Will Vinyl Floors Scratch?

Homeowners who are thinking of making the upgrade from their current carpet to luxury vinyl plank flooring want to ensure that their hard-earned dollars aren’t going to waste. They want something durable and long-lasting. As we have already seen, vinyl floors hold up well with exposure to water and are extremely durable. But will vinyl floors scratch easily?

If you’re thinking about how luxury vinyl flooring will hold up in a household with lots of traffic, here is what you need to know before you start shopping.

Is Your Vinyl Floor Scratch Resistant? 

A vinyl floor is a great option for families that have little kids and pets, both of whom are notoriously hard on the daily wear and tear of your floor. They are fairly scratch-resistant, but it’s important to note here that no flooring option is going to be completely bulletproof. Every floor surface can and will scratch under the right circumstances.

What we do see with vinyl plank flooring is that it’s a lot more resistant to wear and tear.

Luxury vinyl plank flooring and luxury vinyl tile are both covered with a high-quality finish that is designed to stand up to normal wear and tear. These factory-applied finishes are applied under controlled conditions, making them as durable as anything else you could find on the market. Many of these finishes are made of aluminum oxide, the same durable finish that has been proven to stand the test of time on prefinished hardwood floors.

Plus, you have the wear layer that separates the finish of the floor from the actual picture of the design of the floor beneath. The wear layer usually varies in thickness from 6 mil to 20 mil with higher numbers indicating thicker wear layers. If your floor does scratch, the wear layer takes the damage as opposed to the design of the floor. This is why higher-end vinyl usually has a thicker wear layer.

Minimizing Deeper Scratches on Luxury Vinyl Floors

Whether you go with hardwood, laminate flooring, or a luxury vinyl floor, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. There are lots of things you can do to bolster its scratch resistance and ensure that your floors look new for years to come.

You can help minimize deeper scratches on your floor that can help it last for years to come with a few simple actions:

• Regularly sweep or vacuum to remove sand and dirt that can abrade your finish.
• Place felt pads underneath furniture, especially dining room table chairs and heavy furniture that moves. Replace pads as needed since trapped sand may scratch the floor when chairs slide back and forth.
• Keep pet nails trimmed and walk them on the pavement a few times each week which helps file down the rough edges of their nails.
• Use area rugs to minimize traffic on your floors in the main living areas.
• Keep welcome mats by the front door to prevent tracking in rocks and abrasives.

Sometimes, it isn’t scratches that you are worried about so much as it is a scuff mark. Fortunately, these can be very easy to buff out using nothing more than a clean tennis ball and a little elbow grease. There’s no permanent damage to your floor if you have some of these annoying black streaks on the finish.

Of course, you should also ensure that you properly clean your vinyl floors. This means that you clean them regularly with a safe and recommended product like Bona which is specifically formulated for your LVP or LVT floors.

Replacing a Board in Luxury Vinyl Flooring

Once upon a time, vinyl sheet flooring was the most durable option around. The major problem with this floor was what happened when it eventually tore or scratched. The only option was to trash the whole thing and roll out a new layer of flooring. A vinyl plank floor gives you more choices and may even save you some money.

LVP and LVT floors are designed to be installed via a click-lock mechanism. In theory, this means that you could pull up the floor until you reach the damaged plank, replace it, and then reinstall the flooring back to the wall.

However, you may find that some of the click-lock mechanisms break in the process of pulling boards up. This is normal and can happen even if you take the utmost care to install and uninstall it carefully. Consider buying a couple of extra boxes of flooring when you lay your floor because it could come in handy later on down the road if you need to replace scratched or damaged boards.

Let Woodboys Help You Decide on the Perfect Floor

Are you ready to invest in durable, scratch-resistant flooring? Woodboys can help you select the perfect flooring for your lifestyle and family. Whether you decide to browse the vast selection of vinyl in our Ladson showroom or you prefer for us to bring our mobile showroom to you, we can guide you to the perfect flooring. Give us a call today or fill out this contact form for one of our flooring specialists to reach out to you!