Easy to install? Vinyl roll need to have glue spreaded to a bigger surface, and usualy takes two people to lay the vinyl down. Then this will need to be cut around the room and furniture with straght and hook shaped cutter. This takes time, and a bad cut is enough to ruin the installation and to need to replace the vinyl roll. This makes vinyl roll harder to install. Luxury vinyl tiles, an be installed only by one person, the amount of glue spread can be as little as one tile, and one bad cut will ruin only one tile, not the entire sheet,
