Vinyl is one of the best floorings to have in the kitchen but, the worrying thing is what is the best vinyl flooring for the kitchen?
Luxury Vinyl Tile (plank or tile) and engineered vinyl plank are the best vinyl flooring to consider for your kitchen. They are more water resistant, durable, has low maintenance, and provides good protection against scratches, and stains.
If you want your vinyl flooring more lavish and durable then, It is very crucial to narrow down your choice among the different types of vinyl flooring.
Hence, in today’s article, I will explain the best vinyl flooring for your kitchen along with some other important queries about vinyl flooring with respect to the kitchen.
What is vinyl flooring?
Vinyl flooring is a type of flexible bottom material that’s available in a variety of colors, designs, and styles. The construction of vinyl floors takes the suspending of vinyl in a liquid, then turning it over and over again forming a thin layer.
The final liquid plastic coat is then dehydrated using air or heat. The core element of vinyl floor is the polyvinyl chloride sheet in which a variety of compounds are added to customize its flexibility, hardness, and color. This flooring is available in both tile and plank and has a high gloss look and damage resistance.
Further, vinyl flooring is the best flooring type In terms of practicality, waterproofing, durability, comfort, and more traffic areas. The vinyl floors come in a wide variety of designs, types, and color patterns at an acceptable price.
Is Vinyl Flooring Good For the Kitchen?
Vinyl flooring is the best and most popular flooring option for your kitchen because it is most satisfactory for water- resistance. The kitchen is the only room in the house that deals more with water and also demands a good look.
A kitchen is always prone to moisture and spills. In fact, from cooking to washing dishes or pets all these main works happen on regular bases. So, vinyl flooring is a great choice, as it is 99.9% waterproof or water resistant. Especially, the luxury vinyl floors that are usually considered the most water-resistant vinyl floor for your kitchen.
Aside from this, its durability also makes it a great choice for your kitchen. It is best to withstand a lot of wear and tear from spills, stains, dropped pots, and more.
Furthermore, easy to maintain and affordable as well. and offers a good resale value for your home. If you’re considering vinyl flooring for your kitchen, it is very essential to know the positive outcomes of this type of flooring in your kitchen.
Can bear a high level of wear and tear and is very easy to wipe up the splits.
What Are the Advantages And Disadvantages Of Vinyl Flooring In Your Kitchen?
Understanding the benefits and drawbacks of vinyl flooring will help you to decide the right selection for your requirements.
Advantages
Vinyl floors are best for water resistance, mostly 100% moisture resistant, and a number of options include waterproofing. The vinyl tile and sheets contain a surface barrier. (It protects against stains and spills)
It is Affordable, and these floors are versatile and inexpensive as low as 50 cents per square foot, and high as 10$ per square foot.
Furthermore, its Durability makes it an ideal choice among all other flooring options. It can easily withstand up to 20 or 21 years. The Long term value of vinyl floors in the kitchen can not be ignored.
In addition to that its Comfort underfoot, not only when walking but also long-term comfort when cooking without giving a hard or tough feeling to your feet, unlike ceramic tiles.
One of the key features is its Easy maintenance, you can dry mop, for the dust or particles, wet mop even with a simple cleaning solution(vinegar, detergent, and water)
The Ease of installation is also an excellent advantage of vinyl flooring for your kitchen. Even the peel-and-stick vinyl floors you can also install them by saving the cost of labor.
Finally, the assortment of design options is also a good factor to consider for the vinyl floors. It comes in many different styles and designs you can pick the one according to your own test and design style.
Disadvantages
In general vinyl flooring is the best flooring option to have in your kitchen. However, we know each flooring type offers its own set of pros and cons, but you will find a few drawbacks of this type of flooring in your kitchen.
Firstly, these floors especially the engineered vinyl floors are difficult to repair. Each plank replacement is quite a tough task to perform. Further, if one side of the sheet gets any scratches you are supposed to replace the whole sheet.
Secondly, these floors contain non-biodegradable elements which means can not break naturally and decompose into the environment.
Which Vinyl Type Look Most Realistic In Your Kitchen?
Among the types of vinyl flooring Luxury vinyl tile floors gives more resemblance to real ones. A key feature of luxury vinyl tile is that it consists of a thicker wear layer, making it more enduring and much easier to repair.
It is a timeless and trendy design and the luxury vinyl floors contain two layers, wears and print layer. The wear layer is responsible for the longevity of the floor and the print layer is a thin film that shows the attractive appearance of the floor. It is the layer that mimics the appearance of natural materials like wood, stone, or ceramic tile.
The luxury vinyl floors prevent scuffs, skids, and scratches. This floor type is also, floor score certified which means any emissions released by the installed floor planks will not affect the air quality in your interior spaces.
Finally, the Luxury vinyl floors are included in high-quality vinyl floors that effectively mimic the wood.
What Type Of Vinyl Flooring Is The Most Durable?
Rigid-core vinyl plank flooring is the most durable type of vinyl flooring for your kitchen. This type of vinyl floor not only has a good lifespan but is also affordable and easy to install.
Rigid-Core vinyl floors are equipped with a dense composite core engineered for longevity and durability. You will find a variety of planks in a variety of core materials. (that includes wood, stone, or hybrid plastic composite)
What Are The Types Of Vinyl Flooring?
Usually, there are four main types of vinyl kitchen floors that include peel and stick vinyl flooring, sheet vinyl, luxury vinyl plank, and engineered vinyl plank.
Peel and stick category of vinyl flooring is the most cheapest and awful type of vinyl flooring. Its appearance, quality, comfort, water-resistant power, and lifespan are not worth considering.
However, this is one of the easily affordable kitchen floorings. If you are on a budget and want to renovate your kitchen this flooring is a better choice as you install it yourself (planks or tails come with adhesive backing) which means minus the cost of labor.
Sheet vinyl is the best type compared to peel-and-stick vinyl flooring for your kitchen. It comes in a full glue large, continuous, and flexible flooring. It contains a wear layer and the thickness of the wear layer and vinyl sheet determines the durability of the vinyl floor.
luxury vinyl plank, this type of vinyl flooring is the most selling and best type of vinyl flooring. Usually, this type comes in two types one with a core of foam or no core and another with a rigid core vinyl having a waterproof core of either stone or wood polymer composite.
Engineered vinyl plank is the rigid core plank vinyl flooring. It includes wood polymer composite or stone polymer composite types. Both offer a much more waterproof performance.
How Long Does Vinyl Flooring Last In the Kitchen?
The durability of vinyl floors is primarily due to their wear layer. The wear layer is usually made from urethane sealant. ( an insulating material, that fills gaps and protects from cracks and leaks)
Usually, the life duration of vinyl floors is 10-20 years. However, not every vinyl floor last up to 20 years. The duration depends upon the quality, type, and maintenance of the floor.
The Peel and Stick vinyl flooring last for 5-10 years depending upon the care and foot traffic.
But, the sheet vinyl can last for a minimum of 12 years and a maximum of 18 years. The thickness of the wear layer of sheet vinyl is comparatively thick peel and stick vinyl floors.
Luxury vinyl and engineered vinyl floors are the most durable kitchen vinyl flooring.
Cost Of Installing 1000 Square Feet Of Vinyl Floors?
The cost of vinyl flooring depends upon the type of material used in the manufacturing of the specific floor.
The installation cost of each vinyl flooring type varies. The quality, durability, waterproofing, and comfort level, design, zip code are some of the core elements that determine the cost of the per-square-foot vinyl plank.
On an estimate the average cost per square feet installation is $2 to $10.
The cost of per square foot peel and stick vinyl floors starts from $0.45 to $2.28 and the average cost is about $1.00 to $2.00.
Furthermore, the sheet vinyl Average cost is $2 per square foot and the Luxury vinyl plank starts from $2 to $8. ( average cost is $3 to $4) And the labor costs are $1 to $5.
So, if you have a 1000-square-foot area it will cost between $30,000 and $14,000. It is important to note that installing 1000 square feet of a vinyl sheet which comes in rolls or large sheets is the lowest-cost choice.
What Are the Best Vinyl Flooring Brands?
You will find a number of vinyl flooring brands but bear in mind that as all glitters are not gold likewise all brands are not the best choice for vinyl flooring.
I had gone through research and outline the following major and more reasonable to consider vinyl flooring brands.
Home Depot
Home decorators
Shaw flooring
Core tec
NuCore Flooring
Cali Bamboo
Karndean
Armstrong
These are the best vinyl flooring brands to consider for your kitchen.
Conclusion!
The best vinyl flooring for the kitchen is Luxury vinyl flooring. This type of vinyl flooring is not only a great option to give a good look to the kitchen on a low budget but also a much better choice from a practical point of view.
Lastly, Luxury Vinyl flooring is not only affordable and excellent for waterproofing but also mimics better the natural wood, tile, and stone appearance.