Pick two to four materials. The table marks the best performer in every row, so the trade-offs become obvious instead of theoretical.
Or start from one of the preset matchups above.
Performance rows use Harvey balls — one circle filled to the score. Four of them side by side compare faster than four bars, because the eye reads area more quickly than length.
A 5 for durability on porcelain and a 5 for durability on epoxy do not mean identical performance — they mean each is at the top of the range across all 18 materials here. Ratings are for comparison between products, not as engineering specifications.
Each range covers material plus professional labor per square foot, mid-2026 US averages. Your actual bid will move with region, subfloor prep, demolition and disposal, stairs, patterns, transitions and trim. Metro coastal markets commonly run 20–40% above these figures; rural markets often run below.
The ranges assume the product went into an appropriate room over a properly prepared substrate and received the maintenance described on its detail page. A floor installed over an untested slab or maintained with the wrong chemistry can fail in a fraction of these numbers — which is why substrate testing and cleaner selection appear so often on this site.
If the same product will run through more than one area, judge every row against the most demanding of those areas rather than the average. A floor spanning a bedroom and a bathroom is a bathroom floor — the bedroom will tolerate anything the bathroom requires, but not the reverse. The same logic applies to traffic and to below-grade moisture.
Running one material throughout is usually cheaper per square foot as well: fewer transitions, one set-up, one delivery, and no risk of a mismatched dye lot when you extend it later. The Floor Finder takes multiple areas at once and scores against the strictest one for you.
A 5 in water resistance means the material itself cannot be damaged by water — SPC vinyl, sheet vinyl, porcelain, epoxy. A 4 means it tolerates water well but has a vulnerability, usually at seams or backing. A 1 or 2 means standing water causes permanent damage. Note that a waterproof plank does not make a waterproof floor — water can still travel through seams to the subfloor below.