Homeowners across Raleigh and Myrtle Beach are ditching dated carpet and old vinyl for LVP, and the reasons go well beyond looks. Here's what's driving the shift.
You’ve probably walked across your floors a thousand times without thinking much about them, until one day you do. Maybe it’s the carpet that never quite comes clean anymore, or the vinyl that’s started peeling near the kitchen. Whatever the trigger, once you start noticing it, you can’t stop. The good news is that flooring is one of the most impactful upgrades you can make to a home, and it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. If you’re a homeowner in Raleigh, Myrtle Beach, or anywhere in between, this is worth reading before you start making calls.
Luxury vinyl plank, LVP for short, isn’t the flimsy peel-and-stick vinyl your grandparents had. It’s a multi-layer engineered product with a rigid core, a high-definition print layer that mimics real wood or stone, and a wear layer on top that takes daily punishment without showing it. The result looks remarkably close to hardwood, costs significantly less, and handles real life in a way that hardwood simply doesn’t.
What’s made LVP so popular in recent years isn’t just the price. It’s the combination of durability, aesthetics, and practical performance that most other flooring types can’t match all at once. Hardwood is beautiful but vulnerable to moisture. Laminate looks good but swells when it gets wet. Tile is tough but cold underfoot and unforgiving if you drop something. LVP threads the needle in a way that makes sense for most households.
This is the question worth sitting with, and the honest answer depends on your home and how you live in it. For a lot of homeowners in Raleigh and Myrtle Beach, the answer is yes, and the climate is a big part of why.
Raleigh and the surrounding area run hot and humid through the summer, with average July humidity sitting in the 60 to 70 percent range. Myrtle Beach runs even higher, at 70 percent average humidity year-round. That kind of moisture in the air causes solid hardwood to expand and contract with the seasons. Over time, that movement leads to gapping in winter and buckling in summer: problems we see regularly in homes that went with solid wood without accounting for the local climate. LVP’s rigid core doesn’t move that way. It stays stable regardless of if it’s July in Raleigh or December in Myrtle Beach, which matters more than most people realize when they’re shopping.
There’s also the practical side of things. A lot of the homes in the Raleigh area and along the Grand Strand were built between the 1970s and the 1990s, and many of them have crawl spaces underneath. Moisture from below is a real issue in older construction, and it’s one of the main reasons carpet develops that musty smell over time and why laminate fails faster than expected. LVP is 100 percent waterproof through its full construction, not just the surface, so moisture from below doesn’t compromise it the way it does other materials.
From a cost standpoint, LVP materials typically run between three and seven dollars per square foot, compared to eight to fifteen dollars per square foot for solid hardwood. You’re getting a comparable look at a fraction of the material cost, and the installation is generally faster and less disruptive too. For homeowners who are renovating to build equity or preparing a home for sale in Raleigh’s competitive real estate market or Myrtle Beach’s rental market, that math is hard to argue with.
It depends on the room and what you’re asking the floor to do, but here’s how the comparison actually plays out in practice.
Carpet still makes sense in bedrooms where comfort and warmth are the priority and foot traffic is lower. But in living rooms, hallways, kitchens, and anywhere that sees regular activity, especially in a home with kids or pets, carpet is a maintenance problem waiting to happen. It holds onto allergens, stains are rarely fully reversible, and once moisture gets into the padding, you’re dealing with odor and potential mold. LVP in those high-traffic areas gives you a surface that’s easy to sweep, easy to mop, and doesn’t hold onto anything you’d rather not think about.
Hardwood is the comparison most people make, and it’s fair: the aesthetics are genuinely similar when you’re looking at quality LVP. The difference is in how each material behaves over time in a home like yours. In our climate, hardwood requires more careful installation, more controlled indoor humidity, and more maintenance to stay looking good. It can be refinished, which is an advantage, but for most families, the day-to-day practicality of LVP outweighs that long-term benefit.
Laminate is often confused with LVP, and they do look similar on the surface. The core difference is the core itself, laminate uses a high-density fiberboard base that absorbs moisture and swells. It’s not a great choice for bathrooms, kitchens, or any space with humidity exposure. LVP uses a vinyl or stone-plastic composite core that water simply doesn’t affect. For homes in Raleigh and Myrtle Beach, that distinction is significant.
Tile is excellent for bathrooms and kitchens where waterproofing is non-negotiable, and it’s a material we install regularly. But for main living areas, it’s cold underfoot, harder on joints if you’re standing for long periods, and less forgiving acoustically. LVP gives you the moisture resistance of tile with more warmth and comfort underfoot, which is why so many homeowners are using it throughout the main floor and reserving tile for wet areas specifically.
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One of the things that holds people back from starting a flooring project is not knowing what they’re getting into. How long will it take? How disruptive is it? What decisions do I have to make, and when? These are fair questions, and the process is more straightforward than most people expect.
It typically starts with an in-home estimate. We come to you, look at the actual space, assess the subfloor condition, and talk through what you’re hoping to accomplish. That conversation matters: the right product for a 1980s ranch with a crawl space is not necessarily the same as the right product for a newer build with a concrete slab. Getting that right from the start is what separates a floor that performs for twenty years from one that causes problems in two.
For most residential projects, a professional crew can complete LVP installation in one to three days depending on the square footage and the condition of the existing subfloor. That’s the range for a typical home, not a rough estimate padded with wiggle room, but a realistic window based on how these projects actually go.
Subfloor preparation is the step that gets skipped most often by contractors cutting corners, and it’s the one that matters most. The subfloor needs to be clean, flat, and dry before anything goes down. If it’s not flat, and in older homes, it often isn’t perfectly flat, that has to be addressed first. Skipping that step leads to hollow spots, movement, and planks that separate over time. It’s not glamorous work, but it’s what separates an installation that holds up from one that doesn’t.
Once the subfloor is ready, LVP goes down quickly. The floating floor installation method, where planks click together without adhesive, is what most quality LVP products use, and it’s both efficient and installer-friendly. Transitions, trim, and baseboards are handled at the end to give the space a finished look. A good crew cleans up after themselves, does a walkthrough with you before they leave, and doesn’t consider the job done until you do.
The disruption is real but manageable. Most homeowners find it easier than they anticipated, especially when the project is planned room by room or staged across a weekend. The key is working with a team that shows up when they say they will and communicates clearly throughout.
These are the questions we hear most often from homeowners before they commit to a flooring project. The answers are straightforward.
Does luxury vinyl flooring add value to a home? In Raleigh’s real estate market, yes, meaningfully so. Buyers notice flooring. A home with fresh LVP throughout the main level reads as move-in ready, which matters in a market where buyers are factoring renovation costs into their offers. Replacing worn carpet or dated sheet vinyl before listing is one of the more reliable pre-sale investments you can make. We’ve had customers in Raleigh come back specifically to tell us their home sold faster than expected after the floor upgrade. In Myrtle Beach, where short-term rental properties are common, LVP is equally valuable, it photographs well for listings and holds up to frequent guest turnover better than any other option.
What flooring is best for a beach house or coastal property? If you own a vacation home or rental property in Myrtle Beach, the answer is almost always LVP, and the climate is the reason. The Grand Strand runs at 70 percent average humidity year-round, and salt air exposure adds another layer of stress on materials. Hardwood warps. Carpet holds moisture and odor between guests. LVP handles all of it without complaint, cleans easily between rentals, and photographs well for Airbnb and VRBO listings, which matters more than people might expect. Our Myrtle Beach showroom at 2294 Glenns Bay Rd works with a lot of short-term rental owners for exactly this reason.
Is LVP a good choice for homes with pets? It’s one of the best. The wear layer resists scratching from dog nails, the waterproof core handles accidents without swelling or staining, and the surface cleans with a damp mop. For families in Raleigh, Myrtle Beach, or anywhere in our service area with dogs or cats, it removes a lot of the daily anxiety that comes with trying to protect hardwood or keep carpet presentable.
Can I finance a flooring project? Yes. We offer no-interest financing, which means you can get the floors done now and pay over time without it costing you more. For larger whole-home projects, this makes a real difference, and it’s one of the reasons customers choose us over a big-box store where the financing terms are often less favorable.
What if I’m not sure what I want yet? That’s exactly what the in-home estimate is for. You don’t need to walk in knowing what product you want. We have an online catalog, a room visualizer tool, and samples you can take home, all designed for the homeowner who’s still in the research phase. The estimate is free, there’s no pressure, and most people leave with a much clearer picture than they had going in.
New flooring is one of those upgrades that changes how a home feels immediately, not six months from now, not after a second coat of paint. The day it goes in, the space looks different. For homeowners in Raleigh, Myrtle Beach, and the surrounding areas dealing with aging carpet, dated vinyl, or floors that just don’t match the home they’ve worked to build, LVP is worth a serious look.
The combination of waterproof performance, realistic aesthetics, durability for real family life, and a price point that makes whole-home projects achievable, that’s what’s driving the shift away from traditional flooring options across the Triangle and along the Grand Strand.
If you’re ready to take the next step, we have showrooms in Raleigh, NC and Myrtle Beach, SC, a team with over 30 years of experience, a best price guarantee, and a lifetime installation warranty that backs every job we do. Start with a free in-home estimate and go from there.
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