Breaking Down the Pros and Cons of VCT, LVT, Broadloom and Carpet Tile

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.