Advantage of LVT flooring?

Currently, LVT's market share is less than half of that of hardwood flooring and tiles, but it is growing the fastest. "FloorCoveringNews" (a renowned US flooring industry news website) previously reported that resilient flooring would continue its stellar performance from 2016 into 2017, with LVT, WPC, and SPC series showing positive growth trends. Analysts attribute this significant growth to LVT, while manufacturers believe that the rise of LVT subcategories, namely WPC (Wood Plastic Composite) and SPC (Stone Plastic Composite), are the main reasons for the sales increase. Additionally, LVT has particularly opened up the commercial market, bringing the visual effect of wood to places where it was previously unseen, such as hospitals. LVT can also mimic stone, but with price and performance advantages that traditional stone and even ceramics cannot match.

LVT has important advantages over various flooring materials. Compared to tiles, LVT matches in color, texture, resolution, and realistic effect, but it is lighter, more flexible, warmer, more comfortable underfoot, cheaper, and easier to install. Compared to hardwood flooring, LVT offers the same visual effect but with much better performance, easier maintenance, less susceptibility to dents and scratches, and a lower price, especially compared to expensive imported wood.

Compared to VCT (Vinyl Composition Tile), while VCT has much lower upfront costs, it requires significantly more maintenance and falls short in design aspects. Therefore, in the commercial sector, VCT's decline is mainly due to the rise of LVT. In the residential sector, LVT's market share growth mainly comes at the expense of vinyl flooring, as LVT's realistic effect far surpasses that of vinyl flooring. Compared to laminate flooring, both LVT and laminate flooring share many similarities—they both deliberately imitate natural materials (mainly wood), have similar size specifications, and can be installed without glue. Laminate flooring is cheaper and more scratch-resistant. However, its core layer is fiberboard, which is sensitive to changes in humidity, and it produces a distinct noise when walked on if not soundproofed. LVT does not have these issues. As a result, LVT has been accepted by the commercial market, whereas laminate flooring has yet to establish a foothold there.