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Hardwood vs Vinyl Plank: Cost Installed, Resale, Dogs, Water, Repairs, Radiant Heat and What Each One Costs Over 20 Years in an Ontario House
Flooring & Tile
Hardwood or Vinyl Plank? The Honest Comparison, Including the One Where the Vinyl Costs More
This is the decision in most houses now. Twenty years ago the choice was hardwood or carpet; today it is hardwood or a vinyl plank that photographs like hardwood and costs a little more than half as much installed. Both are good floors. Each is the wrong floor in some rooms, and the wrong one for some people, and the sticker price is the least useful thing to compare them on. Here is how they stack up on the things that matter in a house: money now, money over twenty years, dogs, water, repairs, feel, heat and what the next buyer thinks.
Side by side
| Engineered hardwood, mid | Vinyl plank (LVP / SPC), mid | |
|---|---|---|
| Installed, per sq ft | $10.75 nailed; $12.75 glued over a slab | $6.00 click; $7.00 glued |
| Material in the box | $5.25 | $3.25 |
| Labour | $5.50 nail-down | $2.75 click |
| Water on it overnight | Swells, cups, may not recover | Wipe it up. The plank is fine; what is under it may not be |
| Dog claws, grit, chair legs | Scratches the finish; dents in soft species | Scratches the wear layer, slower; dents less |
| Repair one damaged piece | Cut out and glue in a board, refinish to blend; a skilled job | Click floor: take it apart to the plank. Glue-down: heat and swap one plank |
| Refinish | Once or twice with a 3 mm or thicker wear layer | Never. Replace when it is done |
| Life in a family house | 30 to 50 years with one sanding | 12 to 20 years |
| Underfoot | Warm, firm, solid sound | Cooler, hollow on a float, better with attached pad or glue-down |
| Over radiant heat | Yes, glued or floated; sheet caps the surface at 27 to 29 C | Yes, most products; same sheet cap, check it |
| Resale | Listings say “hardwood throughout” for a reason | Neutral in a basement or rental; a quiet minus on a main floor over $800,000 |
Twenty years in a 600 sq ft living room
The installed gap on 600 sq ft is $6,450 against $3,600, a difference of $2,850. That is the number people decide on. It is not the number they pay, because floors do not last twenty years the same way.
| Year | Engineered hardwood | Vinyl plank |
|---|---|---|
| 0, installed | 600 x $10.75 = $6,450 | 600 x $6.00 = $3,600 |
| 12 to 15 | One sanding and refinish at about $5.00: $3,000 | Worn through at the kitchen door and the couch. Remove at $1.25 ($750) and replace at $6.00 ($3,600): $4,350 |
| 20 | Still there, second refinish still available | Second floor five to eight years old |
| Twenty-year cost | $9,450 | $7,950 |
The gap shrinks from $2,850 to $1,500 and the hardwood house is the one that lists for more. Skip the refinish and the hardwood is $6,450 for twenty years against $7,950, and now the vinyl is the dear floor. The refinishing number is a range of $3 to $8 a square foot and depends on the wear layer; refinishing explained, which is a trade I do not do and will not sell you.
Room by room
Living, dining, hall, bedrooms: hardwood, if the budget has it. These rooms are dry, they are where the house gets judged, and hardwood is the one floor that goes up in value as it ages instead of down.
Kitchen: either. Hardwood in a kitchen is fine for a careful household and a mistake for one that leaves the dishwasher running while they go to the cottage. Vinyl plank is the practical answer; porcelain is the permanent one.
Mudroom, laundry, bathrooms: vinyl plank or tile. Never hardwood. The one engineered floor I have seen fail in a mudroom had cupped a half inch across the width in one wet March.
Basement: vinyl plank, over a vapour retarder or a raised panel subfloor, or an engineered floor glued to a slab you have tested dry. Not solid hardwood, not ever. Basement flooring.
Over a heated slab: both work if the product sheet says radiant; the sheet caps the surface at 27 to 29 C, our slabs run warmer than that, 30 to 37 C at the surface, and above the sheet you are trusting experience and the product, not the warranty. I put glued engineered over the heated slabs in the ICF houses I build and have had no trouble with it in thirty years of radiant floors; vinyl plank over the same slab needs a product rated for it and room to move. The compatibility article has the rule, and the compatibility checker gives a yes or no for your floor and your system.
The arguments people make, and what I think of them
- “Vinyl is waterproof.” The plank is. The seams are not sealed, the subfloor under it is plywood or OSB, and a dishwasher leak runs under a click floor and sits there. Waterproof means you can mop it, not that you can flood it.
- “Hardwood scratches.” It does. So does vinyl, more slowly, and when the vinyl’s wear layer is through there is nothing under it. A scratched hardwood floor is a floor; a scratched vinyl floor is a countdown.
- “You cannot tell the difference.” From a listing photo, no. Standing on it in bare feet in January, yes. A floating vinyl floor sounds hollow and feels cool; glue-down and attached pads help.
- “Hardwood is for resale.” True on a main floor in a house priced for a family. False in a basement, a rental or a cottage, where a buyer sees hardwood and thinks about the water heater.
- “Dogs need vinyl.” A big dog with uncut claws scratches both. A hard species, a matte finish and a doormat beat either floor. What repairs cost either way.
Questions people ask
Is vinyl plank cheaper than hardwood installed?
Yes, by about $4.75 a square foot at mid grade: $6.00 against $10.75, supplied and installed, before HST. On a 600 sq ft room that is $2,850. Over twenty years the gap is closer to $1,500 because the vinyl gets replaced once.
Does vinyl plank lower home value?
Not in a basement, a rental or a cottage. On the main floor of a family house it is a quiet negative against a comparable listing with hardwood. Buyers do not deduct a number; they just like the other house more.
Which is better with dogs, hardwood or vinyl?
Vinyl plank resists claws longer and does not mind the water bowl. Hardwood in a hard species with a matte finish shows scratches less than people fear and can be refinished when it is bad enough. For a big dog and a busy family, vinyl in the entry and kitchen, hardwood everywhere else.
Can both go over radiant floor heating?
Yes, engineered hardwood and most vinyl plank, with the manufacturer’s sheet saying so in writing; the sheet caps the surface at 27 to 29 C and the warranty stops there. Solid hardwood over radiant is a riskier floor and wide solid planks are a bad idea.
Is engineered hardwood as good as solid?
For most Ontario houses it is better: more stable through our dry winters and humid summers, the only hardwood for slabs and radiant, and the same wood on top. A thick wear layer refinishes once or twice. The solid floor wins on sanding count only.
Price both for your rooms
The flooring cost calculator lets you put hardwood in one room and vinyl in the next and shows the installed total with prep and HST. If a contractor has quoted you one and you are wondering about the other, the $99 review reads the quote against both.
Sources and further reading
- National Wood Flooring Association: the installation guidelines every hardwood warranty points to: subfloor flatness, moisture limits, acclimation, fastening schedules and the radiant-heat chapter.
- Torlys: Canadian maker of engineered, vinyl and laminate floors; the installation and radiant-heat instructions are a good example of what the sheet in the box says.
- Mirage Hardwood Floors: Quebec-made solid and engineered hardwood; their installation guides give the moisture, acclimation and radiant limits in plain numbers.
