What is WPC? Why WPC?
Suppose you’re tackling a flooring project yourself. Suppose you want a beautiful-looking floor with a stunning finish that looks and feels like wood but doesn’t have the temperament of wood or laminate.
Waterproof Core (WPC) is a new-style floating installation floor that can be easily installed by a do-it-yourself person or a flooring contractor. Let's look at the pros and cons.
Pros
- Gorgeous Visuals – It’s easy to fall in love with the looks and styles of WPC. The color ranges, depth of textures, board lengths, board widths, colors, finishes, and breadth of species make WPC appeal to nearly any design style. While it is still relatively new in the history of the flooring industry, WPC has been one of the fastest-growing categories the industry has ever seen. Nearly every manufacturer carries or owns a line of WPC flooring. Some manufacturers have over 200 styles to choose from.
- It’s Waterproof – Past attempts at floating floors have failed to deliver a stable floor that is waterproof. WPC products can (though practically unlikely) be submerged in water and not be affected by it – meaning your kids and pets can spill all the liquids they want on it and it won’t delaminate or swell and peel like laminate flooring does.
- Simplicity – Most of the WPC products made today have a laminated cushion applied directly to the back of the flooring. This allows them to be installed right out of the box without the two-step process of cushioning rather than flooring. The small joint (but joints or cross joints) typically locks together with the ease of drop & lock systems that tap down or tap in-place with ease. These floors are easy to install and are often sought after by DIY consumers.
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With these three things in mind, it’s hard to find a ‘Con’, but there are some:
- It can expand with excessive heat and/or sunlight. While many manufacturers thought that they had it figured out, there is only one company that backs it up with an extreme warranty against expansion and contraction. We have seen some of these WPC products grow as much as 3” over a 24-foot-long area.
- The warranty excludes your product from protection against separation of the joints by adding verbiage in it to read that if your floor has a dip, bow, or hump of more than 1/32” in 2ft, it voids the warranty. Nearly every floor we have ever seen falls outside this minuscule tolerance; therefore, if your installed product fails, it’s not covered by their warranty.
- It can get scratched easily (It's vinyl), and it is not easy to repair. You must disassemble the floor to repair the damaged area. This means you must pull up the floor and replace the same pieces in their original spot and get everything back in place perfectly if you want to use the same pieces. Then, when trying to accomplish this tough feat, you must do it without damaging the locking mechanism on the pieces, or they will not perform, and it is even tougher than returning them to their original places.
Summary
All-in-all, WPC is a great floor. When compared to glued down luxury vinyl, it’s hard to say that WPC could perform better. It is a MUCH better option than laminate unless it’s exposed to abrasive debris (laminate is better). It’s also much better than “click” together luxury vinyl flooring.
If you’re in need of new flooring in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, or surrounding Corridor areas, EZ Floorz is your go-to professional flooring company.
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