SPC or WPC: Why We Only Stock One of Them

Stone plastic composite. The core is limestone powder bound with PVC and stabilisers, extruded into a rigid board with very little air in it.

The result is dense and heavy for its thickness. It resists indentation, it barely moves with temperature, and it is completely unaffected by water.

Wood plastic composite. The core swaps most of the mineral filler for wood flour and a foaming agent, producing a board with air cells through it.

That makes WPC lighter, softer and noticeably warmer underfoot than SPC. It forgives a slightly uneven subfloor better, and it feels more comfortable to stand on for a long stretch.

The cost of those air cells is density, and density is what buys stability.

This is the decision. A dense SPC core expands and contracts very little as the room heats and cools. A foamed WPC core moves more.

In a room that gets strong afternoon sun through large glazing — which describes a great many Australian homes — that movement shows up as gaps opening at joints in summer and closing in winter, or as boards pushing against a skirting that has no room to give.

SPC is not immune to thermal movement, and it still needs proper expansion gaps at the perimeter. It simply moves less, which makes the installation more forgiving of a real house rather than an ideal one.

Direct sunlight through glass concentrates heat on a floor far more than ambient room temperature does. A north-facing living room with floor-to-ceiling glazing can run substantially hotter along that strip than the rest of the room.

That differential is where a less stable core gets into trouble, because one part of a connected floating floor is expanding while the rest is not.

This is a large part of why our four ranges are SPC or HDF rather than WPC. Underfloor heating adds the same kind of stress from below, and the two core materials behave differently under it: our manufacturer rates the SPC hybrids to a 36°C floor surface temperature and the HDF-cored TITAN laminate to 28°C.

A dense core resists point loads better. Fridge feet, a heavy bookcase, a piano leg or a stiletto concentrate a lot of weight onto a very small area.

SPC holds up well under that. A foamed core is more likely to take a permanent dent, because the air cells compress and do not fully recover.

This matters most in kitchens with heavy appliances and in rooms with substantial furniture that never moves.

WPC's air cells absorb sound, so a bare WPC board is quieter than a bare SPC board. That is a genuine advantage of the construction.

In practice it matters less than it sounds, because neither is installed bare. Our hybrids ship with IXPE acoustic underlay bonded to the plank — 1.5mm on SILVA 7mm, 2mm on AXEN 9mm — which is doing the acoustic work.

EVSPC goes further, adding a 2mm luxury vinyl top layer over the SPC core. That is what gives it the warmer, quieter feel people associate with WPC, without giving up the stability of a stone core.

The core is only half the engineering. How the boards lock together decides how the floor behaves over time.

A 2G system engages by angling the long edge in, then dropping and tapping the short edge home. It works, it is well proven, and it usually needs a tapping block and mallet on the short joint.

A 5G system uses a sprung insert on the short edge that engages as the board drops. You angle in the long side and the short side clicks itself — no tapping, and a joint that pulls itself tight and stays tight.

EVSPC uses a patented 5G click system. The practical difference is joint strength and speed: fewer opportunities to damage an edge with a mallet, and a tighter short joint under foot traffic.

Not on our ranges — IXPE acoustic underlay is already bonded to the underside of every hybrid plank we stock.

More importantly, you should not add another layer beneath it unless that has been specifically approved for the product and application. Additional cushioning under a rigid floating floor lets the boards flex, and flex is what works a click joint loose.

If a specification calls for additional acoustic performance, the answer is the right product and the right test report, not a second underlay improvised on site.

SILVA 7mm and AXEN 9mm are SPC hybrids with attached IXPE. TITAN 12mm is laminate on an HDF core. EVSPC 12mm is an SPC core with a 2mm vinyl top layer and a 5G click system.

None of them are WPC, and that is deliberate. In a climate with hot summers, big glazing and a lot of concrete slab construction, dimensional stability is the property that decides whether a floor still looks right in five years.

If comfort underfoot is your priority, EVSPC is the answer within the SPC family — the thick vinyl top layer gives you the warmth without the movement.