Laminate or LVT — which should I choose?
Two products that look similar in a showroom and behave nothing alike once water, subfloors, sound and repairs enter the picture. The six points where the decision is actually made.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 20 min
- Read
- 3 min
Short answer
LVT for anywhere water is a realistic possibility, for a floor that has to be quiet and warm underfoot, and where individual pieces may need replacing. Laminate for a dry room where you want the most convincing wood look and the hardest surface per pound. The subfloor is the tiebreaker: LVT needs a much flatter one.
Laminate is a printed decor layer under a melamine wear coat on a fibreboard core. LVT is a printed layer under a clear vinyl wear layer on a vinyl or composite core. The cores are the whole story: fibreboard swells irreversibly when it gets wet, and vinyl does not.
Step by step
- Start with water.Laminate's core is wood fibre. Water sitting at a joint swells the edge and the damage is permanent — the board cannot be dried back. LVT's core does not swell. In a kitchen, utility, bathroom, cloakroom or a hall with a dog bowl and wet coats, this alone usually decides it.
- Then look at your subfloor.LVT, especially glue-down, is thin and flexible and copies the plane beneath it, so it demands a flat, smooth base and often an overlay or a levelling compound. Laminate is thicker and stiffer and forgives more. If the subfloor is poor and the budget is tight, that changes the arithmetic considerably.
- Consider sound and feel.Laminate over a fibreboard core on foam underlay is acoustically live — it clicks under shoes and it transmits impact noise. LVT is denser and softer and is noticeably quieter and warmer underfoot. In a flat this can be the deciding point.
- Think about repairs.A glue-down LVT tile can be lifted and replaced individually, which is a genuine advantage in a hall or a kitchen. Laminate in the middle of a floor has to be reached by dismantling, or cut out and glued in. Neither is impossible; one is much easier.
- Compare the surface honestly in daylight.Good laminate still generally beats good LVT on the realism of a wood look, because the printing and embossing technology on a hard melamine surface is very mature. Good LVT beats laminate convincingly on stone and tile looks. Take samples home.
- Check underfloor heating compatibility either way.Both can work over UFH, and both have limits on thermal resistance and on the maximum floor surface temperature. The combined resistance of the covering and the underlay is the figure that matters, and the manufacturer states it.
- Compare like for like on price.Cheap LVT and cheap laminate are both poor. A fair comparison is a mid-range product from each with the subfloor preparation each one requires included, because LVT's preparation cost is real and laminate's usually is not.
- Check what the room will do to the floor.Direct strong sunlight through patio doors can fade and, in the case of some vinyl products, soften or expand the floor. Heavy static loads dent LVT more readily than laminate. Grit and dogs abrade laminate more visibly.
Alternatives
- Click LVT: LVT with a click profile, laid floating over underlay. Easier and cleaner to fit, tolerates a slightly less perfect subfloor than glue-down, and can be lifted. Less good at very large areas and in strong sunlight.
- Glue-down LVT: Bonded to the subfloor. The most stable, quietest and thinnest option, best in wet areas and over underfloor heating, and it needs the best-prepared subfloor of anything here.
- Engineered wood: If the look you want is real timber, this is the honest answer rather than a convincing print, and it can be refinished. Costs more, and it is water-resistant rather than waterproof.
- Sheet vinyl: Cheaper than LVT, effectively seamless, and genuinely the best answer for a small wet room such as a cloakroom or a utility. Less convincing underfoot and harder to repair invisibly.