Vinyl Tile vs. Ceramic Tile Comparison Guide

For environments where the flooring is likely to be subject to moisture or staining agents, homeowners are often faced with deciding between vinyl tile and ceramic tile, both of which are excellent at shedding moisture and good at resisting stains. This choice most often comes into play for kitchens and bathrooms.

However, despite the fact that vinyl tile is often designed to mimic ceramic tile, these materials are entirely different substances and they have much different characteristics when it comes to installation, maintenance, and real estate value. Learning about their differences will help you make the right choice.

 

Vinyl Tile vs. Ceramic Tile: Major Differences

Vinyl tile is essentially the same material as is used for sheet vinyl flooring—a very thin, manmade product made from PVC plastic with a felt or fiberglass backing layer and covered with a printed design layer and clear wear layer. For the tile form of flooring, the vinyl is simply cut into squares that range from 9 to 18 inches across. Some forms of vinyl tile, called composite tiles, include some amount of pulverized stone dust in their manufacturing process. This gives them somewhat more realism than plastic-only vinyl tiles.

Yet another form of vinyl tile is luxury vinyl, a much thicker form of vinyl flooring that joins together with click-lock edges rather than being applied with a troweled-on mastic. Luxury vinyl is available both in plank form and tile form; the tiles are generally known as LVT, or luxury vinyl tiles. These have a bit more prestige than standard vinyl tiles and are also more expensive.

Ceramic tile is made from natural earth clays mixed with other materials, covered with a surface glaze, and fired in ovens to harden them. Porcelain is a particular category of ceramic tile; porcelain tiles are made from finer clays and are fired at higher temperatures to make them harder and more durable.

Ceramic tile can be used other on floors, or for countertops, walls, or showers, while vinyl tiles are used only as a flooring material.

 

Appearance

Vinyl Tile

While vinyl floor tile is often designed to look like ceramic tile, the mimicry is rarely very convincing; most everyone can tell the difference between a vinyl floor and a ceramic or stone tile floor. However, vinyl floor tile does come in a huge array of colors and styles. From a pure design view, you will have every choice you could possibly want.

 

Ceramic Tile

Ceramic tile is also available in a wide array of colors and styles, though you will pay quite a bit for the more designer forms of tile. Ceramic tile provides a lot of prestige as a flooring material. Porcelain tiles, in particular, come in many very attractive choices as a designer flooring material.

 

Best for Appearance: Ceramic Tile

Few people would dispute that ceramic tile has the edge when it comes to appearance. Vinyl tile, after all, generally aims at mimicking ceramic tile and it is usually easily identified as the imposter.