Buying luxury vinyl plank: boxes, wear layer, pad and price

What is in the box

Luxury vinyl plank, LVP, is a printed vinyl layer under a clear wear layer, on a core. There are three kinds of core. Flexible vinyl, glued down or loose-laid. Rigid core with a stone-plastic composite (SPC), dense and dimensionally stable, which clicks together and floats. And wood-plastic composite (WPC), thicker and softer underfoot. Most planks sold for DIY are SPC click planks, often with a foam or cork pad attached to the back.

The numbers on the label

Coverage per box. Square feet per box, the number that turns your area into boxes. LVP boxes vary from under 19 to over 30 sq ft, even for planks of the same size, because the number of planks per box varies. The coverage per box reference lists typical figures for each material.

Wear layer. The clear top layer, in mil (thousandths of an inch). 6 mil is light residential, 12 mil suits most homes, 20 mil and above suits heavy traffic, pets and light commercial use. The wear layer, not the overall thickness, is what resists wear.

Overall thickness. In millimetres, typically 4 to 8 mm for SPC. Thicker planks bridge small subfloor flaws better and feel more solid, and the thickness decides the height at doorways.

Pad. Whether a pad is attached, and its type. An attached pad means no separate underlayment.

Counting boxes

The vinyl plank calculator does both, and the boxes calculator handles any boxed product with spare boxes and tax.

Price per square foot, not per box

Two boxes at the same price are not the same price. A $55 box covering 23.6 sq ft is $2.33 per sq ft; a $55 box covering 18.9 sq ft is $2.91. Always divide the box price by its coverage before comparing. Then compare what you get: wear layer, thickness, pad, and the warranty’s terms.

Printed patterns

Every plank in a box is printed with one of a limited number of images. A cheap plank may have five or six faces, a better one twenty or more. With few faces, two identical planks end up side by side unless you sort them, and sorting means setting some aside. Open several boxes at once and mix planks from them as you lay, and add 5% to the waste if the product has few faces. Look at the photos of a whole floor on the maker’s site, not a single plank.

Pads and underlayment

With an attached pad, lay the planks straight on a clean, flat subfloor. Do not add a second foam underlayment; it makes the floor too soft and strains the click joints. Over concrete, add a 6 mil polyethylene vapour barrier if the maker asks for one. Without an attached pad, use the thin, dense underlayment the maker approves, usually 1 to 1.5 mm. The underlayment guide covers the types.

Flatness, gap and temperature

Rigid-core plank needs a flat subfloor, usually within 3/16 inch in 10 ft, because the click joints break over a hump. It needs a gap of about 1/4 inch at every wall, and a transition strip in runs longer than about 50 ft. Vinyl moves more with temperature than humidity, so makers set limits for sunrooms and rooms with tall south-facing glass. The expansion gap guide covers both.

Peel-and-stick and glue-down

Peel-and-stick vinyl tile and plank is cheaper and quick to lay, but it needs a perfectly clean, smooth, primed subfloor and shows every bump. It is counted the same way, by area and box coverage. The peel-and-stick calculator adds the primer. Glue-down LVT is what commercial floors use: no gap, no run limit, but adhesive and a careful installer.

The short version

Read the coverage per box. Choose the wear layer for the traffic. Divide price by coverage to compare. Add 10% waste, 15% on the diagonal, and 5% more for a plank with few prints. If the pad is attached, buy no other underlayment. The complete method covers measuring, and the waste factor guide the allowances.