More Questions about Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring

[Bob Coates]

Follow Johns suggestions above. I volunteer doing home repair and one group did not use his method and it was very hard to put down and was easy to leave seams when connection rows. When his method was followed on second home it was a piece of cake to install.

Bob

[Ole Anderson]

Over concrete I would definitely install the required taped-joint waterproof underlayment (likely foam), even if the LVT has a built in underlayment.. Any low spots can be shimmed with underlayment scraps. Plastic beater blocks work but I prefer a good hardwood one like hickory or white oak. And depending on the lock system sometimes a hammer works better than a soft mallet. And don't cheap out an your Z bar. While LVT is good and trendy, lately I have been going with stranded bamboo (from Lowe's), extremely hard and you know you are working with wood. Make sure whatever you go with had a ceramic (aluminum oxide) finish. Ten years and not a scratch on my kitchen floor. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Cali-Bamboo...-ft/1000000496

[Tom M King]

I don't think I'm missing any type or brand of hammer or mallet. I found this to be the ideal one for me for installing the LVP. The harder side to hit the beater blocks with, and the softer side for any direct tapping. More times than not, Estwing has the right one for the job to suit me, but I liked this one best for this job.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/VAUGHAN-24-...Mallet/3333074

I had some runs over 50 feet long. It required a lot fewer steps, and up and downs, if I carried 6 rows at the time. Use your cutoff pieces from the last runs to start the next ones. I bought three of the beater blocks after starting with one and finding that I was doing a Lot of walking back and forth to get the only one.

[Curt Harms]

Over concrete I would definitely install the required taped-joint waterproof underlayment (likely foam), even if the LVT has a built in underlayment.. Any low spots can be shimmed with underlayment scraps. Plastic beater blocks work but I prefer a good hardwood one like hickory or white oak. And depending on the lock system sometimes a hammer works better than a soft mallet. And don't cheap out an your Z bar. While LVT is good and trendy, lately I have been going with stranded bamboo (from Lowe's), extremely hard and you know you are working with wood. Make sure whatever you go with had a ceramic (aluminum oxide) finish. Ten years and not a scratch on my kitchen floor. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Cali-Bamboo...-ft/1000000496

Absolutely on the aluminum oxide finish. We put down a Bruce wood floor on the first floor at least 10 years ago and it is unmarked. Really useful because we have long haired critters (cats). A broom is all that's required and it's very water resistant. The only downside I can think of with the ceramic finish is if it did get damaged, I'm not sure how I'd go about 'refinishing' it.

[Frank Pratt]

I layed down vinyl planks in a basement room, slab on grade. The slab has historically been dry over the past 30 years. The floor was lightly ground to remove high spots and filled the low spots with an appropriate compound. I chose to glue it down to prevent any sort of flex or bounce where there remained uneven areas. I really like how it worked out and would glue again. The planks have a resilient backing, so underlayment is not required.

[Pat Germain]

I would go to a flooring store. We looked at HD and Lowe’s, and the flooring place had better selection and pricing.

Interesting. I assumed flooring stores would have jacked up prices, but I will take a look. I heard the Mohawk vinyl plank is good stuff and I think my local Carpet Exchange carries that.

I'm wondering if I'm getting too old for a do-it-yourself install. I'd be happy to pay a team to come in, rip up the carpet, move the furniture and bang it out in a day or two. But likely any installers would say;

- "We don't remove old carpet."
- "We don't move furniture."
- "We can't get to it until August"
- "Well, we got started, but we have to leave and we'll be back in a few weeks"

Maybe I'm being cynical, but whenever I try to hire "professionals" to do something promptly and correctly, it turns out I could have done it better and faster myself.

[Cameron Wood]

I just installed (had installed) vinyl plank in the slab-on-grade cottage that I'm working on, specifically because the slab is uneven. Much of the existing vinyl tiles were left in place, and the edges and low spots feathered with patching compound. The flooring will settle into place and not make a hollow racket like engineered wood would. No underlayment.

[Tom M King]

The kitchen in that rental house had sheet vinyl flooring in the kitchen. I just put the LVP down right on top of it. I used thinset mortar to feather the edges into the rest of it, just because I had some. Works fine. I wanted no thresholds in any of the doors, so a lot of it was put down backwards. It was some harder, but not too bad once I got used to it.

We ended up buying it from a flooring store. They beat the online prices by a little bit.

[John Goodin]

Vinyl plank has been a real disrupter in the flooring market. I see it in everything from starter homes to million dollar McMansions. The only difference is the quality of the plank. It has stole market share from all other flooring types. I think it will be around for awhile.

That being said there are some vinyl plank lines with an MDF core which may be an issue if another leak occurs. We installed Titan HD on concrete which is made by Shaw and carried through Carpet One. The same product is also marketed under another name but don’t remember off hand. Anyway, it is 100 percent man made material with some type of plastic core and a rubber back. Had a leak in a bathroom and lifted up the floor and wiped it off a laid it back down. No issues. Three years old now and looks brand new. I would go for it but recommend adding a floor leveler first to prevent the hollow sound common with a floating floor.

[Warren Lake]

ive made a mahogany floor from rough and also put down some pre made. Ive had a neighbour ask me to cut his floor stuff cause the aluminum oxide was dulling his blades and he had that floor later replaced cause his dog had marked it up. I put in one clear maple floor with aluminum oxide many coat finish and it was worn out by my two elderly parents. Not impressed.

I use aluminium oxide in my sandblaster 56 grit and it works excellent

[Jason Roehl]

Another remedy for cats doing their business where they shouldn't is to put their food dish in that spot. They don't go where they eat.

[Brian Elfert]

My experience with my house built in 2001 was that they didn't make the concrete floor very level in the basement. I think they assumed everyone put carpet in the basement at the time so it didn't matter if the concrete wasn't perfect. The same concrete guys did a beautiful job on the garage slab. I had to grind the floor to make it smooth before applying epoxy coating to the floor to make it into a shop.

I don't ever recommend applying epoxy coating in a house after that experience unless you remove all of your food in the cupboards and plan to move out for a day or two. Every bit of food not in my refrigerator was ruined.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Interesting. I assumed flooring stores would have jacked up prices, but I will take a look. I heard the Mohawk vinyl plank is good stuff and I think my local Carpet Exchange.

I guess I don’t know how they would stay in business if that is the only thing they do and they do it worse than everyone else.

The kind we got has a layer of cork on the back, the some kind of hard rubber like material, and then a relatively thick surface layer.

When you look at the in the store, some will have a very thin surface layer. I bought a couple of the samples they sold and tried to scratch them up, and we went with the one we thought would hold up the best.

We were dealing with water damage and did not have a lot of time to make the decision, so maybe there are better ways to do it.

Good luck with it.

[Ole Anderson]

I put in one clear maple floor with aluminum oxide many coat finish and it was worn out by my two elderly parents. Not impressed.

Apparently there is a major difference in factory applied ceramic finish and the DIY version. UV cured in the factory I would guess. And the good ones are 30 mills thick.

[Curt Harms]

Apparently there is a major difference in factory applied ceramic finish and the DIY version. UV cured in the factory I would guess. And the good ones are 30 mills thick.

The only downside to a factory finish would be if I wanted to repair the finish. First I imagine it would take some doing to remove the factory finish then I don't know how to duplicate the factory finish without it being obvious. Maybe the best bet would be to remove the damaged pieces and replace them.