With quality manufacturers committing to producing only the finest, environmentally responsible products, consumers have more selection than ever and can confidently rely on their flooring for years.

Upon visiting a flooring store, you’ll find many samples of vinyl products, all in a vast array of colours, patterns, and widths. Today’s innovations have evolved past linoleum flooring into beautiful replications of hardwood and tile.

What Types of Vinyl Flooring are Available?

Let’s take a look at the different types of vinyl flooring:

1. Vinyl Sheet Flooring - or linoleum- comes in rolls and is cut to fit the space, much like carpet
2. Luxury Vinyl Tiles (LVT) - typically come in 12” x 24” pieces imitating tile patterns.
3. Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP) - comes in loose-lay, click, and glue-down options. Individual vinyl pieces are roughly 6” x 48”, similar to hardwood or laminate planks.

Which product you select will depend on a few factors, such as whether the existing flooring is to be removed, how square the construction of the house is, and how much the house tends to shift.

For instance, should the house shift a lot or have uneven floors, click LVP may become too tight or need a level surface to maintain the connection. It can buckle or even snap, damaging the vinyl flooring. In this case, loose-lay or glue-down may be a better choice.

Do You Need Underlay with Vinyl Flooring?

Some click LVP flooring may come with underlay already attached to the back, yet it always comes down to the subfloor.

Underlay, like DMX Plastics, DMX 1-Step 2.0 Underlay, protects as a vapour barrier between wooden subfloors and the top layer, such as vinyl, laminate, and engineered hardwood flooring. This thin plastic layer allows circulation, which prevents mold and keeps moisture from penetrating vulnerable areas below.

It also offers soundproofing, quieting the impact of the flooring against the subfloor, insulating footprints, and other sounds between floors, which is particularly important in multilevel apartment or condominium buildings.

Vinyl Flooring Installation

Installing vinyl flooring requires an even surface for optimal performance. For example, concrete must be perfectly level and require a skim coat to fill any divots. Old flooring adhesives must also be removed so as not to telegraph through the new flooring, especially with vinyl sheeting. However, even 6mil, 12mil, and 20mil thick LVP or LVT requires a smooth substrate.

Professional installers will blend two or three boxes for a random match and preplan the layout before permanent installation.

Click vinyl is connected with small “male/female” joints that snap together, similar to tongue-and-groove. The loose-lay vinyl plank is installed tightly together, and the product's weight holds it in place from the outer edge. Glue-down vinyl relies on the adhesive to prevent it from moving and is more difficult to remove later.

What are the Benefits of Vinyl Flooring?

There is a good reason why many people are choosing vinyl flooring for their homes. Here, we will break down the primary benefits:

• Low Maintenance - Vinyl flooring requires regular mopping with water, sweeping, and occasional deep cleaning with gentle household products to prevent chemical buildup.
• Waterproof - Vinyl flooring is made of high-quality polyvinyl chloride resins or PVC, impenetrable by water or moisture.
• Durable - Like hardwood flooring, vinyl flooring is protected with a thin wear layer to protect the decorative surface. The thicker the wear layer, the longer the flooring will last.
• Hypo-allergenic - Allergens cannot become trapped in fibres, like with carpet, and products made with virgin PVC won’t off-gas like those of sub-standard quality.
• Kid and Pet Friendly - Vinyl flooring holds up to the wear and tear of family life.
• Warranty - Vinyl also offers some of the best warranties in flooring products when all instructions and applications are followed.
• Comfort - Vinyl helps insulate your feet from substrate temperatures and offers more cushioning than hard surface flooring.

Feel Confident About Your Flooring

Vinyl flooring is durable and convenient throughout the house, including in bathrooms and kitchens. The next step is finding the right brand.

Karndean Designflooring sees flooring differently, using natural elements from around the world for inspiration. With a showroom conveniently located in Burlington, Ontario, you can also find them with retail partners throughout Canada.

To schedule an appointment at the Karndean showroom or to find out more information, contact them online or call 1-866-819-6825.

Jenny Kennedy of Kennedy Literary Agency provides written copy and content for the design-build industry and is the author of “Launch Into Interior Design.”

Photo provided by Karndean Designflooring