Why it matters
The difference between them is water, and in a Canadian house that is not a small difference. Laminate has a wood-based core: get it wet and it swells, buckles, and is finished. LVP is plastic and shrugs the same spill off. That is why LVP has taken over basements, kitchens, and laundry rooms. It also matters for lifespan: InterNACHI puts laminate at 15 to 25 years and vinyl at 25, and neither can ever be refinished. When they wear out, they come out. Both are also the classic flip floor: cheap, fast, uniform, and laid wall to wall across a whole house in a weekend. New LVP throughout a 1960s home, with no photo of the panel or the furnace, is a pattern worth naming.
How to spot it
Laminate: a hard, slightly hollow sound underfoot (you cannot hear a photo, but you can see the tell), an obviously repeating grain pattern across planks, and bevelled V-grooves at every edge. LVP: softer sheen, more convincing texture, and it turns up in wet rooms where nobody would risk laminate. Both float, so look for a gap left at the walls hidden under quarter round, and for peaking, where planks push up into a ridge because that expansion gap was not left.
What it costs
GTA, 2026, supplied and installed: laminate $3 to $7 per sq ft, LVP $5 to $9 per sq ft. Old-floor removal, subfloor levelling, and transitions are extra.
What to do
Monitor. Price it per square foot for the rooms that need it. If planks are peaking or lifting, that is an installation or a moisture question before it is a flooring one. If laminate is swollen at a dishwasher, a fridge line, or a bathroom door, ask what leaked.
Education and triage, not a home inspection. Casaroo names the material it can see and prices it per square foot. What is under it, and why it is moving, needs a person in the room. We flag; we don't inspect.