LVT: The New Generation--domestic production and new technologies - Feb 2016

WHY LVT DOMINATES
Market Insights estimates that domestic LVT consumption for 2015 hit $1.185 billion, up nearly 8% from 2014 and now accounting for 12% of total U.S. flooring sales. LVT has now surpassed laminate flooring, which has sales of less than $1.1 billion. It’s also bigger than sheet vinyl ($860 million). Other vinyl categories are much smaller, with VCT at about $310 million, and peel and stick tile, which one could argue should be classified as the lowest end of LVT, comes in at about $177 million. LVT is still less than half the size of hardwood and ceramic, but that could change a decade down the road, or less. In both the residential and commercial markets, LVT is by far the fastest growing product category.

So how has LVT managed to rise to the top of the flooring market? Why isn’t ceramic tile or hardwood leading the field? Or sheet vinyl for that matter, since consumer aversion to vinyl is apparently not much of a factor for luxury vinyl? And what about laminate? Wasn’t that the big category killer at the turn of the century?

Back then, when laminate, led by Pergo, was plundering marketshare and along with hardwood shifting the market from carpet to hard surface, LVT’s qualities and its potential were far from the spotlight. And this was despite the incredible LVT products hitting the market. Amtico was the design leader, with bold vinyl-for-vinyl’s-sake colors and designs, along with some stone and abstracted wood looks. And other prominent firms like Tarkett offered LVT brands, as did Congoleum and Armstrong. Several foreign manufacturers had strong positions in the U.S. market, like Japan’s Toli, and in Europe LVT and other forms of vinyl tile were being developed by a range of firms, including Gerflor and Marley Floors.

So LVT’s early gains were secondary to other major influences on the market, and its impact on the flooring industry was also somewhat obscured by the diversified nature of its advance—rather than decimating one particular category, in smaller increments it took share from every category. And furthermore, the furious growth in flooring that followed the dotcom recession and the housing boom also shrouded these shifts in share—since all the flooring categories were still showing strong growth.

During these years, technological advancements also started to elevate the category. Designs became crisper, with higher resolutions and more advanced textures, similar to advances in ceramic and laminate flooring. Manufacturers started to experiment with grouted systems, installation options and other technical aspects.

Then came the Great Recession, and when the dust cleared, a new landscape was revealed. Several flooring categories, like broadloom, sheet vinyl, VCT and laminate, were struggling to make gains. Hardwood and ceramic were faring better, though not by much. And two categories were surging ahead virtually unencumbered: carpet tile and luxury vinyl tile.

While carpet tile’s gains have mostly come at the expense of commercial broadloom, luxury vinyl tile has taken share in both commercial and residential from every major hard surface category, and it’s also taken its fair share from broadloom. And on top of that, it has opened up design possibilities, particularly in the commercial market, enabling wood visuals where none existed before, like in hospitals, and convincing stone looks where the cost or performance of stone or even porcelain tile traditionally fell short.

What LVT brings to the table are key advantages over every category, sufficient to make a dent in each of them. When stacked up against porcelain tile, for instance, LVT brings equivalent design capabilities in terms of color, texture, resolution and realism, but it’s lighter, more resilient, warmer and softer underfoot, and generally less expensive—and installation is more straightforward. And when compared to hardwood, it offers equivalent visuals but far better performance, easier maintenance and less dent resistance. And LVT can offer wood visuals at a lower price than the real thing, particularly for exotics and other more costly hardwoods.

Then there’s VCT, which is generally a lot less expensive at the front end. VCT’s maintenance needs are as high as LVT’s are low, and when it comes to design the two are again at opposite sides of the spectrum, so it’s not surprising that VCT is the commercial product whose marketshare has suffered most from the rise of LVT. On the residential side, LVT’s gains have mostly come at the expense of laminate and sheet vinyl. Sheet goods cannot yet match the look of LVT in terms of realism, high definition and texture. Also, while LVT in wood or stone looks can fool even industry professionals, that’s rarely the case with sheet vinyl, even as the product continues to improve. 

In many ways, LVT and laminate are alike. The products both use synthetic surfaces to mimic the look of natural materials. They come in similar dimensions and are dominated by wood looks. Both offer glueless installation systems, though it’s far more common in laminate. Also, laminate is less expensive on average, and it’s more scratch resistant. However, it’s the other performance attributes that make the biggest difference, and that’s why LVT is embraced in the commercial market while laminate is still trying to find a foothold. Laminates have fiberboard cores, making them extra susceptible to moisture, and without sound deadening underlayments everyone walking on a laminate floor sounds like a tap dancer.

That’s why LVT is the fastest growing product in the flooring industry. It offers, on average, better performance, lower maintenance, easier installation, equivalent or better visuals and more design options for specifiers than are available in the other categories. It’s kind of like a 3D printer—vinyl goes in and out comes whatever you want.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?
In the ’70s, the term LVT, which back then stood for laminated vinyl tile, came into use to describe the next generation of PVC tile products, while in Europe firms like Amtico started describing their heterogeneous vinyl products as luxury vinyl tile, no doubt to distinguish them from low-end self-stick tiles. 

There’s no hard and fast definition for LVT, though it is generally agreed that it is a heterogeneous tile made up of a few layers of PVC, including a base, a print layer and a wearlayer. VCT, the other major vinyl tile category, doesn’t have a print layer and it also has a low vinyl content, around 17%. There’s also solid vinyl tile, most of which is homogeneous, with higher PVC content than VCT and similar visuals. But there’s also SVT on the market that has inlaid designs or print layers. And at the same time there is flooring like Congoleum’s Duraceramic, categorized as LVT but with high calcium carbonate content, making it in many ways closer to VCT.

Beyond all that, LVT constructions are changing, PVC replacement systems are being introduced, and the dimensions of the product are evolving. Plank shapes seem to have confounded the market; even though there’s no rule that says a tile has to be square, many manufacturers are labeling their rectangular wood look luxury vinyl tiles as luxury vinyl planks (LVP). Others are calling it all LVF, for luxury vinyl flooring.

Manufacturers would probably have a hard time dropping the “luxury” designation, but it really is frivolous. And one would think that the prominent domestic producers would actually want to distinguish themselves from bottom-of-the-barrel Asian imports, but instead they’re all LVT, or LVP…or LVF.

Going forward, the V in LVT will also be increasingly inaccurate. Products like Shaw’s EcoWorx tile, made of polyethylene, are clearly in the same category as luxury vinyl. And there are more products like that entering the market every year, resilient but not vinyl.

The confusion will likely sort itself out in the coming years, and it will all probably end up referred to as resilient tile. And as is the case now, some will be more luxurious than others.

THE NEW GENERATION OF LVT
A couple of years ago, US Floors modified a waterproof core used in China for decking and inserted it into LVT to create a hybrid product, which the firm called Coretec. The core is a wood plastic composite (WPC), and last year US Floors received a U.S. patent for the product. Since then, a handful of firms have introduced WPC products, possibly violating the patent.

While LVT is the strongest growing category in flooring, the most talked about product in both the residential and commercial markets is Coretec. The rugged construction and waterproof core have captivated consumers and retailers alike. The technology takes LVT to the next level, increasing the specification domain to include a wider range of applications, including wet environments, and helping it compete even more effectively against other hard surface products. And similar technologies are likely to follow.

Now Armstrong has come up with its own development on LVT produced at its new Thomas Armstrong LVT line in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The firm’s new Vivero LVT comes with a wearlayer with a Diamond 10 infused coating, which the firm says is four times harder than aluminum oxide wearlayers, and product demonstrations seem to back up the assertion. The initial launch features over 40 designs in four collections in gluedown or Välinge 5G click formats. The three wood lines and one stone line all come in 4-1/2” by 48” formats.

A wearlayer like that further increases the advantage over products like laminates and ceramics, which have the best scratch resistance in the flooring industry.

These new technologies by US Floors and Armstrong represent the first wave of developments. Plenty more will follow, and a lot of that will likely come from domestic producers focused on distinguishing their products from the Asian imports. 

Furthermore, as LVT continues to make inroads in the commercial market, pressure will build to make it increasingly environmentally sustainable. For some this may mean finding alternatives for PVC, like Shaw’s EcoWorx Resilient Tile, and for others it may be about finding ways of making PVC greener by using new plasticizers and other materials or by setting up large scale reclamation infrastructures. But one thing is for sure: it’s not going to stay the same.