How to compare SPC flooring quotes line by line

Where does the price gap between SPC quotes usually hide?

In the lines the factory did not write down. You know to convert units and Incoterms. The harder part is that two quotes for “5 mm SPC, 12 mil” can be two different boards, and the quote gives you no way to see it.

In our view, these are the lines to check first, in this order, because each one can move the price without changing the headline:

Line	How it hides a difference	What to ask for
Thickness	“5 mm” can be a 5 mm board, or a 4 mm board plus a 1 mm pad	Board without pad and pad as two numbers
Board weight	A lighter board at the same thickness can mean more filler in the core	kg/m² of the board, with a tolerance in the contract
Wear layer	“0.3” with no unit; mil figures rounded down	Millimetres to two decimals, measured to ASTM F3261
Click system	“Click” with no named system or licence	Licensor named, licence or label shown
Pad	Included in one quote, extra in another	Material, thickness, attached, price included or not
Container quantity	A round number with no weight behind it	m² per container and the gross weight it assumes
Freight	Built into a CIF price you cannot see	FOB at a named port, freight shown separately

Thickness is the most common trap. One manufacturer’s data sheet writes its range as “4+1 and 5+1 mm”, a 4 mm or 5 mm board plus a 1 mm pad. Another factory may sell the same 4+1 product as “5 mm”.

Weight affects material cost, m² per container and freight per m². Use the gross weight per carton for the quoted construction, including its packaging, rather than estimating from total thickness alone. The SPC packing calculator lets you enter those figures and the cargo limit confirmed for your route.

What does a suspiciously cheap quote usually mean?

Our view: when one quote is well below the others for what looks like the same product, the gap is almost always explained by a line you did not fix. A factory rarely gives away margin. It gives you a different board.

The usual explanations, roughly in the order we would look for them:

1. Thinner board, same headline. The pad is counted in the thickness.
2. Lighter core. Same thickness, less weight per m². The board may still pass a showroom look and fail on stability or the click.
3. Wear layer rounded the wrong way. A figure with no unit, or a mil value that does not match the mm value.
4. No click licence. Licensed systems carry a royalty. In the US, a general exclusion order from the International Trade Commission covers infringing click vinyl flooring, and the importer carries that risk at the border.
5. Terms that shift risk to you. Full balance before inspection, or the factory’s own QC report offered instead of a third party.
6. Old or borrowed lab reports. Tests for a different thickness, wear layer or company name. Our guide to reading a FloorScore certificate shows how to check the name and scope.

None of these makes a cheap quote wrong. A 4+1 board can be the right product for your market. The problem is paying for one product and comparing it against another. A low quote is a question, not a result.

Which lines would we negotiate, and which would we never trade?

Negotiate after you have normalised the quotes, never before. Otherwise you negotiate a price for a product you have not fixed, and the factory can meet your number by changing the board.

Line	Our view	Why
Payment trigger	Negotiate first	Moving the balance to after an independent inspection is worth more than a few cents per m²
Validity date	Negotiate	You need dates that overlap across all quotes, or you compare a live price with an expired one
MOQ per decor	Negotiate	An MOQ per order only can fail later when you split the order across five decors
Samples and lead time	Negotiate	Ask for production samples and a lead time counted from deposit plus approved sample
Pad and surface (EIR, gloss)	Trade if you must	These are product choices; price them as separate lines and decide on purpose
Price per m²	Negotiate last	Only once the other lines are equal
Board weight and tolerance	Never trade	It is the line a factory can change after you sign without you seeing it
Wear layer in mm	Never trade	It decides how the floor wears and what you can claim
Click licence (US)	Never trade	The border risk is yours, not the factory’s
Inspection before balance	Never trade	Published inspection rates are small next to the cargo (see the worked example)

What should your comparison sheet look like?

One row per line, one column per factory, and a last column for what is still open. Send the same rows to every factory as your brief, and ask for answers on the quotation itself. Where a reply is silent, write “not stated”, never a guess.

Line	Factory A	Factory B	Factory C	Open question
Board without pad (mm), pad material and mm
Wear layer (mm) and test method
Board weight (kg/m²) and tolerance
Click system and licence
Surface, plank size (mm), bevel
Pieces, m² and gross kg per carton
Incoterm, named port, currency and unit as quoted
Price, USD per m² FOB, same construction
m² per container and the weight basis
Your own freight per container
MOQ per order and per decor
Lead time (days) and from what event
Payment terms and balance trigger
Validity date
Lab reports for this construction and company

If you are still choosing who to ask, start from the factory directory and read the records of the plants on your shortlist, for example NEO FLOOR, Sentai and ANZ Flooring. Our guide to reading a factory record explains what each section shows and what it does not.

How do you normalise two quotes? A worked example

The figures below are example figures to show the method. They are not market prices and not quotes from any factory.

Two example quotes arrive for “5 mm SPC, 12 mil, 1220 × 180 mm”:

• Factory A: “5 mm SPC (4+1), IXPE included, 12 mil, USD 6.10/m² FOB Hai Phong, 2,300 m² per 20ft.”
• Factory B: “5 mm SPC, 0.3 mm wear layer, USD 0.62/sq ft CIF Long Beach, IXPE 1 mm +USD 0.45/m², 2,000 m² per 20ft.” Asked for its freight, B says it has included USD 2,600 per 20ft.

Step	Method	Factory A	Factory B
1. Price as quoted	Copy the quote exactly	USD 6.10/m² FOB	USD 0.62/sq ft CIF
2. Convert units	Price per sq ft × 10.764	USD 6.10/m²	0.62 × 10.764 = USD 6.67/m² CIF
3. Remove freight	Included freight ÷ m² per container	Not needed (FOB)	2,600 ÷ 2,000 = USD 1.30/m², so 6.67 − 1.30 = USD 5.37/m² FOB
4. Add missing items	Add the pad if quoted separately	Pad included: USD 6.10/m²	5.37 + 0.45 = USD 5.82/m²
5. Check construction	Board without pad	4 mm board + 1 mm pad	5 mm board + 1 mm pad
6. FOB per container	USD per m² × m² per container	6.10 × 2,300 = USD 14,030	5.82 × 2,000 = USD 11,640
7. Add your own freight	Same example USD 2,600 per 20ft for both	2,600 ÷ 2,300 = USD 1.13/m², so USD 7.23/m²	2,600 ÷ 2,000 = USD 1.30/m², so USD 7.12/m²

What the steps show:

• The headline price pointed the wrong way. B looked dearer at USD 6.67 against 6.10. After step 4 it is USD 0.28 cheaper per m² FOB.
• Freight closes most of that gap. A fits 300 m² more in the same box, because its board is thinner and lighter. After step 7, B is cheaper by only USD 0.11 per m².
• The products are still not the same. B gives you a 5 mm board for USD 0.11 less per m² once freight is in. A gives you a 4 mm board.

So the honest conclusion is not “B is cheaper”. It is: decide which board you want, ask the other factory to re-quote that construction, and ask both for the gross weight per carton so you can check the container quantity yourself.

The inspection line looks different in this light too. V-Trust publishes USD 268 per man-day in Vietnam. One man-day at that rate is about 1.9% of A’s FOB container (268 ÷ 14,030) and about 2.3% of B’s (268 ÷ 11,640). That is why we would never let inspection be the line that makes a quote cheaper. Our pre-shipment inspection checklist lists what the inspector needs from you.

How would we pick between two close quotes?

Once the quotes are on the same basis and the gap is a few cents, we stop looking at price. Our view is that a gap that small tells you less than how each factory behaved while quoting.

We would pick the factory that:

• answered every line of the brief in writing, including the ones that cost it something, such as weight tolerance and the click licence;
• accepts the balance after an independent inspection;
• offers lab reports in its own name for the construction you are buying;
• gives a lead time from a defined event, not from “order”.

A factory that leaves lines blank at the quote stage is telling you how the order will go. A few cents per m² is a small price for a supplier who commits on paper.

Common mistakes

1. Negotiating before normalising. You end up haggling over a product you have not fixed.
2. Sharing a competitor’s quote. It invites a match by spec change.
3. Accepting a weight with no tolerance. A weight without a tolerance in the contract is a description, not a commitment.
4. Comparing per m² only. Board weight changes the m² per container and the freight per m².
5. Treating “not stated” as zero. A blank is information. Ask, and keep the question open until it is answered in writing.
6. Letting quotes expire at different times. Compare quotes whose validity dates overlap.

Our view

Write the brief before you ask for prices, and make every factory quote against it. Fix the board, the pad, the wear layer in mm, the click system and the weight with a tolerance. When one quote is far below the rest, look for the line that explains it before you celebrate. Negotiate payment and terms first, price last, and never buy a lower price with weight, wear layer or inspection. When a factory will not state a line, treat that as part of its answer.

If you already have quotes on the table, send us the quotation you are comparing. Our team in Hanoi can go through it with you on an intro call, help with factory selection, or follow the order through production with pre-shipment inspection.

Questions buyers ask

Should I show one factory the price another factory gave me?

Our view: no. Send the gap and the spec instead, for example "your price is above another quote for 5.0 mm board, 1.5 mm IXPE, 0.30 mm wear layer". A competitor quote that is not on the same basis invites a factory to match it by quietly changing the product.

How many quotes do I need?

Enough to have at least two that answer every line of your brief. Three complete replies tell you more than six partial ones. A factory that skips half the brief at the quote stage rarely gets more precise after the deposit.

Is a CIF quote ever the better option?

It can be, if you have no forwarder and the freight figure is shown separately. Compare on FOB anyway, then decide who books the freight. A CIF price with no freight figure inside it cannot be checked.

What if a factory will not state the board weight?

Weigh its sample yourself and ask the factory to confirm that figure, with a tolerance, in the contract. If it still will not commit, that is the answer: it wants room to change the core after you sign.

Can you check a quotation I already have?

Yes. Our team in Hanoi can go through an existing quotation on an intro call: what is missing, what is not comparable, and what to ask the factory next. Send it through the services page.

Sources & further reading

• ICC: Incoterms 2020 rules and what they cover
• Responsive Industries: Inspire SPC technical data sheet (4.50 mm, 0.30 mm / 12 mil wear layer, 7.4 kg/m²)
• Responsive Industries: Resonate SPC technical data sheet (5.0 mm, 20 mil / 0.50 mm wear layer, 8,000 g/m²)
• Area Floors: SPC technical data sheet (core density 2,000 kg/m³; thickness written as 4+1 and 5+1 mm)
• USITC: general exclusion order, investigation 337-TA-1155, Certain Luxury Vinyl Tile
• ASTM F3261: Standard Specification for Resilient Flooring in Modular Format with Rigid Polymeric Core
• V-Trust: inspection services in Vietnam (published rate per man-day, checked Oct 2026)