LVP vs Laminate: Cost, Durability, Water

Price per square foot

Laminate is cheaper, by about 60 cents a square foot at this site’s default prices. On a 1,000 square foot job, with the 13% the calculators add to a 48 inch plank, that is $678, which is real money — and it is roughly the cost of one bad water event.

Labour is nearly identical: both are click-together floating floors and both take about the same time to lay. The waste factor is the same too: the calculators start a 48 inch plank of either at 13% for a straight lay, because both follow the same stagger rules. Run your own room through the vinyl plank flooring calculator and the laminate calculator with the same dimensions and the only things that change are the starting plank size, the box coverage and the price.

Two hidden costs shift the comparison. Laminate usually needs a separate underlayment at 30 to 60 cents a square foot, where most rigid core LVP arrives with the pad attached. And LVP is more tolerant of an imperfect subfloor, so the levelling compound line is often smaller. Once both are on the invoice, the gap narrows to about 20 cents.

Water resistance

This is the whole argument, so it deserves precision.

Vinyl plank is plastic through its entire thickness. The core is either rigid (SPC, a stone-plastic composite) or flexible (WPC, wood-plastic). Neither absorbs water. Standing water on an LVP floor does nothing to the plank itself; the risk is water getting through the seams and sitting on the subfloor underneath.

Laminate has a high-density fibreboard core. Fibreboard is compressed wood fibre, and it swells permanently when it takes on water. A spill wiped up in ten minutes is nothing. A dishwasher leak overnight lifts and crumbles the edges of every plank it reaches, and there is no drying it back out.

"Water-resistant" laminate exists and is genuinely better, but it is still not waterproof — Shaw’s own care guide for its Repel line says it is water resistant, not waterproof, and tells you to wipe spills up as soon as they happen. If the warranty states how long a spill may sit, read that number before you pay the premium.

Durability and dents

Laminate wins on surface hardness. Its wear layer is aluminium oxide, which is genuinely hard: an AC4 laminate resists scratching from grit and pet claws better than almost any vinyl plank at the same price.

Vinyl plank wins on dents and on impact. A dropped cast iron pan chips a laminate surface and leaves a permanent white crater; on LVP it usually leaves a mark that recovers. But heavy point loads — a piano leg, a loaded bookcase, a fridge rolled across it — will dent LVP permanently, especially the softer flexible-core products.

The ratings to compare are not interchangeable. Laminate uses the AC scale, an abrasion classification from the European standard EN 13329 that runs from AC1 to AC6; the North American laminate standard, NALFA LF-01, does not use it. Vinyl uses wear layer thickness in mils. This guide’s suggestions are AC3 for a family home and AC4 for an entry or a rental, and 12 mil for bedrooms, 20 mil for a kitchen or a rental, 28 mil with dogs. On that reckoning a 20 mil LVP and an AC4 laminate are roughly equivalent expectations of life.

Sunlight is the quiet difference. Vinyl can soften and expand in a south-facing conservatory or a sunroom with large glass, and some products will show a permanent ripple. Laminate is dimensionally more stable in heat but fades faster. Both come with temperature limits in their instructions, and a sunroom is where those limits get tested: read them before you lay either one there.

Feel and sound

Laminate is harder and warmer underfoot. It also transmits more sound: a laminate floor without a good pad has a distinct hollow click when you walk on it, and it is a common complaint from people who have just had one installed.

Rigid core LVP is quieter and slightly softer, and most products arrive with a pad already attached, which is why they usually sound better out of the box. Flexible core LVP is the softest and quietest of all, and the most demanding about subfloor flatness — it telegraphs every imperfection underneath it.

If sound matters — an apartment, a room over a bedroom — look for the IIC rating rather than the marketing copy. IIC, the Impact Insulation Class, is defined by ASTM E989 and rates a whole floor-ceiling assembly, so a figure on a roll of underlay describes the assembly it was tested in. The International Building Code asks for at least IIC 50 between dwelling units in a laboratory test. A building’s own rules can ask for more, and it is worth checking the bylaws before the delivery arrives.

Where each one belongs

If you are still undecided, answer these in order and stop at the first yes:

1. Will water ever sit on this floor? A bathroom, a kitchen, a laundry, a basement, a rental you do not live in. If yes, buy LVP and stop reading.
2. Is the room a grit trap? An entry, a hallway off a garden, stairs. If yes, laminate at AC4 wears better under sand than vinyl does.
3. Is there radiant heat or heavy glazing? If yes, check the specific product warranty for a floor surface temperature limit before you commit to either.
4. Is the subfloor further out of flat than the instructions allow? Shaw’s laminate sheet, for one, says to fill low spots deeper than 1/8 inch over 6 feet. If yes, budget levelling compound first; no plank product forgives it.
5. None of the above? Buy the laminate and put the $678 you saved into a better underlayment and a thicker wear layer.

One more consideration if you are doing a whole floor: mixing them is usually a mistake. They have different thicknesses and different profiles, so every doorway between the two needs a transition strip, and the colour match between two manufacturers is never as good in the room as it looked in the store.

Whichever you choose, the install is the same kind of job: follow the sheet in the carton on acclimation and on the expansion gap — the two cited below ask for 1/4 inch on COREtec’s vinyl planks and 3/8 inch on Shaw’s Repel laminate — and plan the stagger before you cut. The method is in how to stagger vinyl plank flooring, and it applies identically to laminate. For the order itself, both take the same allowance — the numbers are in flooring waste factor.