You’d be amazed how often this question comes up halfway through an estimate. A couple of contractors have already been by, the homeowner has Pinterest open on their phone, and the only thing standing between them and new floors is figuring out laminate or LVP.
So here’s the actual breakdown, from someone who’s installed both all over the Triangle since 2010.
The Short Answer
In a Durham home, nine times out of ten you want LVP. The humidity, the kitchens with dishwashers that always die eventually, the dogs — LVP handles all of it. Laminate is still a great floor for the right room (a quiet upstairs bedroom in a careful house), but if you’re doing a whole first floor, just go LVP and stop second-guessing it.
That’s the answer. The rest of this post is the why, in case you want to know what you’re actually paying for.
What’s Inside Each One
People talk about these like they’re cousins. They aren’t really.
Laminate is mostly wood. The core is HDF — high-density fiberboard, basically compressed wood pulp. A printed image layer goes on top of that (the grain pattern you see), then a clear hard wear layer seals everything. It’s stiff and dense underfoot. Feels like wood because it kind of is wood.
LVP is plastic. PVC core, sometimes with a stone-plastic composite layer for rigidity (that’s SPC) or a wood-plastic composite (WPC). Same idea with the image and wear layer on top, just bonded to plastic instead of pressed wood.
That wood-vs-plastic thing is the whole story. Everything else flows from it.
Water
Durham summers are humid. Crawlspaces run 70% humidity for weeks at a time. Water heaters fail. Dishwashers leak. Kids spill apple juice and don’t tell anyone for three days.
Laminate handles a wiped-up spill. Anything beyond that and the HDF core swells. Once it swells, the seams puff up, and there’s no sanding it back down — you replace the planks. We’ve ripped out a lot of laminate for this exact reason.
LVP doesn’t care about water. You can stand in a flooded room and the planks themselves are fine. The subfloor underneath might need to dry out, but the floor itself stays put.
This is why we install five or six LVP jobs for every laminate job in Durham now. Most houses have at least one room where water is a real risk, and once people see the math they go LVP through the whole space for consistency.
How They Feel When You Walk on Them
Laminate feels more like real wood. There’s a slight crispness to the click of a heel on it. It’s denser, so it doesn’t have that hollow sound some cheap LVPs have. Walk on a quality laminate next to a quality engineered hardwood and you’d struggle to tell them apart with your eyes closed.
LVP is softer. Slightly cushioned, especially the WPC stuff. Easier on your knees if you stand at a kitchen counter for an hour making dinner. Quieter, too. But it doesn’t quite sound like wood when you walk on it, because it isn’t.
So: laminate if “feels like real wood” matters to you, LVP if you’re going to be standing on it a lot.
Scratches and Dents
Both use a wear layer measured in mils. Higher number, tougher floor. Anything 12 mil or up will hold its own with dogs and kids.
The differences:
- Laminate scratches less. The wear layer is harder. Sliding a chair, dropping a fork — it shrugs that off. The catch is that anything that breaks past the wear layer (water, a deep gouge) is a much bigger deal because there’s no fixing it.
- LVP dents more easily. The plastic core gives. Drop a heavy pan and you can leave a small permanent dimple. Cheap LVP under high heels and big dog claws over a few years will show wear.
For a house with two big dogs and a busy kitchen, LVP. The dent risk is lower than the water risk you’re avoiding.
Refinishing — Neither One
Hardwood you can sand down and refinish four or five times across its life. With laminate or LVP, the wear layer is what you’ve got. When it goes (15-25 years for either), you replace the whole floor.
This catches people off-guard sometimes, especially folks who grew up with real hardwood and assumed any wood-looking floor works the same way.
If you want a floor your grandkids inherit, get hardwood. These products are great, but they’re not generational.
What It Actually Costs in Durham Right Now
Real numbers from jobs we’ve done in 2025 and 2026:
| Floor Type | 800 sq ft Installed | Per Sq Ft |
|---|---|---|
| Budget laminate | $2,800 – $3,800 | $3.50 – $4.75 |
| Mid-grade laminate | $4,500 – $5,500 | $5.60 – $6.90 |
| Budget LVP | $3,200 – $4,200 | $4.00 – $5.25 |
| Mid-grade LVP | $4,800 – $6,400 | $6.00 – $8.00 |
| Premium SPC LVP | $6,500+ | $8.00+ |
Subfloor prep, old flooring removal, and stairs all add on. Stairs are the silent budget-killer — they take a long time and cost more per step than people expect. We give a full written estimate before any work starts.
For reference, real hardwood installed in Durham is running $8-$15 per sq ft right now. So either of these saves you real money.
Room by Room
Here’s how we usually advise on each space:
- Living room, dining room, bedrooms, hallways — either works fine. Laminate looks a touch more convincing as wood, and these rooms don’t have water exposure.
- Kitchen — LVP. Always.
- Bathrooms — LVP. Don’t even price laminate.
- Basement — LVP. Durham basements get damp.
- Laundry, mudroom — LVP.
- Sunroom or screened porch — actually neither. Temperature swings can mess with both. Tile is usually a better call.
- Whole house, all flowing together — LVP. It’s the only one of the two that handles every room.
Stuff Contractors Won’t Always Tell You
Cheap LVP can off-gas. Especially the bargain stuff coming in from overseas. If anyone in your house is sensitive to VOCs, look for FloorScore or GreenGuard Gold certifications. Laminate has fewer VOC issues in general.
The click-lock systems aren’t equal. Both are floating floors with click-together edges, but the cheap brands have weaker tongue-and-groove engineering and start coming apart at the seams over a few years. Pergo, Mohawk RevWood, COREtec, Shaw — these click and stay clicked. The no-name imports often don’t.
Subfloor prep matters more than the floor itself. We see this constantly. Homeowner picks a great product, hires the cheapest installer, 18 months later there are gaps and lifted planks. The flooring isn’t what failed. The prep was.
About “waterproof laminate” — a few brands have started selling it. It’s better than old laminate. It still isn’t LVP. If water is a real concern in the room, skip the laminate and go straight to LVP.
How We Usually Get to an Answer
When we’re standing in someone’s living room with a tape measure, the questions that decide it are pretty short:
- Pets? If yes, lean LVP.
- Kids? If more than one, lean LVP.
- What rooms? Kitchen or bath, LVP. Bedroom only, laminate is fine.
- How long are you in this house? Under five years, go cheaper, doesn’t matter much which.
- Do you cook a lot? LVP.
- Is “looks like real wood” near the top of the list? Then laminate, in dry rooms only.
For most Durham homes covering more than one room, mid-grade LVP wins this on the merits. For a single quiet upstairs space in a careful household, laminate is a beautiful floor and worth considering.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is LVP really worth more than laminate?
If the floor sees any water risk, yes. The price gap on a typical job is $500-$1,500. The cost of tearing out water-damaged laminate is the floor plus labor plus weeks of disruption. The math gets clear fast.
Can you install over my existing tile or hardwood?
Often, yes. Both products float, so we don’t have to nail or glue. The existing floor needs to be flat, dry, and stable. We check it at the estimate.
Does LVP fade in sunlight?
Budget LVP can. Better products use UV-stable wear layers. If you have a south-facing room with big windows, ask specifically about UV resistance before picking a brand.
Which one is better for resale in Durham?
Both beat carpet. Hardwood still beats both for resale, but for a starter home or a flip, either signals “this house is updated” to a buyer. LVP probably has a slight edge right now because it’s the current trend product.
Is laminate easier to repair than LVP?
Honestly, neither one is easy to repair mid-floor. They’re both floating click-lock systems, so swapping a damaged plank usually means pulling up everything from the wall to that plank and relaying it. We tell every customer to keep a few extra planks from the install for future repairs. It’s a small thing that saves you a lot later.
Do you handle removing the old floor?
Yes. Or pull it up yourself first to save on labor. Either way, we haul off the old material.
Want Help Figuring Out Which One Fits Your House?
We do free in-home estimates in Durham, Raleigh, Cary, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Wake Forest. We’ll walk the rooms, ask about your life, and tell you which way we’d go and why. No pressure to book.
See more about our laminate flooring installation in Durham, or call (919) 794-1116.
