Laminate vs vinyl plank: the water question, answered properly

Laminate and vinyl plank get shortlisted against each other more often than any other pair on this site. In a photograph they are the same floor, and on a quote they land close enough that the decision comes down to a salesperson’s preference. They are not close in how they behave. The dividing line is water — but not in the way the word “waterproof” suggests.

What each one actually is

Laminate is a wood-based floor. A high-density fibreboard core carries a printed decor paper and a melamine wear layer, pressed together under heat. The core is the important part: it is wood fibre and resin, and wood fibre swells when it gets wet and does not go back.

Vinyl plank is a plastic floor. The rigid version, SPC, is PVC filled with powdered limestone — dense, hard and dimensionally stubborn. WPC is the same idea with a foamed core, so it is thicker, softer and warmer underfoot. Flexible LVT is the thin glue-down version. On top of all of them sits a clear PVC wear layer measured in mils, one mil being one thousandth of an inch.

“Waterproof” is a claim about the plank, not about your floor

Drop an SPC plank in a bucket for a week and it will come out the same size it went in. That is a true claim and it is the whole of the claim. Here is what it does not cover:

• The seams. A click joint is a mechanical fit, not a seal. Unless the manufacturer specifically states a sealed or gasketed profile, water on the surface finds its way down through the joints.
• The subfloor underneath. Water through the joints sits between a waterproof plank and an absorbent subfloor, in the dark, with no airflow. The plank is fine. The OSB is not, and you will smell it before you see it.
• The perimeter. The expansion gap every floating floor needs, hidden behind the baseboard, is an open path to the subfloor and the bottom plate of the wall.
• Standing water. A weeping supply line behind a dishwasher does not respect the boundaries of a room. It travels under the whole floating field and surfaces somewhere else.

The practical version: in a laundry, a full bathroom, or anywhere with a water connection you cannot see, the assembly that actually resists water is a full-spread glue-down or a sheet product with sealed seams — not a floating plank, however waterproof the plank is alone.

Laminate fails the same test faster and permanently: water reaches the core, the fibre swells, the edges pillow up, and the plank never recovers. Water-resistant laminate is a real improvement — treated cores, sealed edges — but read the wording rather than the badge. Those ratings are almost always a surface-spill claim with a time limit measured in hours, wiped up, from above. None describes a leak from below or a damp slab.

The wear surface: which one actually scratches

This is the one laminate wins, and it wins it clearly enough that people who have only ever been told “vinyl is better” tend not to believe it. A melamine wear layer is genuinely hard — harder than the urethane-coated PVC on a vinyl plank. Laminate’s abrasion performance is graded on the AC scale, where AC3 is the usual residential grade and AC4 and AC5 step up to heavier traffic. Vinyl’s equivalent number is the wear layer thickness in mils: 6 mil is light-duty, 12 mil is the common residential figure, 20 mil and up is what you want with dogs or a busy entry.

• Grit and claws: laminate resists surface scratching better at a comparable price. Sand tracked in on boots is what dulls a floor, and melamine shrugs it off longer than PVC does.
• Dents and gouges: vinyl loses this one. A dropped tool leaves a permanent dimple in SPC and can cut it outright; the same impact on laminate is more likely to chip the decor layer, which is uglier but localised.
• Heat and sun: vinyl’s weakness, not laminate’s. PVC expands and contracts with temperature, so a wall of south-facing glass, a sunroom, or a cottage swinging from −20 °C to +30 °C is a real constraint. Expansion gaps and the stated temperature range are not optional there.
• Humidity: laminate’s weakness. The core is wood, so it responds to the same seasonal swing that moves a hardwood floor, just less visibly.
• Refinishing: neither can be refinished. Ever. On both, repair means replacing planks.

Sound, and what it feels like underfoot

Laminate over a fibreboard core is the source of the hollow tick everybody recognises, and the underlay matters more than the plank does for it. An attached pad is a convenience, not automatically a good pad.

SPC is dense and quieter to walk on, but it is thin and hard, and over a slab it is genuinely cold. WPC is the warmer, softer option and costs more for that reason. In a condo none of this is a preference: the board sets an impact-sound requirement and approves the underlay, not the floor. Get that approval in writing before you order.

Repairs, and the problem that shows up in year five

Any floating click floor can be taken apart from the nearest wall and put back — count the rows before deciding it is a disaster. Glue-down LVT is the easiest single-plank repair of the lot: cut it out, scrape the adhesive, glue a new one in. A laminate plank mid-field has to be cut out and the replacement glued at the tongue, which is a competent-DIY job rather than a five-minute one.

Whichever you pick, keep a box. Colour drifts between production lots, and a discontinued floor cannot be matched at any price.

Where each one genuinely wins in a Canadian home

Price, and the one comparison that is invalid

Here is what our own catalogue says, counting flooring lines only — trims, underlay, adhesives and tools are excluded, because including them drags the figure somewhere that describes nothing you would install.

Now the warning, which matters more than the table. Those medians are per listed unit — per box, per piece, per roll — and the two categories are not listed in the same units. You cannot read one row against the other and conclude that a material is cheaper: a box covering 30 sq ft and a box covering 18 sq ft are not comparable numbers. Do it the only way that works — pick two products you would actually buy and divide each price by the coverage printed on its own carton.

The other half of the budget is the part nobody quotes. Stair nosings, reducers, T-mouldings and end caps, underlay and levelling compound turn a cheap floor into an average-priced one.

How to shortlist without regretting it

1. Settle the water question room by room before you look at a single photo. It eliminates one of the two materials in about half of a typical house.
2. For laminate, find the AC rating. For vinyl, find the wear layer in mils. Where the manufacturer publishes those, they are in the spec table on the product page — and where they are not, ask us and we will go to the technical sheet.
3. Order samples in both materials. Put them on the floor in daylight and under the lamps you actually use, then drag a key across the face of one.
4. Add up the finished floor height — plank plus underlay plus anything you have to level with — and check it against the gap under your doors before you order.
5. Read the installation instructions before buying. Many rigid vinyl products cap the size of a continuous field and need a transition beyond it, which decides whether an open-plan floor runs through in one piece.
6. If something does have to come back: 30 days, unused and in the original packaging, a 15% restocking fee may apply once the refund assessment is complete, and return shipping is yours to pay. Which is the entire practical argument for ordering samples first.

Shop what this guide covers

• laminate planks — the wood-based side of this comparison, above grade and dry.
• vinyl planks (LVP and SPC) — the plastic side: SPC, WPC and glue-down LVT.
• sheet vinyl and linoleum rolls — the seamless option for a laundry or a full bathroom.
• underlayment — the layer the warranty on either floor depends on.
• How much flooring to order — before you put either one in the cart.