vinyl flooring - What exactly are LVP and LVT? - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
Vinyl plank or porcelain tile?
Vinyl flooring over kitchen tile. Good idea or bad? Should I use floating or peel and stick?
I am not an expert by any means but I would say that installing anything over ceramic tile is going to not be a good thing. Vinyl flooring is going to be pretty awful in general--slapping it on over ceramic tile is going to be really bad. Pulling up ceramic tile is not that big a deal--all you need is a crowbar and a dumpster.
I know that it's easier and cheaper to put in vinyl but why would you take out ceramic tile and put in vinyl when you could just keep the ceramic in until you've saved up the money to put in new, prettier ceramic tile? Unless you're about to sell (and even then I'd probably not) or the floor needs repairs, there's no rush on getting it done--so do it right. Laying ceramic is tedious but not difficult. If you get the little divider things, you'd have to be lazy or trying really hard to screw it up.
Don't do it. Just don't.
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LVP and LVT are Luxury Vinyl Plank, and Tile, respectively. They differ from standard vinyl flooring in that they're unit installations. Standard vinyl sheet has a repeating pattern. For LVP and LVT, each unit is usually printed with a "picture" to basically mimic a tile or wood (usually) plank, and any patterning is produced by laying out the units.
Traditional laminate flooring products and LVP/T are very similar. The base materials are slightly different though—regular laminate has a high-density fiberboard (HDF) core, whereas LV products are generally built on a polymerized core. Both have finish layers with a protective wear layer, so one could probably call them all laminated products. But since LV products are newer, they're likely called something else to differentiate them from traditional laminate flooring.
LVP/T is typically preferred over traditional laminate in areas that are subject to moisture and wetness, which tends to warp an HDF core. They can also be used where traditional tile may be too cold—vinyl tends to feel warmer (thermal conductivity difference).
I found a nice article about vinyl flooring. I'd recommend reading the original, but I'll hit the highlights in case of link rot.
There are three types of vinyl flooring:
- Vinyl composite tile: these are the glue down tiles.
- Vinyl sheet: this comes in rolls like linoleum.
- Luxury Vinyl Flooring (LVF): this is thicker, more durable, and more expensive; it comes in tile and plank options.
Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP) comes shaped similarly to hardwood boards (or planks). A 4"x48" plank would be an example size. For our non-US friends, that's about 10cm by 120cm.
Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) comes shaped similarly to ceramic tile, square or near square (e.g. twice as long as it is wide would still be near square for this purpose).
LVF is luxury to differentiate it from the glue down tiles and rolls, which are thinner, cheaper, and less durable. It is the luxury end of vinyl flooring. LVF is still generally considered less luxurious than real hardwood or ceramic tile. Some people prefer it anyway, as it's more water resistant than hardwood and more giving than ceramic. LVF has some similarities to laminate flooring, although LVF is vinyl and polymer based rather than wood based.
LVF tends to come in colors that mimic those of wood or stone floors. Its rigidity may vary between products, but generally falls between vinyl sheet and ceramic tile. Even though more expensive, LVF may be more cost effective than other types of vinyl flooring because LVF is more durable.