
By Abby Reinhard
Here’s a helpful breakdown of the pros and cons of different flooring types, including VCT, LVT, Broadloom, and Carpet Tiles.
Vinyl Composite Tile (VCT)
Pros:
- Very affordable purchase price
- Durable with proper care and maintenance
Cons:
- Limited aesthetics; can be associated with sterile environments
- Extensive and labor-intensive maintenance requirements with waxing and polishing
- Often not the most affordable option over the lifetime of the flooring due to maintenance required
Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT)
Pros:
- Wide range of design options that can mimic the look of natural stone, wood, or other designs at a substantially lower price
- Easy and inexpensive to maintain over product lifetime — no waxing necessary
- Excellent thermal and acoustic properties, reducing temperature fluctuation and noise levels over other types of hard flooring
Cons:
- Doesn’t match the noise absorption of carpet
- Isn’t “bulletproof” — it can get scratches if hard furniture doesn’t have proper protection and digs into the floor
Broadloom/Rolled Carpet
Pros:
- Better acoustic profiles compared to hard surface flooring
- Conducive to large patterns and elegant designs
- Often less expensive than carpet tile
Cons:
- Less durable than carpet tiles due to lack of multi-layered structure and built-in backing that protects the carpet fibers
- Difficult to maintain appearance because you can’t easily replace sections of the carpet for stains
- A lot of waste of material during installation due to fitting broadloom to interior spaces
Carpet Tile
Pros:
- Acoustical benefits similar to broadloom
- Better structural integrity due to the composition of the carpet tiles
- Carpet tiles with built-in cushion can reduce wear and tear of the fibers and improve underfoot comfort
Cons:
- Monochromatic carpet tiles can look like tiles, with visible seams. New designs disguise and/or embrace a modular look
- Often more expensive than broadloom/rolled carpet
Please let us know if you have any additional questions on about the pros and cons of different flooring types by contacting us or reaching out to abby@gpflooringsolutions.com today.
Note: Abby referenced information from the Milliken Flooring Blog for this post.