Luxury Vinyl Tile – What is it and why do you need it?

When we started our renovation, we had grandiose ideas for all our textiles. I dreamt of penny tile floors, subway tile everywhere in all our bathrooms – all the pretty things that make my heart go swooooooon. But reality set it very shortly… LOL!

If I had to choose between form and function, I would probably lean towards function in the long run, and the long run reality for us, living in a 100-year-old house on a pier-and-beam foundation, was that our house will be continually shifting. So, what would that have meant for all my tile floor dreams for our bathrooms? The constant shifting would mean cracking of grout and potentially the cracking of tile as well. I knew that changing tile was not something I wanted to spend my time on in the future. So, we had to pivot… despite my breaking heart. LOL!

My first thought was Luxury Vinyl Plank. It’s durable, easy to clean, and comes in a variety of colors, BUT a majority of patterns only came in wood-look, and that’s not something I wanted for our bathrooms. I also did not want those floors to compete with our original wood floors AND I didn’t want to go through the painstaking process of ensuring they matched… because if we had gone that route, I would have wanted them to match!

After sharing my dilemma with my contractor, he mentioned Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT). LVT is produced very similarly to Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP). It’s compromised of several compressed layers of plastic and padding. Here’s a great article to find out more information. From a design perspective (and to make it easier), tile is made to mimic stone/ceramic tile, and plank mimics wood, and there are several great benefits to this type of flooring! After learning more about LVT, we felt like it was a great fit for us and our home!

We chose LVT because it’s…

Affordable. In comparison to tile and wood floor, it was less expensive in price per square foot.

Durable. Because it is made of a plastic core, we don’t have to worry about scratches and scrape or cracking. This was especially important because our house is on a pier and beam foundation. Through the years, it will flex with the floor rather than potentially cracking like tile!

Easy to Install. Aside from the normal preparation you need to do when laying down floor, these are pretty easy! They just click together!

Easy to clean. You can use just about anything to clean these floors. There isn’t a specific or required regimen, which is great!

While there were several pros, there were a handful of cons as well…

Limited design choices. This is the con that hurt the most. There were very limited choices from a design perspective. I had to search high and low for something to meet what we were looking to accomplish in our bathrooms. What we ended up choosing is a very basic pattern, but in my opinion, it’s very classic as well.

May dent & May fade in sunlight. These were other items that I happened upon during my research. So far, we haven’t had any of these issues!

This was a great option for our home and situation, and we hope this helps anyone considering other options outside of traditional wood and tile!

Sincerely,
Heather