Fake Hardwood Floor Name: Laminate, LVP and Wood-Look Tile

Fake hardwood flooring is usually called laminate flooring; the other common names are luxury vinyl plank (LVP), wood-look tile and wood-look sheet vinyl. Wikipedia notes that laminate is also sold as floating wood tile in the United States, and that vinyl products that imitate wood go by luxury vinyl plank, engineered vinyl plank (EVP) or the umbrella term luxury vinyl flooring (LVF).

One floor that often gets lumped in is not fake at all. Wikipedia's wood flooring article says laminate and vinyl are often confused with engineered wood, but engineered flooring is two or more layers of real wood glued together, with a hardwood layer on top. The general name for any imitation of wood grain, in floors, furniture or garden concrete, is faux bois, French for false wood (Wikipedia).

Laminate was invented in 1977 by the Swedish company Perstorp and sold as Pergo (Wikipedia). It is a multi-layer synthetic product: a core usually made of melamine resin and fibreboard, a printed photographic layer that shows the wood, and a clear protective layer on top. The high-density core is the same HDF described on our types of MDF page.

• Strengths - low cost and fast, DIY-friendly installation (Flooring Inc., Flacks Flooring). Flacks Flooring, a flooring retailer, quotes about $2 to $4 per square foot and a 15 to 20 year life (page read 2026-09-25); prices vary by region and product.
• Limits - it cannot be sanded and refinished like real wood, so damaged planks are replaced (Wikipedia, Flooring Inc.). Wikipedia warns that standing water can make planks swell and warp.
• Formaldehyde - Wikipedia notes laminate is often made with melamine resin, in which formaldehyde is more tightly bound than in urea-formaldehyde, reducing emissions.

Luxury vinyl is plastic formed to look like wood (Wikipedia's wood flooring article). Wikipedia's vinyl tile article adds that luxury vinyl tile is an industry term, not a standard, for vinyl with an added wear layer: a heavy film covered with UV-cured urethane that resists scuffs, stains and scratches. Planks that imitate wood are usually called LVP or EVP; tiles that imitate stone are usually called LVT. LVP tends to be thicker than LVT and usually clicks together instead of being glued down.

Many current planks have a rigid core. Flacks Flooring describes an SPC (stone plastic composite) core made largely of limestone powder and PVC, sold as fully waterproof, with a wear layer of 12 to 20 mil. Flooring Inc. calls vinyl plank the fastest-growing category of faux wood flooring and warns that lower-quality products may contain VOCs. Flacks notes it feels firmer underfoot than wood.

• Wood-look porcelain tile - Flooring Inc. calls it the most worry-free wood-look floor: durable, low maintenance and waterproof, and it can be steam mopped. It costs more and is less DIY-friendly, and Flacks Flooring notes it is hard underfoot.
• Wood-look sheet vinyl - rolls of vinyl printed with a wood pattern. Flooring Inc. lists it as affordable, easy to install and soft underfoot, with waterproof versions, but prone to discoloration and hard to repair.

Check where the floor ends. At a floor vent, a threshold or along a baseboard you can often see a plank edge.

• One piece of wood all the way through - solid hardwood, milled from a single piece of timber (Wikipedia).
• Layers of real wood - engineered hardwood; the layers run at 90 degrees to each other for stability (Wikipedia).
• A thin printed layer over a fibreboard core - laminate.
• Plastic, or a stone-and-PVC core - vinyl plank.
• Ceramic body - wood-look porcelain tile, which Flacks Flooring notes is hard underfoot.

On the surface, laminate carries a printed image of wood (Wikipedia), so compare several planks: a print can repeat the same knots and figure across boards, while real boards each show their own grain. If the floor turns out to be real wood, a clear photo of an unfinished edge or a worn spot lets WoodLens suggest the species. Our types of hardwood floors page covers real-wood species and grades.

This page was drafted with AI help, and every fact was checked against the sources listed on the page.