12 Different Types of Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring

Luxury vinyl plank flooring covers a wide range and different types of flooring products. These different type of flooring products makes up the diverse flooring collections and options for flooring brands. Understanding the difference and definition in these luxury vinyl plank flooring allows consumers to better choose the ideal flooring products for their renovation needs.

Dry Back Luxury Vinyl Tiles

Dry Back Luxury vinyl tile is also known as the glue down flexible LVT flooring. It generally has an overall thickness between 2.0mm up to 3.0mm. As a basic and one of the most inexpensive resilient flooring product, dry back LVT is highly popular for both residential and commercial flooring applications. This vinyl plank is largely used for multi-family homes, rental properties, and light commercial projects.

Peel and Stick Luxury Vinyl Tiles

Peel and Stick Luxury Vinyl tiles are perhaps one of the most DIY friendly flooring product there is in the whole flooring and decorative flooring industry. However, there are now too many cheap knockoffs which contributes to major quality issues in durability, stability and printing consistency of this type of luxury vinyl plank.

Though, with its super convenience for self-adhesion and easy to cut into required shapes, it has become the top sell products in ecommerce, such as on Amazon. The price for peel and stick luxury vinyl plank are also very competitive and affordable. They generally comes with 1.2mm thickness, which allow it to be cut and shaped easily with just a scissors.

Loose Lay Luxury Vinyl Planks

Loose lay luxury vinyl plank is actually an upgraded product to dryback LVP. With increasing thickness and an anti-slip underlayer film underneath, the loose lay LVP can be installed without applying glue. This made it super easy to install as a floating floor. The increase in thickness and an additional anti-slip underlayer would raise the price significantly, however, it is still well liked by many project builders as they are very time saving. This is also one of the first glue free resilient flooring that does not require to pay a premium for locking systems.

This innovative flooring combines the design flexibility of gluedown LVT with the quick and easy installation of a floating floor. Create stunning custom designs without the hassle of adhesives.

Karndean Design Flooring

Click n Lock Luxury Vinyl Plank

This is one of the most well liked product across all resilient flooring categories. With the click n lock technology, for the first time luxury vinyl planks can be installed in the same way has click engineering woods and laminate floorings. The clicking system provide super easy to install and has enhanced the waterproof performance by preventing water to penetrate between two tiles.

Rigid Core SPC Plank Flooring

The very first rigid core SPC flooring was invented around 2012 but did not receive any market popularity until later 2017. The rapid surge in SPC vinyl plank flooring popularity has resulted in large number of Chinese laminate flooring manufacturing investing in SPC extrusion production lines (As part of risk diversification against the toxic laminate flooring incident in 2015).

Rigid Core SPC Flooring is considered an improved LVT with more robust and dimensional stabilized performance. The price of SPC is slightly cheaper than LVT with the same specification.

Light SPC Flooring

LSPC, Light SPC Flooring, is a new form of rigid core SPC with 20% less in density weights. The manufacturing technology in light SPC planks requires a precision control of foaming process in SPC extrusion. As it has a 20% foaming, the acoustic performance in LSPC is similar to WPC flooring. The resilient flooring manufacturers considers the LSPC as the next generation WPC vinyl plank floorings.

Hybrid Structure Vinyl Plank Flooring

Hybrid Structure Vinyl Plank Flooring by definition is a combination of two different types of vinyl flooring together. In the manufacturing industry, it is frequently referred as the AB structure or ABA structure vinyl plank flooring. AB structure means there is one layer of LVT on top of a layer of SPC. ABA structure means there is a sandwich structure where there is one layer of LVT on both side of SPC core.

AB Structure Hybrid Vinyl Flooring: LVT sheet + SPC rigid core  (AB Two layers)

ABA Structure Hybrid Vinyl Flooring: LVT sheet + SPC rigid core + LVT sheet (ABA Three layers)

WPC Flooring

The original WPC flooring referred to the Wood Plastic Composition that was largely used for outdoor decking and the make up composition actually do have wood fibers in combination to plastics. However, when it is referred to the resilient WPC flooring, there is actually no wood fiber at all in it. The reason why it is call WPC is simply because the resilient WPC planks has a wood like acoustic performance due to its highly hollowed core from foaming. Though, due to the high ratio of foaming in its WPC core, the WPC core plank are very vulnerable to denture and even breakage. Therefore most of the on market resilient WPC flooring come with a AB structure with one layer of LVT on top, and a layer of WPC as core. The WPC flooring are generally more than 8.0mm thickness to improve its structural strength performance.

Non-Vinyl Luxury Polypropylene Flooring

Non-vinyl Luxury polypropylene flooring is completely made from non-PVC materials. As a PVC-free resilient flooring, Luxury Polypropylene flooring has the benefit of being truly toxic free and more environmental sustainable. Polypropylene plastics are also one of the least energy consumed polymer that can reduce carbon footprint as it replaces PVC applications. In addition, with improved heat resistance capability in Polypropylene (PP) polymers, the luxury polypropylene flooring has significant enhancement in dimensional stability. Making it a acclimation free before installation. Both PP-LVT and PP-SPC are flooring products under the polypropylene flooring category.

Non-Vinyl Luxury PET Flooring

Non-Vinyl Luxury PET Flooring are made from Polyethylene terephthalate plastics, a very common polymer resin that is often used in packaging for food and beverages, and also for clothing fibers. Many carpet flooring are also made from PET polymers so it is one of the most popular plastics that has been around for ages. Luxury PET Flooring provide a PVC free option that effective replace PVC with toxic free PET polymer.

Loose Lay Grip LVT Flooring

When it comes of Loose lay grip LVT flooring, the most famous product in this line is the Seta-Grip LVT collections by Nox, a resilient flooring manufacturer in South Korea. The Seta-Grip LVT was firstly launched back in 2018, and has won the Silver Nightingale Award in 2022. It is a revolutionary invention as it allows 2.0mm thick LVT to be loose lay installed instead of having to apply glues. Significantly have installation time as well as materials. This technology was also applied in the Allure QuikGrip collection by HMTX.

Magnetic LVT Flooring

Magnetic LVT is another glue free resilient flooring that can be easily installed and removed. Using magnetic technology, the magnetic flooring are able to grip the flooring substrate firmly. However, as the magnetic composition are more expensive in price, it is less popular for residentials. The application for magnetic LVT is more common in commercial use where the flooring and spatial space needs to be renovated frequently. We see a huge market niche in magnetic LVT flooring for studies, retailer spaces, theater, and other conditions where frequent chance in interiors are needed.