Flooring brands

Every major brand sells several tiers. Comparing "Brand A" to "Brand B" is meaningless — compare a specific product line to a specific product line, at the same wear layer and the same warranty term. A brand's entry line and its premium line can be separated by more than the gap between two different brands.

Installed price bands give you a rough sense of where each brand sits: Mohawk $2–$8/sq ft, Flooret $2–$8, NuCore $3–$7, Shaw $3–$14, COREtec $4–$16. Overlap is enormous, which is the point — brand alone does not determine your price.

Read the warranty rather than the warranty headline. Vinyl plank warranties run roughly 5 to 20 years depending on brand, and the exclusions, the pro-rating and the requirement to have used an approved installer and approved cleaning products are where claims are won and lost. We won't paraphrase any specific manufacturer's terms here — get the actual document for the actual product before you buy.

Store-exclusive brands are real products, usually made by the same manufacturers, sold under a retailer's label. The trade-off is that if you ever need matching material, you are tied to that retailer's supply chain.

How to choose

Compare product lines, not brands

Same wear layer, same warranty term, same install method. Otherwise you're comparing nothing.

Get the warranty document before purchase

Ask for the PDF for that exact product. Salesroom summaries of warranty coverage are not the warranty.

Check whether the warranty requires a certified installer

Many do. Hiring outside that requirement can quietly cancel your coverage.

Price bands overlap heavily

With installed prices from $2 to $16 per square foot across the major vinyl brands, the badge is not your budget.

Buy attic stock in the same order

Especially for retailer-exclusive lines, where a discontinued product means no match at all.