Performance Vinyl Tile (PVT): Elevating Flooring Beyond Luxury

AUTHOR: Clay Moore, Mideast Regional Sales Manager, Ecore

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s PVT?

If you have ever been to a retail flooring store, or perused the aisles of Home Depot, you know what LVT is. “Luxury Vinyl Tile” or “Luxury Vinyl Plank” is a popular flooring product that can imitate stone tiles, planks of wood, or any other flooring visual imaginable. Click lock, Rigid Core, 12mil or 20mil wear layer, the features go on and on…but what about LVT is “Luxury”?

“Luxury” is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “the state of great comfort and extravagant living”. I have to say, in hearing that definition, LVT isn’t the first thing that pops in my head…in fact any flooring person will tell you that market saturation and intense competition have been driving both the quality and cost of the average LVT lower and lower since its introduction into the US market years ago. Sure, there are some “luxurious” visuals and looks that can be achieved with LVT but my experience tells me that most any high end designer is leaning more towards real wood, stone, marble, and more classic materials when it comes to flooring. LVT often finds its way onto spec sheets as a value engineered option or a budget friendly filler. So then, if LVT isn’t really about Luxury, what should it be about? 

There are some basic benchmarks that a flooring product must pass to be considered for commercial spaces: durability, maintainability, and affordability. But if you know anything about Ecore, you know that we have proven that a floor can do more. At its best, a flooring product shouldn’t be just a passive surface, it should be designed to benefit the person that interacts with it. 

Thus, the beating heart of Ecore is innovation. There isn’t a flooring type that we haven’t tried to inject with amazing features and benefits of composition rubber: turf, sheet vinyl, calendared rubber, the list goes on. In our minds, LVT was primed for some innovation, and we looked for gains in the same place we always do…Performance.

PVT (Performance Vinyl Tile) was born by taking a 2mm vinyl plank and using itsTRU technology, fusion bonding a 5mm composition rubber backing that dramatically enhances acoustic, ergonomic, and safety benefits: 

• No more double sticking an LVT to an underlayment in the multi-family building for acoustic benefits, it comes like that out of the box.
• No more bruised heels and sore tailbones at the yoga studio, the 5mm backing adds critical ergonomic benefits anywhere there is a body in motion.
• No more worry that the LVT at the daycare is hard as concrete, the rubber backing protects knees and elbows by providing a softer safer surface.

Ok, so installing LVT probably won’t make you feel like you are living a life of luxury, but PVT can at least start you down the path, with a quieter, more balanced, and safer space. To learn more about PVT, check out Ecoreintl.com.