What are the most common specifications in vinyl floorings used by Brands?
Why Product Specifications are Important in Vinyl Flooring Collections
If you are new to the vinyl flooring industry, it is important to understand the make up of vinyl floorings. The term vinyl refers to PVC plastic material and the vinyl floor tiles & planks are therefore made of multi-layered structures in PVC. In our previous article “How to select product specification for luxury vinyl floorings” we described the structure make up in vinyl floorings and further explained the purpose in each of these layered structures.
However, when constructing a vinyl flooring specification, it is important to understand that highest specifications in vinyl floorings does not necessary work in the market. The market and customers can have different preference and price points which determines the type of floorings and specifications acceptable by the market. For example, when we look at Amazon ecommerce marketplace, the target customers are highly price sensitive and are generally beginner DIYers looking for quick fix products, therefore entry points peel & stick vinyl tiles are most selling product across the vinyl flooring categories. As such, premium designed vinyl floorings does not always work and more generic specs have to be looked at.
If your business is considering to enter the vinyl flooring industry, below we describe the type of vinyl floors by installation and explain the different advantage and disadvantages in these specification. We also outline the most common specifications that are applied in these vinyl floorings.
Type of Vinyl Floorings by Installation Methods
In general, there are considered 4 types of vinyl flooring tiles & planks according to its installation method: the Peel & Stick, Glue Down, Loose Lay and Easy Install Interlocking. Each of these installations provides different unique selling points and advantages (as well as disadvantages) which should be looked at when deciding which product to launch and sale into the market:
Peel & Stick (Self-Stick) Installation:
Peel & Stick is some of the most convenient and beginner DIY friendly installation methods. As it is generally designed for quick installation and quick fix, the total thickness is designed no more than 1.2mm. The market has between 0.8 to 1.2mm thickness. Thus, it allows the tile to be easily cut and shaped according to the surroundings, for example when tiles are installed around the toilet.
SPEC Design in Peel & Stick
Semi-rigid, common with total thickness of 0.8mm~1.2mm. It generally have very thin wear layer. It is a very popular product in ecommerce such as Amazon.
Advantage
DIY Beginner Friendly. As it is thin, and easy to shape by knife cutting, can be used for quick decoration over existing floorings.
Disadvantage
Product has received high number of complaints in contraction & expansion and curling issues. Not suitable for mid to long term use.
Glue Down Installation:
As the name suggest, glue down installation requires the installer to apply glue on the back of the vinyl tile or planks for installation. In glue down style vinyl floorings, the thickness is generally between 1.0mm to 3.0mm in semi-rigid LVT.
SPEC Design in Glue Down
Glue down luxury vinyl floorings are often referred as Dry Back LVT. It is a semi-rigid vinyl tile with thickness commonly ranged between 1.0 to 3.0mm. Due to its thin thickness, brands sometimes add an extra layer of fiberglass to improve its dimensional stability.
Advantage
Cost effective compared to loose lay and click & lock vinyl floorings.
Disadvantage
Need more installation time to glue down, and making it harder to remove. The floor also needs to be well prepared.
Loose Lay Installation:
As the market does not generally differentiate its vinyl floor product by glue down or loose lay on its packaging, consumers or installer has to determine the right installation method themselves. However, in loose Lay installation, as glues are not being applied, thicker core layer as needed in order to provide more stability with more weights. The general thickness of loose lay tiles are between 3.0mm to 7.0mm thickness, and could be in semi-rigid LVT or Rigid-Core SPC material. With rigid core SPC, an additional underlayment is added to improve its stability.
SPEC Design in Loose Lay
Available in both semi-rigid LVT Tiles or Rigid Core SPC planks. With loose lay SPC an underlayment is needed where as for LVT it is more optional.
Advantage
Just loose lay for easy installation, easy for replacement and reuse when renovating.
Disadvantage
Water can leak between tile gap.
Click & Lock (Interlocking) Installation:
ll click & lock installation are considered a loose lay vinyl tiles & plank. It is an upgrade to existing loose lay vinyl flooring by adding unilin interlocking slots on the edge of the vinyl floorings.
SPEC Design in Click & Lock
Available in both semi-rigid LVT Tiles or Rigid Core SPC planks. With Click & Lock vinyl planks, as it has a uniclic edge for interlocking the planks, it has a minimum thickness for 4.0mm. The thickness in click & lock vinyl floorings commonly range be 4.0mm to 9.0mm with underlayment included.
Advantage
The interlocking joints reduce water penetration between the joints., so it has superior waterproof performance It is also super easy to work with and can be installed in seconds.
Disadvantage
As the Uniclic is a patented technology by Unilin, all Click & Lock vinyl floorings pays a premium license fee to, therefore has higher costs.
Common Specification in Different Type of Vinyl Floorings
Below is the most common specifications in vinyl floorings that are offered in the market:
Short Conclusion:
Now that we have described the different type of vinyl flooring by installations and have outlined the common specifications in vinyl floorings, it is also important to understand that market preference and price points can be variant across different markets. Our information on the range of common specifications in vinyl floorings is only for reference purpose and a closer market research of local market place, the sellers, their product specs are required to fully understand the market conditions.
If your business is considering in building your own private label brand in vinyl floorings or are expanding product portfolio in vinyl floorings, please feel free to reach out to us for free consulting, quotation and free samples at no stings attached.
The Sreelance Team will be available to help you and your business.
