Every vinyl plank on a sample rack looks about the same: a picture of wood under a clear coat. The prices are not the same, and the reasons are printed on the back of the sample in a block of numbers most people never read. How to read a carpet sample deals with that problem for carpet. This is the version for luxury vinyl plank: what each number means, which ones decide how the floor looks in year ten, and which are only there to sell the box.
The wear layer, in mils
On top of the printed wood picture is a clear layer of vinyl. It is the only part of the plank that shoes, claws and chair legs ever touch, and when it is worn through the picture goes with it. A vinyl plank cannot be sanded and refinished, so the wear layer is the life of the floor.
It is measured in mils, which are thousandths of an inch, not millimeters. A 20 mil wear layer is about half a millimeter thick. The common grades:
- 6 to 8 mil. Entry level. Acceptable in a closet or a guest room that is rarely used. Not what we would put anywhere that is walked on every day.
- 12 mil. The ordinary residential grade. Fine in bedrooms, and in the living areas of a quiet household.
- 20 mil. What we steer people toward for kitchens, entries and hallways, for any house with dogs, and for rentals. It is also roughly where light commercial ratings begin.
- 28 mil and up. Commercial grades. Rarely needed in a house.
Stepping up a grade adds less to a job than people expect, because the removal, the prep, the trim and the labor cost the same whichever plank goes down. It is the number to ask about first.
The finish on top of the wear layer
Wear layer thickness tells you how long the floor takes to wear through. It does not tell you how easily it scratches. That comes from the coating on top of the wear layer, a urethane finish that better products reinforce with ceramic or aluminum oxide. Two planks with the same 20 mil layer can mark very differently.
There is no number on the spec sheet that settles this, so test it. Take the loose sample and drag a key across it, hard. We would much rather you did that to a sample than find out from a dining chair. Surface matters too: a matte, embossed plank hides the fine scratches every floor picks up, and a smooth, glossy one shows all of them. The best flooring for dogs and kids has more on that.
The core: SPC, WPC or flexible
Under the picture is the core, and it decides how the plank feels and what it tolerates.
SPC, or stone-plastic composite, is limestone powder bound with PVC. It is dense, thin and very rigid. It resists dents from furniture legs and appliances better than anything else in the category, and it moves least with changes in temperature. It feels firm underfoot and is slightly louder to walk on. For most houses here it is the default, and it is what we would put over a concrete slab or an old wood subfloor that is not perfect.
WPC has a foamed core. It is thicker, lighter, quieter and a little warmer and softer to stand on, which makes it pleasant in a bedroom or on an upper floor. The trade is dent resistance: a heavy point load such as a piano, a loaded bookcase or the feet of a refrigerator can leave a mark that stays.
Flexible vinyl, also sold as glue-down or dryback, is a thin plank with no rigid core, glued directly to the floor. It adds almost no height and a damaged plank is easy to replace, which is why it turns up in commercial work. It also follows every flaw in the floor beneath it, so it needs a near-perfect base and a dry one.
Total thickness
The other number on the box is total thickness in millimeters, usually somewhere between 4 and 8 for a rigid-core plank. It is the number most often used to sell a floor, and it has the least to do with how long the floor lasts.
What more thickness does buy is a stronger locking joint, because there is more material in the profile that clicks together; a little more ability to bridge minor imperfections; and a more solid feel. What it costs is floor height, which shows up at door bottoms, at transitions to other rooms and in front of the dishwasher. Check whether the figure includes the attached pad, because some boxes quote it that way and some do not.
A 5 mm plank with a 20 mil wear layer will outlast an 8 mm plank with a 6 mil wear layer in every room of the house.
The attached pad
Most rigid-core planks come with a thin pad bonded to the back, either foam or cork. It quiets the floor, takes the hard edge off a slab and forgives very small irregularities in the base.
The rule that goes with it: do not add a second cushioned underlayment beneath a plank that already has one. Too much give under a click joint lets it flex with every step, and a joint that flexes eventually breaks. Most manufacturers rule it out in their installation instructions. A plastic moisture film over concrete is a different thing, and some planks require one.
The picture itself
This part is not on the spec sheet, and it is what you will look at every day.
- Pattern repeat. A product line has a limited number of distinct plank images. Cheap lines have few, so the same knot turns up again and again across a room. Lay out six or eight planks from a box and count the duplicates.
- Embossing. On better planks the surface texture follows the printed grain, which is called embossed in register. It reads as wood from standing height and it hides wear.
- Bevel. A small beveled edge defines each plank and hides tiny height differences between neighbors. A square edge shows every one of them.
- Plank size. Wide, long planks suit a large room, and they demand a flatter floor, because a long plank cannot follow a dip the way a short one can. The subfloor decides the job explains why that matters.
Heat, sun and the warranty
Vinyl expands when it gets hot. In front of a south-facing patio door, in a sunroom, or in a house shut up without air conditioning through a Missouri summer, a floating floor can get warmer than its maker allows for. SPC handles heat best, the expansion gap at the walls matters most in those rooms, and the temperature limits are in the installation instructions for anyone who looks.
Those same instructions are the real spec sheet. A lifetime residential warranty generally covers wearing through the wear layer and manufacturing defects. It generally does not cover scratches, dents, fading or moisture from below, and it depends on the floor having been installed the way the instructions say: flat enough, dry enough, with the gap left at the walls. That is a large part of why we check flatness and moisture before we quote and not after.
What to buy for which room
- Kitchen, entry, hallway, or any house with dogs: SPC, 20 mil, matte and embossed, with a beveled edge.
- Living room: SPC or WPC, 12 to 20 mil depending on the household.
- Bedrooms, where you are not keeping carpet: 12 mil is enough, and WPC is comfortable. Carpet or vinyl plank, room by room covers whether to switch at all.
- Rental: 20 mil, a mid-tone color, from a line that will still be made in three years, plus a spare box. Flooring for rental properties has the reasoning.
- Basement or slab: SPC, with whatever moisture layer that plank calls for.
- Sunroom: SPC, after checking the temperature rating.
See it on your own floor
We bring the samples to your house, and we would rather explain the numbers on the back than sell you the cheapest box or the most expensive one. Stand on the sample instead of tapping it, look at it in your own light, and scratch it if you want to.
The estimate is free. Book one here or call 573-471-8700. We are on Virginia Street in Sikeston and cover Cape Girardeau, Dexter, New Madrid and the towns between.
