Almost every flooring conversation at our counter reaches the same fork in the road. Someone has been quoted for laminate by one shop, vinyl by another and SPC by a third, and the three quotes describe what sound like three completely different products. They are not. Two of them are the same family, and knowing which two changes the whole decision.

We have been supplying and fitting floors from 46 Central Avenue since 1971, and this is the comparison we walk people through most often. Here it is in full, with Kolkata’s climate rather than a European showroom as the frame of reference.

First, the naming confusion: SPC is a vinyl

This is the single most useful thing to understand before you compare anything. SPC is a type of vinyl flooring — specifically, rigid-core vinyl. The letters stand for Stone Polymer Composite, and the core is limestone powder bound with PVC. PVC is vinyl. So asking “SPC or vinyl?” is a little like asking “sedan or car?”

What people usually mean by “vinyl” in that question is the older, flexible kind — thin sheet vinyl sold off a roll, or soft self-adhesive planks. That is a genuinely different product from SPC, even though both are vinyl by chemistry. Laminate is the true outsider here: no vinyl in it at all, because its core is compressed wood fibre.

So the honest three-way comparison is: laminate (wood-fibre core) versus flexible sheet vinyl (soft, thin, no rigid core) versus SPC (rigid stone-polymer core). Once you frame it that way, the choice becomes straightforward.

Laminate: convincing looks, a core that fears water

Laminate is built around a high-density fibreboard core — wood, compressed — with a printed decor layer and a hard melamine wear layer on top. That top surface is genuinely tough. Modern laminate resists scratching well, and the better prints and embossing are hard to fault visually.

The weakness is underneath. Wood fibre swells when it takes on water, and it does not shrink back. A pressure-cooker overflow left overnight, a balcony door open during a squall, a washing-machine hose that seeps for a week — any of these will crown the plank edges permanently. There is no repair; you replace the affected boards and try to match the batch. In a city with our rainfall and our humidity, we are careful about where we recommend it.

Where laminate earns its place: dry bedrooms, studies, drawing rooms on upper floors. Rooms where water was never realistically going to arrive.

Flexible sheet vinyl: cheap, waterproof, and it shows

Thin sheet vinyl and soft peel-and-stick planks are waterproof in the material sense — the PVC itself does not care about moisture. That is the whole of their advantage, and it is a real one at the price.

The trouble is that being thin and flexible, they telegraph everything below. Every ridge, grout line and pit in your existing floor eventually shows through the surface. They dent under furniture legs, they lift at the edges once the adhesive gives up in the heat, and they read as a floor covering rather than a floor. For a rental, a temporary fit-out or a very tight budget, that trade may be worth making. For a floor you expect to live with for a decade, it usually is not.

SPC: rigid-core vinyl, and why it suits Kolkata

SPC takes vinyl’s water immunity and adds the one thing sheet vinyl lacks: a dense, rigid core that behaves like a proper floor. It does not follow the contours of what is underneath, it does not dent under a sofa leg, and it clicks together mechanically rather than being glued down.

The Kolkata-specific case rests on three properties. It is dimensionally stable — a stone-polymer core contains no wood fibre, so it does not swell in a humid July or open gaps in a dry January the way timber and laminate do. It is termite-proof, which matters in buildings full of decades-old joinery. And it is fire resistant, which is often the deciding specification for offices, clinics and retail premises. Our fuller treatment of the material is in the guide to SPC flooring in Kolkata.

Side by side

	Laminate	Sheet vinyl	SPC
Core	Wood fibre (HDF)	None — flexible PVC	Limestone + PVC, rigid
Standing water	Swells permanently	Unaffected	Unaffected
Humidity movement	Some	Minimal	Negligible
Hides an uneven sub-floor	Reasonably	No — telegraphs everything	Yes, minor unevenness
Dents under furniture	Rarely	Yes	Rarely
Termite risk	Present	None	None
Underfoot feel	Warm, slightly hollow	Soft, thin	Firm, solid
Best for	Dry bedrooms, studies	Rentals, short-term fit-outs	Kitchens, balconies, ground floors, offices

Which one for which room

Kitchen, utility, covered balcony, bathroom approach. SPC, with no real debate. These are the rooms where laminate cores fail and where thin vinyl lifts.

Ground-floor flat in an older Central or North Kolkata building. SPC again. Rising damp through the slab is a recurring problem in these buildings, and a wood-fibre core sitting on a damp sub-floor is a slow-motion failure.

Upper-floor bedrooms and studies in a dry flat. Laminate is a sound and economical choice, and often looks excellent.

Formal drawing room where you want real grain. Neither — that is a case for engineered wood, which we cover in our guide to choosing between solid, engineered, laminate and SPC.

Office, clinic or shop. SPC, for the fire resistance and because the floor can be laid over a weekend without closing for a week.

What to check before you buy, whichever you choose

Ask for the wear layer thickness in writing. This decides how long the printed surface survives, and it is the specification most often left vague in a verbal quote. If nobody will put a number on it, that tells you something.

Ask what the quoted rate includes. Skirting, beading, sub-floor preparation and levelling are the line items that turn a cheap quote into an expensive one after work starts.

Look at the locking system, not just the plank. The joint fails before the surface does on a cheap floor. Our range is built on the Welspun Click-N-Lock system, which locks mechanically and uses no adhesive at all.

Get the warranty in writing. Welspun click-lock flooring supplied through our showroom carries a five-year warranty. Ask any supplier what theirs actually covers.

See a full plank, in daylight, in your hand. A catalogue swatch flattens texture and hides the repeat in a print. Ten minutes with real samples settles most of these decisions faster than a week of reading.

Seeing all three at Avikar

All of it is on display together at the showroom, which is the point — the difference between an SPC plank and a laminate plank is obvious in thirty seconds when you are holding both. The Aristo, Eden, Bliss and Moroccan ranges are among those you can handle in person.

Once you have chosen, we send a technician to assess the sub-floor and take exact measurements before anything is ordered. Installation is glue-free and laid directly over your existing tile or marble — no breaking, no rubble — and most rooms are finished within a day. Tiles are supplied with StainProtect and ScrapeGuard treatments. We have floored more than 6,500 homes across the city, at a 4.7 rating on Google. Browse the full wooden and SPC flooring range before you visit.

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