Wear Layer On Vinyl Planking

The wear layer is simply an extra layer of protection placed between the printed design of your vinyl plank or tile flooring material and the protective finish that goes on the very top.

Wear layer on vinyl planking.

Even with a thicker wear layer your floors may not last as long as you d think. If you have an active family or an assemblage of pets consider buying 20 mil or higher. With new technology some vinyls now offer added uv or durability layers on top of the wear layer for even more surface protection. After all the wear layer is basically a bodyguard for your flooring.

The composition of the wear layer wear layers of many luxury vinyl floors are composed at least in part of pvc. Lifeproof s lvp only has a quarter of the wear layer found on karndean s plank but is around 3 20 per square foot compared to around 5 00 per square foot for the korlok select. The wear layer is usually a clear urethane based coating that keeps the original appearance of the floor and provides easy maintenance. Put simply the wear layer is the top surface that provides the durability stain and scratch resistance of vinyl flooring.

What the luxury vinyl wear layer does is protect your floors from scratching and denting keeping them looking their best for a lot longer. While these planks are also close in size the difference again lies with the wear layer. You should look for vinyl planks with a wear layer of at least 12 mil. However if your vinyl flooring will be in the midst of your rough and tumble life then definitely thicker is better.