I think we’re going to redo our first floor flooring, and we’re looking at LVP. Installing ourselves. What should we be looking for? Any brand/retailer recs? Any to stay away from?
I would consider PP’s advice about hiring someone or doing it yourself bc Lowe’s installed ours and we had an uneven issue as well. We called them back out to fix it but there were some other issues (like seeing the edges in some areas) that didn’t get addressed.
Whatever you decide on I would highly recommend you get a whole box or two and lay it out. I was going to buy the Home Depot Lifeproof but realized it was really repetitive once I laid a whole box out on the floor.
I don’t think I’ll have anything other than LVP in my future houses. It’s so durable.
We hired a local flooring company because we are absolutely not DIY people, and they used Paradigm brand. I really like it. We have a large dog, cat, and toddler and they basically still look new after three or four years? There's one area that is nicked but that's because another contractor was cleaning up plaster or something with a razor and cut into it. So don't go at it with a razor and you should be fine! When we bought they had just installed bamboo and it was so terrible looking and scratched after a year from our dog's nails and just general wear. The flooring people told me not to use steam, so I got that o Cedar mop and use that which is easy enough.
Our neighbors house also recently flooded into mine and they were able to take the flooring up, dry out underneath, and replace with the same planks. It's waterproof from the top, but since water came in from the side it got trapped.
Post by SusanBAnthony on Sept 5, 2021 6:27:53 GMT -5
We had them in a rental house and I mostly loved them.
Things I didn't love:
1. Any unevenness in your subfloor will telegraph through. It will be really obvious. You may not realize it until the whole thing is installed.... And then you'll have to pull it out. So really think about if you can get the floor perfectly flat, and if it'll bug you.
2. Even though it's fairly water resistant, like a PP said I'd you get water under it it's a problem. I've thought about it for our basement and that's what holds me back. It isn't like the old asbestos basement tiles you glue down and they can get wet and it doesn't matter.
The previous owners in our home installed vinyl wood in the bedrooms.
Cosmetically it looks nice, but you really have to mind water around it. Any droplet, like from a kids water bottle, if it sits too long it will warp the vinyl. I have to use the delicate mist Libman Microfiber mop very carefully. It also has a noise when a person walks on it, a high-pitched sound that's higher than walking on true wood.
In our area, I've seen many families use tile that looks like wood now...however I'm not sure the pricing difference from actual vinyl though. You get the durability of tile, with the look of wood.
The previous owners in our home installed vinyl wood in the bedrooms.
Cosmetically it looks nice, but you really have to mind water around it. Any droplet, like from a kids water bottle, if it sits too long it will warp the vinyl. I have to use the delicate mist Libman Microfiber mop very carefully. It also has a noise when a person walks on it, a high-pitched sound that's higher than walking on true wood.
In our area, I've seen many families use tile that looks like wood now...however I'm not sure the pricing difference from actual vinyl though. You get the durability of tile, with the look of wood.
Are you sure that’s not laminate? I thought vinyl was straight plastic. Isn’t it completely water resistant?
The previous owners in our home installed vinyl wood in the bedrooms.
Cosmetically it looks nice, but you really have to mind water around it. Any droplet, like from a kids water bottle, if it sits too long it will warp the vinyl. I have to use the delicate mist Libman Microfiber mop very carefully. It also has a noise when a person walks on it, a high-pitched sound that's higher than walking on true wood.
In our area, I've seen many families use tile that looks like wood now...however I'm not sure the pricing difference from actual vinyl though. You get the durability of tile, with the look of wood.
Are you sure that’s not laminate? I thought vinyl was straight plastic. Isn’t it completely water resistant?
TBH I don't know, the previous owners referred to it as vinyl wood. I can only describe it as a matte synthetic wood with some sort of padding underneath.
I've also seen another wood-like material that doesn't seem to have the padding like above - it's installed very close to the subfloor.
Post by samanthamkm on Sept 5, 2021 18:48:27 GMT -5
We have the same as shortstax, same color as well. Our installer used a self leveling stuff on parts of the floor to make everything level before laying it. I have it in my laundry/mud room, kitchen, dining room, living room and down my hallway. I have 2 kids and now a dog. We haven’t had any issues with it, no scratches, dents, or warping due to water. My youngest is known to spill something and not tell me.
We put Lowe’s Smartcore in our bathroom last summer. Installed ourselves. It says you can cut it with a utility knife, but we used a saw in our garage because trying to use a utility knife seems like it would be a hassle/really difficult.
The smartcore has underlayment attached to the bottom of it. So do some other brands. If the vinyl you pick doesn’t have that, you’re going to want to buy underlayment to lay down before you put down the planks. A laminate/wood installation kit w/a rubber mallet helps a great deal with getting secure connections.
We’ll definitely consider using luxury vinyl plank flooring again in the future.
Post by Doggy Mommy on Sept 5, 2021 23:18:11 GMT -5
I've been thinking we had LVP since it was installed a few years ago but after doing some googling, I'm pretty sure it's actually laminate - Mohawk Revwood Select. It comes in 7.5x54 inch planks. I love it. It looks great and seems pretty indestructible. Our dog loves to run and slide around on it and I'm clumsy and drop stuff. There isn't a single mark. Once I accidentally left a couple ice cubes on it overnight. It still looked perfect the next day. Ours has an Embossed In Register finish which means the texture goes with the image of the wood. It gives a more natural look.
Look at the AC Rating. The higher the number, the more resistant to wear. AC1 would be for low use and AC5 for heavy commercial use. The one we have is AC4. For laminate, you also want to look at thickness- it should be 6-12mm (the one we have is 12). For vinyl, look at the wear layer - a thicker wear layer is better.
We had Viking, Glen Arbor color installed last year. We did this instead of tile plank due to weight on our sub floors. Older cottage in Michigan. We love, love, love it.
Post by tommygirl03 on Sept 6, 2021 7:22:03 GMT -5
I’m about to order CoreTec Plus from flooring.com. They have pretty good service if you have questions about what is right for you. We purchased gym flooring from them (rubberflooring.com) and it is amazing. That said, I ordered samples from them of the coretec and have some other brand from cabinets to go - the coretec is much thicker and just feels more substantial, if that makes sense.
We put in Coretec in our last house in every room and loved it. We had a pool, kids and dogs and no problems at all. Any water (or dog pee ) would just sit on top until you cleaned it up. Now, I'm sure days wouldn't be good, but there were a few times where one or the other would be there for a few hours b/c either no one knew or kids didn't tell us, and it was fine.
Ours did get scratched when we moved out, but that was the movers moving out the fridge, so thinking any floor would have gotten scratched w/o putting something underneath that.
One thing I'd suggest is to really think about how long you're going to be there and look at the wear #. That's the depth of the top layer that will get worn down as the years go on. While the box store brands aren't bad, their wear #'s are going to be lower, meaning they'll have to be replaced sooner (but still many years). Had I known we'd be moving a year later, I most definitely wouldn't have put down the high end Coretec!
The previous owners in our home installed vinyl wood in the bedrooms.
Cosmetically it looks nice, but you really have to mind water around it. Any droplet, like from a kids water bottle, if it sits too long it will warp the vinyl. I have to use the delicate mist Libman Microfiber mop very carefully. It also has a noise when a person walks on it, a high-pitched sound that's higher than walking on true wood.
In our area, I've seen many families use tile that looks like wood now...however I'm not sure the pricing difference from actual vinyl though. You get the durability of tile, with the look of wood.
Are you sure that’s not laminate? I thought vinyl was straight plastic. Isn’t it completely water resistant?
They have tile that looks like wood. I considered it for my kitchen because my husband wanted to put in a very expensive wood. He won, it always looks dirty and scratched according to my standards. I’m quite sure my tiles would have been much cleaner.
I have LVT in my office and I really like it. It’s easy to clean. We track in a lot of mud and water because the landlord refuses to pave the parking lot. I picked a color that hides all that really well. I had a wood look one in my office before and I hated that one because it had little grooves that would trap dirt and be impossible to clean. The one I have now is flat and grey-silver colored with brown-black swirls to hide the dirt.
We have LVP in our river house and I love it. We had to replace all of the subfloor too (OMG), so we had the installers level that before they installed the planks. I'm pretty sure the one we picked is waterproof, b/c the property has a pool and that was important.
It is my favorite flooring of all time, in any apt/TH/house I've ever lived in. We have it in the great room, the den and the hallways (the kitchen is hardwoods--haven't renovated that space yet--bedrooms are carpet and the sunroom & bathrooms are tile). When we redo the kitchen, I think H wants tile, but I am not averse to using this same LVP.
It is 100% vinyl and waterproof. The joints are really tight. I am a perfectionist so I made sure we installed it properly. It was easy to cut. We bought a guillotine cutter for straight cuts and used a Dremel for custom cuts. Worked great. I did use a flooring tool to make sure the joints were tight despite what they say. I was very careful when using the hammer. Never had an issue damaging the grooves. I would "tap" every single rows and saw the results. The planks needed that extra tap to be 100% installed. Almost 2 years later and I am super happy. It is easy to maintain and looks great. I don't remember the exact measurements but we did a family room and a large bedroom and it was $2.5K back in 2019.
We have luxury vinyl tiles in our kitchen - they look like stone and are grouted like stone tiles, so they have fooled people, lol. I love their wearability and I especially love that every dropped dish doesn’t shatter like it would with real stone. Much warmer on our feet, too.
Cancer survivor here. Anyone know how bad these options are with off-gassing? What’s the safest/least toxic option? Are hardwoods my only safe option? I start to do research on these q’s and easily get overwhelmed. Thanks!
It's a non-recyclable, petroleum based product that's not good for the environment now or when it gets ripped out in however many years. #cepruinseverything
It's a non-recyclable, petroleum based product that's not good for the environment now or when it gets ripped out in however many years. #cepruinseverything
I’m sad to be replying right after your post because I love mine so much.
OP I had ceramic tile in my kitchen which I hated with the fire of a thousand suns. The grout was never clean. It got to be a running joke in the family bc when the kids were “punished” with “hard labor” they had to scrub the grout. It didn’t help. My vinyl floor is 5 years old now but it was the high-end LVP from Home Depot. I had it profesionally installed as part of a whole kitchen reno but if you’re a diy person it’s definitely doable with two + people. Mine floats and is on a cushion And i recommend doing both of those.