When it comes to resilient vinyl planks, many people consider it a cheap flooring options that just feels too plasticky. This misconception can lead to incentives to choose laminate floorings over vinyl floorings. However, here is a few facts, luxury vinyl floorings does not have to look and feel cheap, and it can look just as good as laminate floorings or hardwood floorings. This articles summaries 7 product features that determines the quality of appearance in luxury vinyl planks. By closely checking with these features and specification, you can easily find an ideal LVP product that truly look authentic.
Product Features in Determining Luxury Vinyl Plank Appearance
- Deco Film Printing Quality and Manufacturing
- Pattern Design Coverage and Repetition
- Type of Surface Textures
- Glossiness of Surface and Light Reflections
- Thickness Specification
- Protection Wear Layer
- Acoustic Underlay (If applicable)
Deco Film Printing Quality and Manufacturing
Cheap looking luxury vinyl tiles generally has low quality over their printing deco films. This means the pattern design appearance can feel unclear and even pixelated. This type of issue (and even defects) are generated from buying of low quality of print films that are applied onto luxury vinyl planks. The manufacturing process for LVP can also have a stretch affect that if not controlled will cause the pattern design to go off and even fade in colors.
When consumers are buying for the cheapest LVP products in the market, the natural cost structure of manufacturing will inevitably affect the quality of deco films used in manufacturing. Therefore its worth time to exam at least a few boxes of vinyl planks to make sure the deco film pattern design has a consistent printing with higher definitions.
Pattern Design Coverage and Repetition
The unique beauty about real hardwood flooring is that you will never get two planks with the same exact pattern appearance. This made hardwood a beauty on its own due to the uniqueness in wood cut patterns. With man made floorings, whether its laminate floorings or vinyl floorings, pattern design repetition is not avoidable. Even with digital printing vinyl floorings, the length of pattern design is never endless. A cheaper version of laminate flooring or vinyl flooring will only provide 4 pattern design planks, while for the more premium collections, more printing cylinders are being developed to provide up to 16 pattern design planks or more. With increasing pattern design planks, less plank repetitions with higher flooring coverage is achieved.
Sreelance offers luxurious vinyl flooring collections with extra long 1.8 metre plank size that comes with A/B/C/D print designs. This means the collection can provide up tp 6.75sqm (72.65sqft) coverage with no repetition. A top design that very few manufacturers in China currently provide.
Type of Surface Texture
When it comes to surface textures, the surface embossing can make all the differences. The cheaper luxury vinyl planks will only use random deep emboss where the surface texture will not match the pattern grain. The premium luxury vinyl planks use Emboss In Register (EIR) design that make the surface texture identical to the pattern design of the deco film. Significantly improving the authenticity of the appearance both visually and texture.
Glossiness of Surface and Light Reflections
One of the main reasons why luxury vinyl planks might seen cheap and plasticky is due to the shininess and light reflections off the plank surface. The latest matt coating technology allows for glossiness level to go under 1.0 gloss level. This adaptation of surface coating technology can make vinyl flooring even more like hardwood floorings.
Thickness Specification
Materials input defines price and cost of making. The thickness of vinyl flooring also determines the quality and performance of the flooring. Generally with thicker vinyl tiles, the better the product is. Its worth noting that pattern designs might not have been invested by the brands or manufacturers, but thicker planks will give more stability and longer lasting lifespan.
Protection Wear Layer
While the thickness of vinyl planks provide more stability over expansion, contraction and wrapping, its the wear layer that protects the deco film from scratch and wear. Thicker wear layer can naturally handle more foot traffics and will have a longer lifespan in use.
The lower quality vinyl floorings will have a thin wear layer that does not provide enough long lasting lifespan. Some extreme cheap LVT tiles may even not have any wear layer at all and this can seriously diminish the durability of the vinyl plank surface.
For commercial grade, a 0.50mm, 0.55mm, or 0.70mm wear layer thickness is more ideal.
Acoustic Underlay
Pre Attached acoustic underlay can improve the acoustic performance of the luxury vinyl planks. Different materials such as IXPE, cork, or other performance underlay materials can be used to improve the overall quality of the flooring. Most of the acoustic underlay are applied on click LVT and click SPC floorings. However, the latest dry back LVT can also have an acoustic underlay attached.
With more entry priced vinyl flooring products, EVA underlayer are generally applied. However, for the more premium and luxury vinyl flooring collections, IXPE and Cork are also more popular. Branded underlayer may also have their own embossing with brand’s logo and slogan with IXPE or EVA underlayments.
New Product Launch
In short, luxury vinyl flooring planks does not have to look cheap and plasticky. If you choose the specifications right, luxury vinyl flooring can look authentic while remain highly affordable with inexpensive prices.
Here at Sreelance, we provide highly authentic EIR flooring collections with up to 4 pattern design cylinders. Our latest flooring collections offers robust grain patterns with slight medium color variations. This style brings a more natural variance to luxury vinyl flooring.
The SR2601 to SR2608 collection features EIR embossing with low glossiness level. With options for extra long planks up to 180cm, this collection is most suitable for flooring distributors that are exploring new designing collections for launch. Certified with industry qualified certifications, Sreelance provide high quality vinyl flooring collections for flooring importers around the world.