What Is PVC, LVT, SPC, WPC Floor? What's The Difference?

1. PVC plastic floor

If you want to clarify what LVT, SPC, and WPC floors are, you have to start with PVC floors.

Baidu Encyclopedia introduces PVC flooring in this way: a new type of light-body floor decoration material that is very popular in the world today, also known as "light-body floor material".

It is a popular product in Japan and South Korea in Europe, America and Asia. It has been popular abroad. It has entered the Chinese market since the early 1980s. It has been widely recognized in large and medium-sized cities in China, and is widely used, such as families, hospitals, Schools, office buildings, factories, public places, supermarkets, commercial and other places.

"PVC floor" refers to the floor made of polyvinyl chloride material. Specifically, polyvinyl chloride and its copolymer resin are used as the main raw materials, and auxiliary materials such as fillers, plasticizers, stabilizers, and colorants are added. Process production, the relevant national standard is GB/T11982-2015.

The so-called PVC floor, commonly known as plastic floor, is a broad category. Any floor made of polyvinyl chloride as raw material can be roughly called PVC floor. New types of floors such as LVT, SPC, and WPC are actually PVC. For the floor category, they just add different other materials, so they form a separate sub-category.

The main components of PVC floor include polyvinyl chloride powder, stone powder, plasticizer, stabilizer, and carbon black. These kinds of raw materials are widely used industrial raw materials, and their environmental safety has been verified for many years.

Focus on everyone! Sort out the advantages and disadvantages of PVC flooring:

Disadvantages: too thin, conventional 2mm thickness. The foot feel is very, very poor. If the ground is uneven, the effect will appear to be bumpy.

Advantages: very cheap, suitable for low-grade rental and renovation. Easy to install, with adhesive backing.

2. LVT floor

LVT floor, soft and bendable elastic floor, professionally expressed as "semi-rigid sheet plastic floor", they can even be bent into rolls, the market retail price of LVT floor ranges from tens of yuan to two hundred yuan, before It is mainly used for tooling projects, because it has high requirements on the floor and requires professionals to lay it, so considering the cost, it is usually only suitable for large-scale laying.

Of course, this kind of floor is good-looking and affordable for rental properties or offices where flatness is not critical.

The recognized advantages of LVT floor are: low price, environmental protection, wear resistance, good elasticity and impact resistance, waterproof and flame retardant, waterproof and moisture-proof, and convenient maintenance. This kind of floor is often laid in schools, kindergartens, playrooms, and also used in family children's rooms.

To give you the focus:

LVT is the early product of SPC and WPC floor, you are the first generation product, it is a bit outdated now.

Disadvantages: The thickness does not exceed 5mm, which is thinner and softer. Because the material is soft, it is easy to arch over a large area.

Advantages: 0 formaldehyde, waterproof.

3. SPC floor

SPC floor, Stone Plactic Composite, is a rigid plastic floor and can also be bent, but compared with LVT floor, the bending degree is much less.

Its common name is Shijing floor, Hong Kong and Taiwan are called stone plastic floor, or plastic stone floor. In addition to Europe and the United States, Southeast Asia is one of the regions that use the most SPC floor, because it not only has high appearance, but also has excellent waterproof and moisture-proof performance. , It is cheaper than laying floor tiles and saves laying time.

In the production process of SPC floor, it is made by one-time heating and bonding, and there is no need to use glue at all. The market retail price of SPC floor is usually between 100 yuan and 300 yuan per square meter.

It has many advantages, such as high environmental protection; waterproof and moisture-proof; insect-proof and moth-proof; high fire resistance; good sound absorption effect; no cracking, no deformation, no thermal expansion and contraction; low price; easy installation; no formaldehyde , heavy metals, phthalates, methanol and other harmful substances.

The disadvantage of SPC is that the density is high and the transportation cost is relatively high; the thickness is relatively thin, so there are certain requirements for the flatness of the ground.

Let's sort out the key points for you:

SPC stone powder has many components and is heavy, and the thickness is not more than 6mm (the light sheet does not contain the back film). Generally, the market is mostly 3-5mm, which is very thin. It has high requirements on the ground and needs to be self-leveling.

Disadvantages: relatively thin, poor foot feel, generally no color difference. Easy to tile.

Advantages: 0 formaldehyde, waterproof, more stable quality than LVT. 5.5mm or more will not appear tile change.

4. WPC floor

WPC floor, Wood Plactic Composite is a semi-rigid sheet plastic floor, commonly known as wood plastic floor, because the early WPC floor added wood powder, so it is called wood plastic floor.

Now that there is no wood fiber at all, it can be completely understood as a stone-plastic floor, and the material is 100 percent waterproof.

To put it simply, it consists of LVT layer and WPC layer (one more layer of black LVT layer 1mm thicker than SPC). It is said that its foot feel is almost the same as that of solid wood floors.

From the perspective of comfort, WPC is a PVC floor that is closest to traditional solid wood floors. Some people in the industry call it a "golden floor". Its market retail price is usually between 200 and 600 yuan per square meter. Its environmental performance is also outstanding. It has all the characteristics of LVT floor and SPC floor. All 144 test indicators have passed, and its installation requirements are similar to those of laminate floors. It has locks and is very convenient to install.

Because of the thickness of WPC floor, the material cost is higher, so the price is higher than that of LVT floor and SPC floor. There are also many WPC floors made into wall panels, background walls and ceilings.

Let's sort out the key points for you:

The thickness of the WPC floor is high, which can reach more than 8mm, and the foot feel is very good. It is the same as the wooden floor, and even has better elasticity than the wooden floor. Warm in winter and cool in summer.

Advantages: The foot feels the best and will not change. The surface is chromatic aberration and has a solid wood texture.

Disadvantages: high thickness, resulting in high cost and high price.

5. What about the comparison with wooden floors and tiles?

Compared with wood floor, PVC, LVT, SPC, WPC stone plastic floor has the biggest advantage of {{0}} formaldehyde and 100 percent waterproof wood floor, because glue is needed, after all, there is formaldehyde content. Although it can achieve E0 and F4 stars at the highest, but if you pursue 0 formaldehyde requirements, it is better to choose WPC flooring.

If it is the first floor, wet areas, or honestly lay tiles and SPC, WPC floors!

Compared with tiles, what is the difference?

Compared with tiles, the biggest advantage is that it is easy to maintain. Tiles are broken and cannot be repaired, because each batch of tiles has color difference, even if you want to dig out and fill in a tile, as long as it is not from the same batch, it is absolutely impossible to have the same color, and it is not easy to change.

The stone plastic floor is installed with a lock, so it is very convenient to replace. And there is almost no after-sales service, unless you smash and scratch it yourself. Moving furniture to move, do not drag, almost impossible to have problems.

Suggestions written at the end:

There are still many friends who plan to choose SPC and WPC flooring, but do not know which brand to choose. I suggest you shop around from the following aspects:

First of all, the stone plastic floor is 0 formaldehyde, 100 percent waterproof, there is no need to worry about these aspects.

1. Thickness: Thickness determines cost and quality. 8mm or more is the best.

It is easy to change the tile below 5mm, unless it is rented and temporarily used, it is recommended to choose a thick one.

In terms of foot feel, the foot feeling above 10mm is the best, no matter how thick the cost increases too much, the foot feel is not significantly improved

There is a big difference in foot feel between 8mm and 10mm. Below 8mm, it is very hard and not suitable for home improvement.

2. Surface wear resistance: the maximum thickness is 0.5mm, and it will not be whitened for 30 years.

The wear-resistant layer on the surface of the stone-plastic floor is a PVC wear-resistant layer, so the thickness can be seen.

At present, the last 0.5mm, the wear resistance reaches more than 20,000 revolutions, and it should be fine for 30 years.

If it is less than 0.3mm, the wear resistance is much worse. It is estimated that it will be several thousand revolutions, and it will take about 10 years. Just a visual comparison.

3. Factory qualification: minimum requirements for more than 10 years, and the best for more than 20 years.

When you buy a floor, you have to use it for more than 10 years, so you can't just look at the price, but also look at the after-sales guarantee.