Vinyl flooring is fast becoming one of the most popular types of flooring on the market.
You may wonder what makes this flooring option such a star in our homes. After all, wouldn’t stone or tile floors be much more lovely? To find out what all the craze is about, let’s look at what vinyl flooring is and learn about the top 8 benefits of this fantastic material. By the time you get done reading this article, you’re going to be excited about going to pick out your new vinyl floor!
What Is Vinyl Flooring?
When you hear the words vinyl flooring, visions of your grandmother’s old yellowed linoleum kitchen floor may be appearing in your brain. But stop right there. Modern vinyl flooring is a far cry from its predecessor.
Luxury vinyl flooring manufacturers even use an innovative photography process called photogravure to imprint designs and patterns onto the vinyl. They can use this technique to replicate other, more expensive types of flooring as we’ll learn more about in a minute.
Vinyl flooring is made up of 5 layers, just like the old-fashioned type. However, the new flooring features thicker layers that make the flooring stronger and more durable than before.
1. Easy on the Budget
Perhaps one of the largest draws to vinyl flooring is the price. Vinyl flooring is an extremely affordable flooring option.
However, even with such a low price tag in comparison to other types of flooring, vinyl flooring is far from a low-quality flooring option. As we get into the other benefits of vinyl flooring you’ll see that vinyl flooring is one of the best flooring options to give you plenty of bang for your buck.
2. Aesthetics
Your floor is a huge part of your home. You see it in every room and even though you might try to distract the eye with interesting wall pieces, the floor is still obvious. For that reason, you’re going to want beautiful flooring to complete the look you’re going for in your home.
You might be thinking that because vinyl flooring is such an inexpensive option, it must be an ugly option. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, vinyl flooring is deceptively beautiful.
Vinyl flooring comes in a wide range of colors, patterns, and styles so you’ll be able to find the perfect shade to complement your decor. Some vinyl flooring is manufactured to look like sleek ceramic tile.
What’s more, various textures can be applied to create an even wider range of looks. In fact, luxury vinyl flooring can be crafted to look just like wood or stone. Manufacturers have this process down so well that you have to look really close to be able to tell that it isn’t real wood or stone.
3. Water Resistant flooring
If you have kids and pets or live in a humid area, you know that at some point your floor is going to get wet. Condensation will gather in the bathrooms, kids will spill juice and water on the floor, and your pets may have the occasional accident in the house.
For all of these reasons, a water-resistant floor comes in very handy.
Any liquids spilled on a vinyl floor will stay on the surface. That means they’ll be easy to wipe up whenever you see them.
It’s still obviously better to clean up spills as they happen. But vinyl flooring is far more forgiving than carpet or other more porous types of flooring. Sometimes messes happen when you’re not home to clean them up immediately so this is a very handy feature.
In addition to being extremely resistant to water, vinyl flooring doesn’t accept mildew or stains very easily. So when you spring a small leak behind the toilet that you don’t notice for a while, you won’t be dealing with a discolored floor afterward.
4. Versatility
Vinyl flooring is extremely versatile. You can use it in virtually every room in your home.
Traditionally, many flooring manufacturers recommended against using wood flooring in humid areas of the home. This would include the bathrooms and the kitchen. However, with vinyl flooring made to look like wood, you can get the best of both worlds. You’ll get a virtually waterproof material that can stand up to the rigors of being used in a bathroom and possibly getting wet. Plus, the handsome wood look will give your bathroom that luxury feel you were hoping for.
5. Easy to Install
Another fantastic benefit to vinyl flooring is the ease of installation. It is one of the most forgiving types of flooring when it comes to installing over an old floor. Vinyl flooring has enough give to it that it works well to cover even floors that have cracks or movement.
In most cases, you won’t even have to pull up the old floor first. You can simply install the new vinyl flooring right over the top. If your home is a new construction, you can install the flooring directly over the subfloor.
If you’re into DIYing, vinyl flooring is a great type to choose because of its ease of installation. An added benefit to doing it yourself is that it brings down the already low cost of replacement vinyl flooring even more when you don’t have to pay for the installation.
Of course, in some situations, professional installation is a better option. Maybe you don’t have the time or the know-how for DIY installation, and that’s okay!
There are various installation methods depending on the particular type of floor that you choose. Some you can glue down directly to the existing floor or subfloor. Others don’t require any messy glue at all and rely on a simple click-and-lock system to stay in place.
What’s another great benefit to this type of easy installation? If you ever damage a section of the floor, you can easily replace just that portion of the floor.
6. Comfortable
Vinyl flooring is also very comfortable underfoot. It is softer and has more give to it than a stone or tile floor. It still won’t be as soft as a carpet, but it’s a nice compromise between hard floor styles and carpet.
Plus, remember that you can get beautiful luxury vinyl floors made to look just like stone or wood. So if you love the look of hardwood floors, but would like to be barefoot without the foot pain, here’s your compromise!
Additionally, vinyl flooring has just enough give to it that if you drop a glass, it’s possible that it won’t break. That’s not something you can really expect from wood, stone, or ceramic tile.
7. Easy Maintenance
As you may have guessed, vinyl flooring is extremely easy to take care of. The floor itself requires virtually no maintenance yet stays in tiptop shape for years.
Cleaning is a snap, which is a favorite for anyone who hates scrubbing floors (which is everyone, of course). All you have to do is sweep and mop regularly to keep up with household dirt and debris.
As we mentioned, spills are easy to wipe away. Plus, the likelihood of them leaving behind a stain is very low, even if you don’t catch the spill right away.
8. Durability
You’d think with all these great benefits there must be a catch somewhere right? It must be that vinyl flooring doesn’t last very long.
If you drop a knife straight down into the floor, you could scratch or even puncture it. But remember how we said that it’s really easy to replace a small section? If you do damage a section you can simply pop up the damaged tiles and swap them out. However, in general, vinyl flooring is very durable. Dropping a heavy object on ceramic tile can cause it to crack or break. But the gentle give of vinyl flooring allows it to absorb the impact without breaking in many cases.
The flooring can easily withstand high-traffic areas like kitchens, foyers, and bathrooms for years on end. In fact, most manufacturers are so confident in their product that they back it with a 15-year warranty, sometimes longer.
All-in-all you can generally expect a vinyl floor to last around 20 years.
Ready to Pick Out Your New Floor?
Well, what do you think? We promised that by the time you got done reading this article you would be ready to pick out your new vinyl flooring. Have you been inspired?
At the very least, you can see why vinyl flooring has become such an immensely popular flooring type. The long list of benefits that you get for the price point is hard to beat.
Do you have any more questions? Or are you ready to start picking out the perfect floor? Regardless, feel free to contact us. We will happily answer all your questions about vinyl flooring to help you decide if it’s right for your home.
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