Luxury vinyl plank (LVP)
Luxury vinyl plank has taken over the middle of the flooring market for good reasons: it takes water, it takes dogs, it takes dragged furniture, and modern printing and embossing make the good ones genuinely convincing. It has also filled up with products that look identical in a showroom and are not remotely the same floor. The wear layer is where that difference lives.
Wear layer is the number that decides how long it lasts
Two planks can carry the same photograph of oak, the same emboss and the same price, and wear completely differently. What separates them is the wear layer — the clear film over the printed surface, measured in mils. It is the only part of the floor that traffic actually touches, and when it goes, the print underneath goes with it and there is no refinishing it back.
For a quiet household a thinner wear layer is genuinely fine. For a family with dogs, a hallway that runs from the front door to the kitchen, or a rental between tenants, it is worth paying for a thicker one and buying a cheaper color if the budget has to give somewhere. It is the single easiest place to get value wrong in either direction.
The other half of the specification is the core. Rigid cores handle an imperfect subfloor and temperature swings better than flexible ones, which matters in a valley that goes from wet winters to genuinely hot summer afternoons. We match the core to the room and to what is underneath it, rather than carrying one product and fitting every house to it.
What's included
- Waterproof core suitable for kitchens, baths and laundries
- Wear layer specified for your traffic, not the price point
- Rigid and glue-down options depending on the subfloor
- Subfloor flattened and moisture-tested before anything goes down
- Acclimated on site before installation
- 10 year labor warranty, plus the manufacturer warranty on the material
Kitchens, entries, and anywhere water is a fact of life
LVP's real advantage is that it does not care about a spilled glass, a dog that comes in wet, or a dishwasher that weeps for a week before anybody notices. That makes kitchens, entries, laundries and bathrooms its natural home, and it is why so many valley houses now run it straight through the whole ground floor.
Running one floor continuously through the main living space is also the single best thing you can do for how a house feels. It removes the thresholds, it makes small rooms read as larger, and in homes where somebody uses a walker or a wheelchair it takes away the little height changes that are genuinely hazardous. We plan the floor heights across the whole level so those transitions land flush.
It is not the answer everywhere. Bedrooms are usually nicer in carpet, and if what you want is the actual character of timber underfoot, LVP is an imitation of it however good the emboss has become. We will say so. Where it is right, though, it is very hard to beat on the combination of cost, durability and how little it asks of you.
Luxury vinyl plank (LVP) we've installed
Waterproof planks over a subfloor that is not
The phrase waterproof does a lot of work in LVP marketing, and it is worth being precise about it. The plank is waterproof. The floor is not necessarily. Water that gets through a seam or around an edge sits on the subfloor underneath, and a particleboard or OSB subfloor will swell and telegraph through the new floor regardless of what the plank is made of.
So the work that matters happens before the first plank goes down. We flatten the subfloor, because a rigid plank bridging a dip will flex, click and eventually fail at the joint. We moisture-test slabs and check crawlspaces, which is not a formality in the low-lying parts of Tualatin, Beaverton and the valley floor. Where a vapour barrier is needed, it goes in.
Then the material gets acclimated in the room it will live in before it is cut. Wilsonville hit 116 degrees in June 2021 and our winters sit around freezing overnight — a floor installed tight to the walls in one of those conditions has nowhere to go in the other. Proper expansion gaps at every wall and every transition, hidden under the base, are what stop a floor from peaking.
We carry a ten year labor warranty on our installation, with the manufacturer's warranty covering the material. Both of those are only worth something if the preparation was done, which is the honest reason we spend the time on it.
What homeowners say
"Had vinyl floors installed. From the showroom to installation, very pleased with the outcome and service from Norman's."
Andy Scott Verified Google Review "Matt Norman was great to work with! Great customer service! Installation was smooth and easy. No complaints!"
Emilie Jacobs Verified Google Review
Luxury vinyl plank (LVP) questions
Is luxury vinyl plank really waterproof?
The plank is. The floor as a whole depends on the installation and on what is underneath it. Water can still travel through seams and around the perimeter and sit on the subfloor, so a spill wiped up is a non-event while a leak left for a fortnight is not. It handles everyday water far better than laminate or carpet, which is why we put it in kitchens and baths, but it is not a swimming pool.
Can you install LVP over my existing floor?
Sometimes, but we look first. Over a sound, flat, well-bonded surface it can be a good option and it saves the cost of removal. Over old sheet vinyl on swollen particleboard, or anything that is loose or uneven, it just buries a problem that will show through within a year. We tell you which one you have before you decide.
What wear layer should I be asking for?
It depends entirely on the house. A quiet couple can be well served by something modest; a family with two dogs and a hallway off the front door should be paying for a thicker one. Rather than quoting a number in the abstract, tell us who lives in the house and how the room is used, and we will point at the right shelf.
Does LVP feel cold or hollow underfoot?
Good LVP over a properly flattened subfloor feels solid and is warmer underfoot than tile. The hollow, clicky sound people associate with it almost always comes from a floor floating over dips that were never levelled, or from a missing or unsuitable underlayment. That is an installation problem, not a property of the material.
Flexible financing available
Luxury vinyl plank (LVP) by city
- Tigard Luxury vinyl plank (LVP)
- Lake Oswego Luxury vinyl plank (LVP)
- McMinnville Luxury vinyl plank (LVP)
- Tualatin Luxury vinyl plank (LVP)
- Wilsonville Luxury vinyl plank (LVP)
- Newberg Luxury vinyl plank (LVP)
- Woodburn Luxury vinyl plank (LVP)
- Sherwood Luxury vinyl plank (LVP)
- King City Luxury vinyl plank (LVP)
- Beaverton Luxury vinyl plank (LVP)
- West Linn Luxury vinyl plank (LVP)
Other floors we install
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Laminate
Laminate flooring supplied and installed around Newberg — a hard, realistic surface that has come a long way since the 1990s.
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Tile
Tile work around Newberg with a particular specialty in tile showers — including the waterproofing behind them that nobody ever sees.
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Carpet
Carpet supplied and installed across Newberg and the Willamette Valley, from bedroom re-carpets to whole houses.
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Floor removal & demo
Floor removal and demolition around Newberg — the old floor out, the subfloor assessed, and the mess taken away with it.
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Stairs & trim
Stair and trim work across the valley's hillside towns — treads, risers, nosings and the transitions that finish a floor properly.
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Quartz Counters
Quartz countertops for Newberg kitchens and bathrooms — templated, fabricated and installed as part of a full-service job.
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