What is SPC flooring? Your ultimate guide to SPC flooring

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  In this article, you are expected to get inspired from these aspects:

 ① What is SPC flooring?

 ② What are the key features of SPC flooring

 ③ When should you turn to SPC flooring?

 ④ SPC maintaining tips

 ⑤ Popular myths of SPC flooring

 ⑥ Marketing trend(for wholesalers): is SPC a wise choice to manage?

Let's get started!

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◆What is SPC flooring?

Notion

SPC flooring, subset of PVC floor(i.e. vinyl flooring), also regarded as a variety of hybrid floor, a kind of composite core flooring, a kind of *resilient flooring.

''SPC'' being the acronym of ''Stone Plastic Composite'' or ''Stone Polymer Composite''.

SPC floor also comes in the name of ''rigid core flooring''.

*RFP-Resilient Flooring Product

This umbrella term includes flexible flooring options such as vinyl, rubber, and linoleum. These materials are known for their ability to withstand heavy use while maintaining comfort and safety underfoot.

Components

As its name refers, SPC flooring mainly consists of limestone and polymer ingredients.

However, these two components could actually be founded in most of nowadays PVC floor formulae, so the only difference between SPC floor/WPC floor/Luxury vinyl is the ratio of each ingredient within the whole system.

The formulae directly affects attributes of the SPC flooring produced, so often viewed as a kind of business secret.

Structure

SPC flooring, like most of the PVC flooring, comes in layers:

On the very surface comes the UV coating layer(also called urethane finishes). Then being the wear layer beneath(component being aluminum oxide). 

Under the wear layer is the color paper(i.e. decor-layer, design layer). 

Then comes the core layer. 

People sometimes see a layer of underlayment(backing layer) attached on the backer of SPC floor's core layer sometimes.

*Detailed parameter of SPC flooring and the choice on finishes(matt/glossy; EIR, texture, etc.) will be discussed in passages to follow. 

We hereby gives an example of SPC flooring test report. ↘↘↘

SPC-SGS EN.pdf

Above being the very basic structure of SPC flooring. 

To enhance SPC flooring's performance sometimes flooring industry could see extra layer of extra-thin luxury vinyl attached above/under the limestone-polymer core layer. A balance paper is sometimes employed between the core layer and underlayment layer. Glass fiber shaped in net sometimes also added between layers to reinforce the entire stability performance.

◆What are the key features of SPC flooring?

*It's water-proof(stay strong against spills and submersion).

*It's fire-retard.

Above two turn out to be the most outstanding features of SPC flooring.

*It's wear resistant.

Just in case you miss it, again the test report copy:

SPC-SGS EN.pdf

Does it extract or expand?

SPC floor seldom bows or blends. Instead, SPC flooring made in poor quality actually cracks, especially at the tongue/groove part.

Comparison

*SPC flooring VS. Solid wood flooring

Solid wood asks for really a lot more of cost, at the beginning and for later maintaining.

Solid wood is weaker against water submersion and fire.

Solid wood gives a better touch of real wood.

*SPC flooring VS. Engineered flooring

Similar as the comparison between SPC flooring and solid wood flooring.

*SPC flooring VS. Laminate flooring

Laminate flooring sometimes have a thicker wear layer, which makes its surface more durable.

As laminate floor is usually thicker(8-12mm, sometimes even 15mm), it provides a better touch of wood when stepping on. The thickness also helps to reduce the subfloor-flooring friction noise.

Thick laminate flooring seeks less of the subfloor leveling degree.

Even the best laminate floor cannot endure long-time submersion.

Laminate flooring is usually NOT so fire-retard as SPC flooring does.

*SPC flooring VS. Luxury vinyl flooring

Luxury vinyl comes in tiles and planks, yet SPC flooring mostly comes in planks, with a click-locking system.

SPC flooring is usually more hard as luxury vinyl flooring tends to be more flexible.

Vinyl flooring could be up to similarly thick as SPC does or even thicker, yet the very thin vinyl sheets are much thinner than SPC flooring.

Even though Vinyl flooring and SPC flooring both provide floating floor options, under most occasions they are strongly suggested to be installed on the very even subfloor.

*SPC flooring VS. WPC flooring

WPC flooring with wooden ingredients is weaker against submersion and fire.

WPC flooring made of no wooden ingredients perform similarly compared to SPC flooring against submersion and fire.

WPC flooring gives a softer touch against SPC flooring.

WPC flooring could be made thicker (similar as laminate floor) than SPC flooring.

These two varieties' price is competitive.

Summary: Pros and Cons of SPC flooring

*Pros

1 Healthy choice(non-formaldehyde)

2 Durable

3 Water-proof

4 Fire-retard

5 Moderate price

*Cons

1 Thin planks compared to WPC/solid wood

2 Performs common in terms of touch

3 Installed only on even subfloor

4 Weak against direct water-flow and sunlight

◆When should you turn to SPC flooring?

Installation of SPC flooring is relatively easy due to its click-lock design, making it a friendly choice for DIY.

This applies especially when you're having a very even subfloor whether it's wood or concrete. You can almost go ahead and lay your SPC flooring right on the original subfloor. It would be even better to add a layer of moisture-proof mat.

With wear layers on the top, SPC flooring is a good option for high traffic areas. Moreover, SPC flooring stands strong against spills, submersion and fire, making it an ideal choice for family kitchen, hotel lobby, basement, etc.

◆SPC maintaining tips

SPC flooring's wear resistant feature as well as its water-proof and fire-retard feature ensures that very little work needed to be done for its maintaining. One simple round of wet mopping plus another round of dry mopping will do the cleaning job.

Note: Make sure that you're only using the neutral cleanser, and avoid using sharp items(e.g. pen's top, scourer)when removing the stain.

Avoid prolonged, direct exposure against sunlight and water-flow.

◆Popular myths regarding SPC flooring

SPC flooring with water-proof feature matches bathroom usage

Yes, SPC flooring is water-proof(a higher level over ''water-resistant'', means the flooring can not only tolerate the spills but also the submersions). But this does NOT mean that it's a right choice for outdoor application/bathroom flooring.

During our detailed discussion with plenty of flooring specialists&manufacturers, we found that SPC flooring is actually not recommend for floorings that will see a direct&prolonged exposure against water(e.g. outdoor decking, shower room flooring). When it comes to these occasions, turn to some other options like the tiles, bricks, etc.

The reason? Even though each layer of SPC flooring is extremely durable, when these layers are combined, things changed. Different layer deformed (even at very little degree) differently against environment influence, making it likely to detach when time moves on.

So again, please avoid prolonged, direct exposure against sunlight and water-flow.

But really, if you are looking for outdoor flooring, try on water-proof WPC decking(this portfolio is designed for outdoor decoration).

The more limestone, the better stability

Even the most experienced flooring expert might make a mistake: they think the SPC flooring's key features(e.g. flexibility against temperature change, property of being water-proof)are bestowed by the limestone powder added during the production.

In fact, these features mentioned above mainly origin from the PVC ingredients and the stabilizer. Even though, it does not mean "the more PVC added, the better its quality will be". Anyway, a decent formula is the ultimate game-changer.

◆Marketing trend(for wholesalers): is SPC a wise choice to manage?

Take U.S. flooring market as an example: In the past 10 years we have seen how resilient flooring rises irresistibly and takes up a large share of the whole flooring market. And SPC flooring is the absolute super star amongst.

However, many wholesalers do see a trend that more stores/customers are leaving SPC flooring for laminate/WPC or even luxury vinyl floorings. This trend starts in this 2~3 years.

Industry leading voices pointed out that customers lose their trust in SPC flooring because more and more bastardized thin SPC planks flood into the market, bringing problems like broken tongues/grooves, discolored finish, too high requirement on subfloor.

Despite the doubts and challenges, SPC floor still ruins the resilient flooring domain. So it's almost a variety inevitable.

Choose wisely for thicker SPC flooring, which could help to reduce the problems that might occur. Just keep in mind that SPC flooring is never the most competitive choice for the economical flooring market. It is the middle-end flooring market with a balance of price-performance that will end up to be SPC flooring's battlefield.

Tips:

Thanks for your time to read this non-AI written article.

I will update this page from time to time, trying to keep all the understandings listed here being compliant with the industry's latest information.