Vinyl vs Real Wood Flooring

Of the many flooring options available to those looking to remodel their homes, two stand out as being of higher quality and more hard wearing than most others. Those two being real hardwood flooring and vinyl flooring.

• Vinyl flooring in particular comes in varying options itself, from cheaper solutions to higher-end products which will be examined in more detail later. 

• Hardwood flooring also comes in different variants, being solid hardwood flooring and engineered hardwood flooring.

Overview

Real wood flooring is fairly self explanatory. It is real wood. An authentic, natural product. Real hardwood flooring is the most eco friendly flooring option. Though it might not seem so at first glance, as trees have to be cut down to harvest the material, real wood flooring is 94-99% recyclable, and is harvested from carefully managed forests, ensuring sustainability and a green product.

Being a natural product, the patterns on each board of real wood flooring are always unique, for each tree will have its own grains, knots, and patterns. When you buy a real wood floor, that floor is truly yours, and its elegance will be seen no where else in the world but your home.

Real wood flooring can be purchased in the form of solid wood flooring, or engineered wood flooring. With solid wood floors, the whole board is one single plank of hardwood, that is oak, walnut, or other hardwood species. While it makes for a durable board, solid wood is liable to move a lot if temperatures or humidity levels fluctuate a lot in any given room, making it less versatile flooring option. Engineered wood on the other hand can be fitted in more rooms, as its plywood core ensures it will move around less when the temperature or humidity swings with the seasons. With a veneer of solid wood at the top, engineered wood flooring looks identical to solid wood flooring once laid.

Vinyl flooring on the other hand, or LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tiles), is a man made synthetic product manufactured using polymers and resins. This can come in the form of roll vinyl (or sheet vinyl), which is a budget friendly product usually used for commercial settings. It is soft underfoot and can give the effect of real wood, but it will rarely ever look convincing.

Luxury Vinyl Tiles, or Vinyl click, are higher quality products designed to look like real wood or stone effect tiles. Using ultra high quality images printed onto the wear layer, the replicas can look very convincing, dyed in a wide range of colours. 

Versatility

In terms of where the floors can be fitted, or how many different areas each floor can be fitted, LVT flooring would take the win here. Luxury vinyl flooring is fully waterproof, so it is suitable for use in bathrooms, kitchens, or utility rooms without fear of a floor or other water damage ruining the floor. On top of that, LVT flooring can be fitted in any room in the house, as it will rarely ever move around that much no matter how cold, hot, or damp it gets.

Wood flooring is still quite versatile, suitable for hallways, living rooms, bedrooms, and conservatories (only if its engineered wood flooring, not solid wood). It is not advised to put real wood flooring in kitchens, bathrooms, or utility rooms, as any excessive water damage will ruin the floor. 

A side note on practicality, both vinyl flooring and real hardwood flooring is durable and hard wearing, both can stand up to high foot fall in residential or commercial settings.

Cost

In most cases vinyl flooring is less expensive than real wood flooring. Roll vinyl is very cheap, coming in at less than £10 per meter. Even the higher quality click vinyl flooring comes in cheaper than real wood. Normal prices are around £30 per square meter for click vinyl, and that include parquet click vinyl options. An added bonus with some LVT floors is that they come with built-in underlay, which also saves the buyer a few pounds per meter of flooring if they intend to float their floor over a subfloor.

In rare cases you may see some real hardwood flooring for about the same price as click vinyl, that is, if you get lucky and come across a clearance sale. However, most of the time real wood flooring is more expensive than vinyl. Real wood floors come in at about £40-50 per square meter, and if it isn’t getting glued to the subfloor, you would need to buy an underlay as well.

An interesting bonus to real wood floors on the other hand, is that they are more akin to an investment than a vinyl floor is. Real wood flooring can add value to a home. So in the event of a sale, the extra money might cover some of those expenses! 

Appearance:

The appearance of flooring is entirely subjective, but it is clear that real hardwood flooring is a winner here, in part because LVT tries to just copy what wood flooring looks like; but it can never be like the real thing, for the patterns printed onto LVT floors are not unique, where as every single floorboard on a real wood floor is its own. 

Maintenance

LVT flooring is the easier to maintain out of the two, being that at most it needs to be occasionally cleaned with a damp cloth, and there will never be a need to refinish or spot repair the flooring.

With real wood it can be a little more complicated. Regular dusting and sweeping is required to prevent any scratches that can occur. One advantage real hardwood flooring has is that it can be sanded and refinished, and spot repaired in case of any damage. After long periods of time the floor will have to be refinished to maintain the colour. 

Summary

Both real wood and vinyl flooring are excellent flooring solutions, and your choice will ultimately come down to your needs. If you need waterproof flooring, then LVT is for you. For other rooms where you can be more flexible in your choice, it will depend on whether you want a more eco-friendly, green, natural product with real authenticity, or if you would prefer the easier maintenance while keeping a stylish looking floor, and saving a bit of money at the same time!