Suppose you’re tackling a flooring project yourself. Suppose you’re wanting a beautiful looking floor with a beautiful finish that looks, and feels like wood, but doesn’t have the temperament of wood or laminate. Water Proof Core (WPC) is a new-style floating installation floor that can be easily installed by a do-it-yourself person or a flooring contractor. Lets 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 appealing 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 historically 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 effected 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 cushion then flooring. The small joint (butt joints or cross joints) typically lock together with the ease of drop & lock systems that tap down or tap in-place with ease. These floors are easy to install and often are sought after by DIY consumers.
With these three things in mind, it’s hard to find a ‘Con’ but there are some:
- I can expand with excessive heat and/or sunlight. While many manufacturers tout that they have 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 product 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 you floor has a dip, bow, or hump of more than 1/32” in 2ft that it voids the warranty. Nearly every floor we have ever seen falls outside this minuscule tolerance therefore if your installed product fails – its not covered by their warranty.
- It can get scratch easily (Its vinyl) and it is not easy to repair. You have to disassemble the floor to repair the damaged area. This means you have to 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 to do accomplish this tough feat, you have to do it without damaging the locking mechanism on the pieces or they are not going to perform (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 the Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, or surrounding Corridor area EZ Floorz is your go-to professional flooring company.
