Sheet vinyl or LVT — which should I choose?
Both are vinyl and both are waterproof, but one arrives as a continuous sheet and the other as pieces. That single difference decides wet rooms, repairability, subfloor demands and price.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 15 min
- Read
- 3 min
Short answer
Sheet vinyl for small wet rooms and for the lowest price — it is effectively seamless, so water cannot get through it, and a cloakroom or utility can be done in a roll width with no joints at all. LVT for larger rooms, for a more convincing appearance and feel underfoot, and where individual pieces may need replacing.
The showroom sells them as different products; chemically they are close relatives. What separates them in practice is that a sheet has almost no joints and LVT is nothing but joints — and depending on the room, that is either the deciding advantage or the deciding disadvantage.
Step by step
- Start with how wet the room really gets.A shower room, a wet room, or a utility where a machine could flood are the cases for sheet vinyl, because a seamless floor coved up the wall is genuinely waterproof. A kitchen or a hall with occasional spills is fine with either.
- Check the room against the roll width.Sheet vinyl comes in standard roll widths, commonly around two, three and four metres. A room that fits within a roll width has no joints at all. A room that does not needs a welded or sealed seam, which is a fitter's job.
- Look at your subfloor.Both telegraph badly, and glue-down LVT is the least forgiving of all. If the subfloor needs overlaying or levelling, that cost applies to both and should be in the comparison.
- Think about repairs.A damaged LVT plank in the middle of a glued floor can be lifted with heat and replaced. A gouge in sheet vinyl means a patch, which is possible but visible unless the pattern is busy.
- Compare the feel underfoot.Cushioned sheet vinyl is the softest and warmest floor in this comparison and it is why it remains popular in bathrooms. LVT is harder and reads as more solid and more convincing.
- Compare appearance honestly at home.LVT with bevelled edges and registered embossing looks like tile or plank; sheet vinyl printed with a tile pattern rarely does, because the joints are printed rather than real. In a small room this matters less than people expect.
- Factor in fitting.Sheet vinyl in a small room is a genuinely achievable DIY job. In a large or complicated room it is a fitter's job, because handling and cutting a large sheet accurately is difficult. LVT is laid piece by piece and is far more forgiving of an amateur.
- Check both against underfloor heating if you have it.Both can work, both have a thermal resistance limit and a maximum surface temperature, and glue-down LVT generally performs best because there is no underlay in the build-up.
Alternatives
- Sheet vinyl (cushioned): A roll with a foam backing. Cheapest, warmest and softest underfoot, quick to fit, and effectively seamless in a room narrower than the roll. Dents from point loads, and a bad tear is hard to repair invisibly.
- Sheet vinyl (solid or commercial): Denser, without the foam layer, harder wearing and used where the floor takes a beating. Colder and harder underfoot, and it needs a properly prepared subfloor.
- Click LVT: Floating planks or tiles with a click profile. Fastest to fit, no adhesive, tolerates a slightly less perfect subfloor, and can be lifted. Joints are a route for water in a genuinely wet room.
- Glue-down LVT: Bonded to the subfloor. Thinnest, most stable, quietest, best over underfloor heating, and individually repairable. It demands the flattest, cleanest subfloor of everything here.