Is vinyl flooring waterproof

Answer 1

• Three basic types of "Vinyl" flooring
• 1960's True Vinyl, which is paper with pattern & urethane coating
• 1800s Linoleum which is cork dust & linseed oil, rare but not impossible to find (good green attributes!)
• 1990's Fiberglass flooring. New generation & is quickly replacing the older stuff.
• The True vinyl flooring is pretty much waterproof as it comes from the factory. The Vinyl flooring process is pretty much a matter of making a thick & absorbent high tech paper, Then:
• coating it with a chemical process to make it take printing ink
• Running it through a high speed printing press almost like a color news press
• Then coating it with a coat of Urethane
• flash setting the urethane with UV light, heat & air
• rolling it up & sending it to you

So back to your question, the paper substrate, absorbs water from the top or the bottom, if exposed to water. The urethane coating protects the paper and is waterproof, until it is installed in your home. Then any crack, scratch, pinhole breaches the wear layer & lets moisture into the paper & damages the pattern & paper from below.

The newer Fiberglass products are waterproof & water on or below them doesn't harm the products.

Linoleum Is another story. Basically impervious to water, but the adhesive holding it down may be water soluble, so water is not linoleum's friend.