What’s the difference between laminate, luxury vinyl and vinyl composite core floors?

Laminate, luxury vinyl and vinyl composite core are all categories of manufactured flooring.

Laminates are a hard surface flooring manufactured from several layers of material fused together with heat and pressure to form rigid, fixed size boards. The primary material used is medium or high density fiberboard (MDF or HDF) which forms the core.

Luxury vinyl is a also a hard surface flooring material but has the added benefit of being “softer underfoot”. Luxury vinyl is used in homes but most often in commercial environments where products need to stand up to heavy use conditions like high foot traffic or rolling loads. The surface of the product is protected by a high performance wear layer and durable UV-cured coating. High quality products like Evoke are made from real vinyl; some inferior brands may use composite or filler material. Luxury vinyl products are also made in fixed size tiles or boards, but they are flexible and come in a variety of installation options.

Vinyl Composite Core, or VCC for short, is a new comer to the manufactured flooring world. VCC combines the very best features of both laminate and luxury vinyl. The boards are rigid planks with a click together joint system like laminate, but they’re constructed from a waterproof vinyl composite material, which gives them the ‘install it anywhere’ flexibility of vinyl flooring.

A common feature of nearly all laminate, luxury vinyl and vinyl composite core floors is that they have the appearance of being made from wood, stone or other natural material.

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