Choosing the Best Vinyl Flooring for Families with Children

With kids come messes. It’s an unavoidable fact of life. They track in dirt, they spill juice, they drop food. It’s amazing that such tiny, adorable, innocent beings can leave such disaster in their wake. When choosing flooring for a home with children, you need a product that can keep up with daily—if not hourly—soiling and cleaning while still managing to look good. Vinyl flooring offers a practical, affordable and even stylish solution.

Easy to clean. First and foremost for families with children, flooring must be easy to clean, and quality vinyl is one of the best performing categories of flooring when it comes to cleanability. Most dirt, grime and food wipes off easily, and bigger messes clean thoroughly with just soap and water

Water resistant. Since children are prone to spills, you also need flooring to stand up to liquid. All vinyl flooring is water resistant. And some vinyl flooring is even 100% waterproof, trapping liquid on the surface to protect your subfloor from damage and mildew

Comfortable underfoot. Many flooring options are hard and unforgiving. Vinyl flooring is resilient, meaning it absorbs impact. Not only will it ease your children’s falls, it will also provide comfort underfoot in areas like the kitchen where you stand for long periods of time.

Sound dampening. Not only are children messy, but let’s face it, they can also be incredibly loud. The harder your floors, the more sound will reverberate through the house, amplifying all your children’s squeals, shrieks and general noises. There is no magic mute button for your children, but vinyl flooring absorbs sound, making their outbursts a little less deafening. The addition of a quality underlayment will enhance the sound dampening attributes of your floor as well

VINYL FLOORING

Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT), the fastest growing category in flooring, is possibly the most eco-friendly flooring in the world. It can be endlessly recycled. It has no heavy metals, no solvent based inks, no formaldehydes, and no PCP and components considered carcinogenic in it at all. It’s fire resistant and doesn’t release toxic gases. And importantly, it looks good.

Vinyl flooring and vinyl tiles are trendy, easy to maintain and perfect for nearly every room in your home. Interior designers have worked to provide ranges with some of the best colours and flooring designs in the world. Stone, slate, wood, and tile; vinyl tiles come in all of these clean and modern looks. If your home has real wood floors in some areas and you want to continue the theme throughout, then vinyl in a wood finish is a good option for the wet or high traffic areas where real wood would stain easily and possibly warp

The reason most people go for carpet is that it’s got warmth, comfort and it’s quiet. It makes your toes feel nice. You want all that – but you don’t want carpet. Thankfully today’s sophisticated vinyl floors can give you all the warmth, comfort and quiet you require. The soft, absorbent backing reduces noise and provides insulation against the cold. And it’s easy to maintain

Tips to help you choose the right luxury vinyl floors

The fastest growing segment in hard surface flooring is luxury vinyl tile. LVT comes in a multitude of options which is giving it its popularity. You can customize color, pattern, design and so much more with ease of installation and maintenance

Consider its purpose

You need to know about the product’s wear layer. If you are choosing a floor for a high traffic area, you’ll need a thicker wear layer to protect the image layer underneath.

Know what the core is made of

Recycled floors are environmentally friendly; many LVT floors are made from raw, pure materials such as virgin PVC. It reduces the possibility of shrinking which makes it more durable. It also stops the risk of recycling toxic or harmful chemicals into LVT that is found most present in post-consumer material. Virgin PVC produces a constant, quality product that is durable and is equipped with a durable core.

Consider the environmental impact

The nature of high-performance luxury vinyl does not provide itself to using recycled material. You can still choose to purchase your products from suppliers, manufacturers, and companies that meet industry standards for sustainability and environmental stewardship. 

Vinyl flooring & luxury vinyl tiles

Brighten up your home with Quick-Step Vinyl flooring’s natural looks and characteristic warmth. Quick-Step Vinyl is perfectly compatible with underfloor heating. Choose from a wide range of vinyl floors suitable for all needs and circumstances. All are equipped with a protective top layer that ensures your floor will keep its good looks for years to come.

Quick-Step luxury vinyl flooring are more than just beautiful and comfortable floors: they’re the result of decades of research and expertise-building to create flooring that stands the test of time. Discover how we ensure that your vinyl floor can take the hustle and bustle of daily life – day in and day out, for years to come.

A pleasure to walk on

Treading on a Quick-Step vinyl floor is a pleasant experience in every way: their natural designs catch the eye, they feel soft and warm, and their acoustic performance gets rid of any unwanted noise from heels, boots, trainers or paws.

Irregular subfloor?

Working on an irregular subfloor? (i.e. with an old tile floor with grouts of 5mm width and 2mm deep) Then, Quick-Step Rigid vinyl is your floor of choice. On top of that, it’s easy to install and extremely silent.

evelled subfloor?

If your subfloor is smooth or if you will level it, our Glue+ vinyl floors are the way to go. Suitable for all areas, including sunrooms. You can even install them on walls.

VINYL CLICK FLOORING OR LAMINATE FLOORING : WHAT SHOULD I CHOOSE?

Laminate flooring or vinyl click flooring? At first glance, these two floors, the first consisting mainly of a HDF panel combined with a decorative sheet, the other vinyl, seem relatively similar. In particular, they share the click installation system (floating installation) which allows them to be laid easily and quickly. We compare the two flooring options in 5 points. Which is the most suitable for your application?

The performance of both flooring solutions are measured different. Vinyl flooring is usually coated with a protective layer called the wear layer which varies in thickness depending on the intended area of use, which thus ensure an increased resistance to wear, scratches and abrasions. Laminate flooring is also protected by several finishes, but its strength will be determined by its AC classification (Criteria of Resistance to Abrasion) ranging from 1 (very low) to 6 (very intense).

Laminate is the most sensitive to shocks and scratches and thus has a shorter life span than vinyl flooring; unless you choose a laminate flooring of excellent quality, this flooring is preferred for applications with lighter use. Both laminate and LVT flooring nevertheless highlight models suitable for residential as well as commercial applications, whilst luxury vinyl flooring is also suitable for industrial uses too.

For conservatories, it is strongly discouraged to install laminate floor as it is much more likely to be deformed from the high temperature fluctuations. In conservatories, glue down vinyl flooring is the better option, but the most superior choice would be rigid vinyl flooring, because of its superior rigid core, it is particularly resistant to temperature changes.

Due to its vinyl composition, luxury vinyl flooring is impervious and therefore perfectly adapted to a bathroom or kitchen installation. This is not the case for most laminates! Their wood fiber panel does not mix well with moisture: it is therefore strongly discouraged to choose laminate for the renovation of damp rooms, at the risk of your floor swelling and warping.