Selecting the Right Luxury Vinyl Tile Flooring (LVT)

Luxury vinyl tile flooring is a great alternative choice for kitchens, bathroom, foyers and active areas of the home. Depending on your interior and your design preferences the selection can be almost unlimited. Since LVT imitates the appearance and realism of natural slate, travertine, marbles, stone, wood and ceramic you have many design choices. There are also many different widths and sizes to select from as well. Plus, some brands of luxury vinyl tile flooring also offer borders, insets and medallions to give a truly unique appearance to your floor.

The more expensive LVT styles also offer stunning visual appearances, natural textured graining, beveled edges and true color variations that give tremendous depth and realism to the flooring. Not to mention, some luxury vinyl tiles include optional, acrylic grout that is non-porous and easier to maintain then real tile with sanded grout.

Another consideration is the installation. Some luxury vinyl tile brands must be glued down to the sub-floor while others offer a glue-less floating installation. This is important when subfloors are uneven or you are doing the installation yourself. The click-lock, glueless LVT floors from Mannington (Adura), Karndean and Earthwerks are a good choice for the weekend do-it-yourself installations. Proper acclimation of the LVT prior to installation as well as leaving the proper amount of expansion along all vertical walls is essential for the floating LVT floors.

Most of the LVT brands allow you to install over radiant heated floors, but you must follow the manufacturer installation recommendations.

Some of the major LVT brands sold in the USA are:

  • Armstrong Alterna Luxury Vinyl Tile
  • Congoleum Duraceramic and Durastone (glue down)
  • EarthWerks Plank & Tile (glue down, Uniclic and rapid clic)
  • Karndean (with design strips) loose lay and full glue down
  • Mannington Adura
  • Nafco (also called Tarkett Luxury Floors)

Probably the most popular LVT brands sold in the USA as of today are Armstrong and Mannington

Here is a good video LVT overview example for Mannington Adura, installing with Mannington's Lock Solid, glueless, floating floor installation system:

See also: Luxury Vinyl Tile Flooring (LVT)?