Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring

Floating, Peel and Stick, and Glue Down Vinyl Floor Planks

For those who want easy-to-install flooring options that look like hardwood without all of the maintenance hassles, the luxury vinyl plank flooring from Greatmats is a highly popular selection.

Wide plank flooring can enhance the look of almost any room in a home or commercial office. It has a solid core design that makes the floor extremely durable. When made of water-resistant vinyl, these floors will continue to look great, even if you install them in high-traffic locations where water can be tracked on footwear or spilled.

How to Install LVP Flooring

Installing our LVP products is an easy process. Customers appreciate that they can save on the overall cost of the floor by having the option to do the installation themselves, rather than hiring a professional.

Cleaning luxury vinyl plank flooring takes very little time. For the best results, customers can remove dry debris with a dust mop, a broom, or a vacuum whenever needed. This style of laminate flooring is waterproof, so customers can mop it whenever needed for a more thorough cleanup process.

Design Advantages of Vinyl Planks

Many of these LVP flooring models have an aged wood look, including realistic wood grain patterns. Your floor will have a design that resembles vintage hardwood flooring installed a decade or more earlier.

Like luxury vinyl tile, luxury vinyl planks are designed to enhance the appearance that each plank is an actual piece of hardwood; the vinyl pieces include beveled edges. The main difference is that LVT flooring comes in a square format and commonly has wood or stone-look surfaces, while LVP floors use rectangular-shaped pieces that almost always look like wood.

Difference Between Plank Tile Flooring and LVP Planks

Some square-shaped vinyl tiles do have a plank-looking laminate design on the surface. This is called plank tile flooring. You can also find sheet vinyl flooring with wood plank patterns. This is commonly an athletic vinyl flooring system.

The graphics on each faux wood LVP plank exist in a wear layer along the top of the plank. This layer contains a protective finish, which will allow the graphics to maintain their accurate design and sharp looks for many years into the future.

Faux Wood Flooring vs. Natural Hardwood Floor

The manufacturer varies the look of the wood grain in the graphics layer from piece to piece within the same carton. This is an important design feature for faux wood flooring, as installers do not want a noticeable pattern to be visible in the final layout.

A natural hardwood floor has random wood grain lines and slight color variations throughout the length and width of each plank. Our manufacturers work hard to create randomness in the planks to more closely match the look of an actual hardwood floor layout.

Some of our luxury vinyl plank flooring pieces contain an embossed or wire-brushed surface. The slight texture across the top of the planks will enhance the resemblance of these planks to an actual hardwood installation.

Dozens of different wood stain colors are available in the various models of planks. Different shades of gray and brown are the most common color options, which are similar to what you would expect to find with a real hardwood floor.

Some of the laminate planks will contain graphics of wood grains that attempt to mimic a certain type of hardwood, such as oak, walnut, pine, or redwood. Customers are able to mimic the look and feel of luxury hardwood flooring at a fraction of the price of the real thing.

Interlocking LVP Flooring Installation

Most of our luxury vinyl plank flooring designs will make use of a DIY click-locking system installation process. These planks will have L-shaped lips on the edges. Two sides will have the lips exposed on the top, while the lips on the other two sides will be more visible from the underside.

Installers can line up a row of planks along a wall. In the next row, place the lip edge on the plank into the groove on the adjacent plank, according to the instructions, and pop it into place. Generally, this involves pushing the top plank into the bottom plank at an angle and then pushing it down to engage the click lock.

This installation design gives the flooring a sturdy fit, ensuring it will not pull apart under the stress of people walking on it or moving furniture across it.

Installers can cut these thin planks with a power saw or a utility knife to allow the edge of the plank to fit tightly against a wall or another stationary object. Stagger the edges of the planks from row to row so the seams on the short ends of the planks do not line up, as this randomness mimics a hardwood floor layout.

How Much Do Planks Weigh?

Individual planks do not weigh much, which further simplifies installation. One person can carry the planks into the room to install them. A carton of planks may cover 15 to 30 square feet and may weigh 30 to 50 pounds.

Some styles of planks work with a dry-lay installation, where they will “float” over the top of the subfloor. Others will need gluing or nailing to the subfloor. Installers should never need to add glue to the edges of the individual planks, as the tongue and groove design will hold tightly without adhesive.

If you're looking for a peel-and-stick type of flooring, it will most commonly be in vinyl plank tile form. Plank tiles often come in a 1-square-foot size.

Highly Durable Vinyl Planks

Even though these planks are extremely thin, often measuring less than 10 mm in thickness (or less than 3/8 inch in thickness), they will stand up to rough treatment. Even in high-traffic areas, the planks should not show wear and tear. Contributing to its durability is the construction of the vinyl material combined with a rigid core material such as SPC.

The luxury vinyl material offers excellent scratch resistance and protection against scuffs, making it a great option for areas where kids and pets will be present.

The best vinyl plank flooring will also have an underlayment attached to the underside of the planks, making underlayment rolls unnecessary. It also adds a bit of thermal insulation for homeowners against cold concrete floors in basements or mudrooms.

Individual planks typically carry a limited warranty of 10 or more years. Some models have a warranty of 30 years or more, making vinyl plank flooring one of the best flooring choices.

Common Faux Wood Grain Flooring Colors

• Light grey
  
• Light brown
  
• Dark grey
  
• Dark brown
  
• Reddish brown
  
• Natural wood color