Buyer's guide

SPC vs WPC: which waterproof core for a Florida home?

Two rigid vinyl cores, one of them stone-filled and one foamed. Why that difference decides dents, heat and comfort, and why we stock only one of them.

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The short answer

SPC, for almost every Florida floor. Its stone-plastic core is denser, dents less, moves less in heat, and is thinner for the same stiffness. WPC is softer and warmer underfoot and a little quieter, and it expands more when a room gets hot. We stock SPC only: all 77 floors, 5 to 8 mm, $1.59 to $2.49 per square foot, every one with an attached IXPE pad that gives back the comfort WPC is usually chosen for.

	SPC (stone-plastic composite)	WPC (wood-plastic composite)
Core	Limestone powder, PVC and stabilizers, pressed solid	PVC with a foaming agent, so the core is partly air
Density	High. A plank feels heavy for its size	Lower. Same size plank, noticeably lighter
Dent resistance	High. Chair legs and dropped pans rarely mark it	Lower. Point loads can leave a permanent dimple
Thickness for the same stiffness	5 to 8 mm	Typically 6.5 to 8 mm and up
Movement with heat	Small. Suited to slabs and rooms that see sun	Larger. Needs bigger gaps and more care in hot rooms
Feel underfoot	Firm; the attached pad supplies the give	Softer and warmer, by design
Sound	Good with an attached pad	Slightly better, from the foamed core
Price	$1.59 to $2.49 per sq ft in our stock	Usually priced above comparable SPC
Where it fits	Slab-on-grade, kitchens, lanais with shade, rentals, anywhere over tile	Upstairs bedrooms in a cool house, where softness matters most

How we know: these figures are read from the 77 floors stocked in our distribution partners' Jacksonville, Miami and Orlando warehouses as this page was built, not from a manufacturer brochure. Prices are the per-square-foot rates published on each floor page.

What is actually different about the two cores?

Both are rigid vinyl planks with a printed design layer and a clear wear layer on top; the whole argument is the core. SPC packs limestone powder into the vinyl and presses it solid. WPC foams the vinyl so the core holds tiny air pockets. That single choice explains every row in the table: the stone makes SPC dense, stiff, dent-resistant and dimensionally stable; the air makes WPC lighter, softer, warmer and more willing to grow when it warms up.

Neither contains wood despite the name. Neither absorbs water. The waterproof claim applies equally to both; the choice is about hardness and heat, not spills.

Which one handles a Florida lanai, sunroom or garage conversion?

SPC, with the expansion gap taken seriously. A room with a wall of west-facing sliders can run well above the rest of the house by mid-afternoon, and heat is what moves a vinyl floor; humidity barely does. The foamed WPC core expands more per degree than a stone core, so in the rooms that get hot it is the one that peaks and buckles at the wall. Both types have a temperature range on the installation sheet, and an unconditioned space that swings past it is outside the warranty of either. Keep the room conditioned, leave the gap the sheet specifies, and put SPC down. The heat and humidity guide covers acclimation and gaps.

Which dents less?

SPC, clearly. A foamed core compresses under a point load and can stay compressed: the leg of a loaded bookcase, a piano castor, a stiletto. Stone-filled cores resist that. For a rental, a kitchen or a home with heavy furniture on hard legs, this is the deciding row. Where WPC wins is standing comfort, and the IXPE pad attached to all 77 of our SPC floors closes most of that gap.

Why do we stock SPC and not WPC?

Three Florida reasons. The houses we deliver to are mostly slab-on-grade, and a dense core over concrete is the floor that stays flat and quiet. The rooms that fail are the hot ones, and SPC is the core that tolerates them. And the buyers who order by the pallet, rental owners and contractors, are buying dent resistance and a 10-year commercial warranty, not softness. Carrying one core also means one installation method, one set of trims and one answer when a customer asks which is better.

Which of our SPC floors for which room?

Thickness	Wear layer	Collections	Per sq ft	Where we would use it
5 mm	20 mil	GRAND LUX SOFT (GD), IRIS	$1.59 to $1.79	Flat slabs, bedrooms, budget whole-house jobs
5.5 mm	20 mil	XD-5.5mm	$1.79	Flat slabs where the extra stiffness is worth the small step in price
6 mm	20 mil	XD6 B Series	$1.99	Living areas and rentals on slabs that are close to flat
6.5 mm	20 mil	EIR 6.5mm, SSR 6.5mm, Ultra Clean SPC	$2.09	The default for most Florida homes, over tile or slab
7 mm	22 mil	APRES	$2.19	Heavy traffic on a slab that is less than perfect
8 mm	22 mil	IRIS 8, WHISPER WOODS, XD8 Series	$2.49	Uneven slabs, hot rooms, pets, and units that turn over often

Common questions

Is SPC colder or harder to stand on than WPC?

Firmer, yes; the attached IXPE pad is what makes it comfortable. Neither is cold in a Florida house, and a rug in a kitchen work zone does more for standing comfort than a foamed core.

Is SPC waterproof or only water-resistant?

The plank itself is waterproof through its full thickness and will not swell. Water can still pass through seams to the slab below, so standing water should be wiped up in either type.

Does SPC need a separate underlayment?

Not ours. All 77 floors have an IXPE pad attached, and most rigid-core warranties exclude a second pad under a plank that already has one.

Is WPC better upstairs for sound?

Slightly, from the foamed core, but a tested acoustic underlayment under SPC will beat it. If a condo association gives you an IIC number to hit, send it to us and we will check the floor's documentation against it rather than choosing by core type.