What Separates Commercial LVT From the Residential Product
Commercial luxury vinyl tile and residential LVT look identical on a sample board and behave nothing alike in a building. The difference is the wear layer, the clear film that sits above the printed design layer and takes all the abrasion. Residential product runs around 12 mil. Commercial baseline is 20 mil, and retail, corridors, and hospitality should be 30 mil.
The second difference is the standard. ASTM F1700 sets the specification for solid vinyl tile: thickness, dimensional stability, chemical resistance, and wear. FloorScore certification covers indoor air quality and is one route to the LEED v4 low-emitting materials credit.
Commercial Flooring Toronto installs Karndean, Amtico, Shaw, and Marley Flexco across GTA offices, retail plazas, condo corridors, universities, and hospitality, in glue-down and rigid-core SPC formats, with acoustic underlayment where the building standard requires it.
4 Formats and Where Each One Belongs
- Glue-down LVT and LVP. The commercial default. Best under rolling loads, repairable plank by plank, and the most stable option on a well-prepared slab.
- Rigid-core SPC. Floated over underlayment. Tolerates more substrate variation and installs faster, which suits renovation and fast-turnaround retail.
- VCT. Vinyl composition tile at $3.50 to $6.50 CAD per sq ft. Cheap to buy, but it needs stripping and waxing for its entire life. Back-of-house and utility areas only.
- Acoustic-backed LVT. For condo corridors and high-rise offices where an impact-noise limit is written into the building standard.
How Much Does Commercial LVT Cost in Toronto?
Commercial LVT in Toronto costs $5.50 to $14 CAD per sq ft installed, and VCT $3.50 to $6.50 CAD per sq ft.
| Cost factor | Effect on the installed rate |
|---|---|
| Wear layer | 20 mil sits at $5.50 to $10, 30 mil and acoustic at $10 to $14 CAD per sq ft |
| Format | Glue-down, rigid-core SPC, or acoustic-backed |
| Substrate flatness | Self-levelling underlayment adds $2 to $6 CAD per sq ft |
| Existing floor removal | $1.50 to $4 CAD per sq ft, higher where cut-back adhesive is present |
| Acoustic build-up | Priced against the building’s stated impact-noise standard |
| Work window | After-hours and weekend phasing adds 25 to 40 percent on labour |
Where LVT budgets go wrong
Substrate flatness. LVT is thin and flexible, so it takes the shape of whatever is underneath and telegraphs every trowel ridge and old patch under raking light. The self-levelling line is not padding. It is the difference between a floor that looks specified and one that looks laid.
When Is LVT the Wrong Choice?
Three cases. In a wet room, washroom, or clinical area needing a coved, welded, fully sealed surface, the correct product is welded homogeneous sheet vinyl, not LVT with silicone at the perimeter. In a warehouse or plant carrying forklift traffic, it is a resin coating. And where acoustic comfort and underfoot warmth matter more than hard-surface appearance, modular carpet tile usually serves the space better for less.
We will say so at assessment. Specifying the wrong material well is still the wrong material.
Sequencing, Trims, and the Rest of the Floor
Most commercial plates run LVT alongside carpet tile, with a metal or vinyl transition profile at each junction chosen for height difference and traffic type. On barrier-free routes, threshold heights are detailed to AODA and Ontario Building Code requirements rather than left to the trim that happens to be in the van.
Retail and hospitality entries should always pair LVT with a recessed matting run, because road salt is abrasive and it is far cheaper to trap grit at the door than to replace a worn entry field. Where a general contractor is running the project, our commercial flooring contractor scope covers CCDC 2 coordination, WSIB clearance, and $2M commercial general liability, and the whole package runs through the standard commercial flooring installation process.
