Ceramic Tile vs Laminate Vinyl Flooring

[Pettrix]

I am getting ready to install flooring in my new house. It's a slab on grade build so the floor is concrete (5,000 psi). It's been exposed for 1.5 years and no movement/cracks/moisture. I am in Arizona so moisture is not an issue out here.

I am contemplating with going with LifeProof Luxury Vinyl Plank (8.7" x 48") from Home Depot that is 30 mils thick. It comes out to around $3.59 per square foot or around $5,000 for the 1,400 sqft that I want the flooring installed in.

The other flooring I am contemplating is TrafficMaster Vigo Ceramic floor tile (12" x 24") from Home Depot which comes out to 0.89 cents per square foot or around $1,250 for the 1,400 sqft.

Price wise, ceramic tile is $3,750 less but I know labor will cost me more to install tile than it would for vinyl. The vinyl flooring is more comfortable to walk on and "warmer" in the winter than tile.

So any input on the pros/cons of vinyl vs ceramic flooring. Curious to also hear what labor costs for installing ceramic tile vs vinyl flooring, would be helpful. Thanks!

 

[ponytug]

While I don't mind padded vinyl/linoleum flooring for its walking comfort, and cleanliness, I think tile is much more durable, and will stand up to general wear and tear. I would buy extra tile for that occasion when something dumb happens like when some guest drops a cast iron pan on the floor. I have not been a fan of vinyl plank personally. I prefer concrete or real wood.

Have you thought about going with an epoxy floor?

All the best,

Peter

 

[ultrarunner]

These days very much personal preference…

I’ve managed a few places with ceramic on concrete that had pipe break or water on floods and no damage…

The plank may not be water damaged but important no water is trapped under the plank.

Tile can be damaged by impact and plank more forgiving…

Then there were times when a log rolled out of the fireplace in a rental… tile no issues… plank, wood, carpet not so lucky.

I’ve seen pets damage plank but it may have been low end?

 

[LouNY]

Drop most anything on tile and something breaks, either it or the tile.
Danged cold on your feet during the night or in the morning.
Also very tiring on your feet and legs, just like being on concrete all day,
the vinyl cushioning is much more comfortable.

 

[jmc]

Build my house in 1992; ceramic in the kitchen, Armstrong one piece vinyl flooring in bathrooms and mud room. So, side by side comparison.

Ditto about ceramic being durable, cold and hard on dropped items. Also, the grout is hard to clean if you're picky about it.

Vinyl looks as good as the day it was laid. Easy to clean and no seams to curl, leak, or trap dirt. Slippery when wet.

Personal preference- I picked a vinyl pattern that looked nice without trying to imitate the look of another material.

 

[nyone]

When people say "Luxury vinyl plank"...its just plastic brother. Theres no reason to spend $3.50sqft on plastic flooring.

I have $1.10sqft stuff in a cabin. Yes it's cheap and should be. No I dont expect it to last 40yrs like the $2.50sqft red oak I put in my house. Vinyl is cheap and disposable for a reason.

 

[hodge]

I spent 32 years as a tile setter. Here's my opinion- both have their virtues. Vinyl plank is very durable, so I wouldn't be scared of it. My daughter has it in her house, with 3 busy kids and 4 rambunctious dogs. It has done extremely well, with no damage.
If installed correctly, tile is a fantastic floor. It is extremely durable, and easier to repair than most other choices.
However, as said above, it's more about preference. So, my primary thought is the future. Vinyl plank will be very easy to replace, if needed. Tile is a bear, if it needs to be pulled up, and exponentially more expensive.

 

[EddieWalker]

I remodel homes for a living. I've installed quite a bit of vinyl floor, but a lot more tile then anything else. I like the new varieties of vinyl planks flooring. I've been in brand new, high dollar homes with it that looked so much like wood that I couldn't tell. Even after touching it and looking close, I still couldn't tell that it was vinyl. Usually I install it in wet areas, play areas, and utility type rooms. I've done it a few times in dinning rooms too. I liked it so much that I installed it in my house when I added on a work room for our garden and dogs. Now that we've lived with it for a few years, we hate it.

It's super fast and easy to install. The issue is in keeping it clean. We have red clay and big dogs that shed constantly. It's proven almost impossible to keep it clean. Roomba only does so much. Even after mopping it, there is a haze that shows up when the light hits it just right.

Hopefully sooner, rather then later, I'm going to remove it and install tile. Nothing is easier to clean then tile. Modern grouts do not stain like older grouts. You can also set the tile a lot closer together, so the grout lines are usually 1/8 of an inch instead of half an inch like it used to be. Technology has also gotten better at making tile, so bigger tile is more common.

Personally, for my home, we like earth tones, and tile with a grip to it. With our dogs, we want them to be able to get up without slipping, to be able to run out the doggy door without slipping, and it's also nice for us to not have a slippery floor.

I'm also going to replace the wood flooring in my living room. It's beautiful, but it's been there for 15 years, and it's showing its age. The tile still looks brand new in the rest of the house, but 15 years of dogs, red clay, and furniture moving around has proven to us that tile is the only thing to use in our home.

 

[Oaktree]

Vinyl looks as good as the day it was laid. Easy to clean and no seams to curl, leak, or trap dirt. Slippery when wet.

Tile is slippery when wet too.
Agree with LouNY about it being cold and rough on the feet and legs.

 

[jyoutz]

I am getting ready to install flooring in my new house. It's a slab on grade build so the floor is concrete (5,000 psi). It's been exposed for 1.5 years and no movement/cracks/moisture. I am in Arizona so moisture is not an issue out here.

I am contemplating with going with LifeProof Luxury Vinyl Plank (8.7" x 48") from Home Depot that is 30 mils thick. It comes out to around $3.59 per square foot or around $5,000 for the 1,400 sqft that I want the flooring installed in.

The other flooring I am contemplating is TrafficMaster Vigo Ceramic floor tile (12" x 24") from Home Depot which comes out to 0.89 cents per square foot or around $1,250 for the 1,400 sqft.

Price wise, ceramic tile is $3,750 less but I know labor will cost me more to install tile than it would for vinyl. The vinyl flooring is more comfortable to walk on and "warmer" in the winter than tile.

So any input on the pros/cons of vinyl vs ceramic flooring. Curious to also hear what labor costs for installing ceramic tile vs vinyl flooring, would be helpful. Thanks!

Good ceramic tile installed over concrete lasts forever unless you drop something heavy and crack one. It’s easy to keep clean and stays looking nice. But be sure to buy extra for replacements if you go this route. Because 10 years later, that particular style/color will be discontinued.

 

[ultrarunner]

Build my house in 1992; ceramic in the kitchen, Armstrong one piece vinyl flooring in bathrooms and mud room. So, side by side comparison.

Ditto about ceramic being durable, cold and hard on dropped items. Also, the grout is hard to clean if you're picky about it.

Vinyl looks as good as the day it was laid. Easy to clean and no seams to curl, leak, or trap dirt. Slippery when wet.

Personal preference- I picked a vinyl pattern that looked nice without trying to imitate the look of another material.

I did the 2 week Armstrong installation school back when sheet vinyl was big part of their consumer market.

The inlaid Solarium full spread was tough and you could gouge it if you really tried.

The less expensive products made on a printing press could rip easily such as when moving a refrigerator…

 

[riptides]

Personal preference for me is tile.

Been replacing and redoing floors on the properties and it is now refinishing original woods or tile installs. Carpet and viynl are not part of our going forward.

 

[ultrarunner]

Tile is slippery when wet too.
Agree with LouNY about it being cold and rough on the feet and legs.

Brother went slate tile at the ranch with radiant heating under the slate tiles… no worse for wear and the it’s not burning in a fire.

 

[2manyrocks]

Ceramic tile is about as durable as it gets. Just pay attention to whether you're getting a tile that is slippery or not.

 

[Rmart30]

Have you seen some of the stained concrete floors that are made to look like wood or tile?

 

[oosik]

We installed unglazed quarry tile in the kitchen. It has functioned well for 43 years now. Every year I scrub it spotless and seal it with a product designed for unglazed tile. The quarry tile has just enough surface roughness to be non-slip.

 

[Pettrix]

A lot of good information, I appreciate that.

One thing that concerns me about vinyl flooring is the area I live in has a lot of small rocks & sand that can get stuck onto shoes. I usually always remove my shoes when going inside but sometimes guests don't do that. I'm worried about rocks & sand scratching the vinyl flooring when on the bottom of shoes. I know tile is much stronger in regards to scratches.

 

[2manyrocks]

It is possible for the pointed edge of a rock lodged in a shoe tread to crack through the finish layer of ceramic tile. I don't think sand is going to affect tile much.

 

[Oaktree]

One thing that concerns me about vinyl flooring is the area I live in has a lot of small rocks & sand that can get stuck onto shoes. I usually always remove my shoes when going inside but sometimes guests don't do that. I'm worried about rocks & sand scratching the vinyl flooring when on the bottom of shoes. I know tile is much stronger in regards to scratches.

Wood floors are very susceptible to that too, well at least "real" wood. Maybe some of the modern engineered wood stands up better, dunno, don't have any experience with it. Other than vinyl in the kitchen and bathroom, all our floors are wood. We always remove shoes before coming in, don't have company often enough that it's a big problem.

I have to ask the tile floor proponents, what's underneath them? I can see it working well with a cement slab, but wouldn't a joist-and wood subfloor have too much "give" for tile? Given that it's brittle, you'd think any give in the floor would cause cracking.

 

[2manyrocks]

Tile over wood floor generally requires an added layer of subfloor material to avoid flexing.