Vinyl Plank Flooring

[greg lindsey]

Well hoping not to get blasted for asking about vinyl on a woodworking site.:o Has anyone used vinyl plank flooring, if so how has it perfomed, what method of application did you use. I am thinking of using some in my home, one reason is because it is fairly waterproof, with the kids and the dog comming in and out all the time from the pool tracking water everywhere real wood or laminate dosen't sound like a good choice and with the way the ground here shifts ceramic is out of the question. Any advise appreciated.

[Bob Turkovich]

My in-laws had dark cherry vinyl plank flooring installed in their condo kitchen about 10 years ago and when my MIL sold in January (my FIL passed away about 5 years ago), the floor still looked brand new.

Two years ago, I seriously considered vinyl plank flooring when I replaced my kitchen laminate floor(water damage - dishwasher). The actual cost was about the same as laminate (high-end vs. high-end). The original laminate installlation was over sheet vinyl and I had installed some screws (from the top) to eliminate floor squeaking. Because of the indentations from the screws, the vinyl planks required a new sub-floor and I worried about the transition heights in/out of the kitchen so I re-installed laminate. Two years later, I again have water damage (refrigerator water supply). It doesn't require repair (...yet) but next time I'm going to go with the vinyl and figure out how to manage the transitions.

From what I was told you need to avoid the self-adhesive type (i.e., use spread adhesive) and your sub floor needs to have no imperfections.

[Bob Riefer]

We used high end sheet vinyl for our kitchen (in our case, a stone pattern). It's a floating application which is nice when it comes time to access the subfloor for any reason or to replace the product. The high end options these days look very realistic, and I love vinyl for how durable it is, how soft/warm it is underfoot, how quiet it is, and because a dropped plate bounces instead of shattering in thousands of pieces. In other words, the days of boring "linoleum" floors from years past are much improved today, and in my opinion can prove to be superior to other choices in many cases.

However, I'd personally go for a sheet product over the planks. Visit a good flooring specialty store, and you'll be able to get your wood look without seams (but there will still be a bevel between each plank). No matter what they tell me that those seams will not allow water penetration, I'm not trusting it.

edit: regarding screw heads telegraphing through vinyl, you can "spackle" the screw heads with some thinset to eliminate that issue. Our vinyl installer came through one day ahead of time and spackled between each sheet of subfloor and any other significant flaws as needed.

197059

[greg lindsey]

Thanks for the replies,
Bob, that kitchen looks great, love the wood furniture.

Looks like I'm gonna try the planks, found a great product online for a good price.

[Will Boulware]

I've got Allure (I think) brand flooring in my kitchen. Put it down in about one evening. I have two stupid dogs (no, really, they deserve the title) who drool, spill things, and go skidding over it all the time. Looks great after a year and a half. I'm planning on expanding it to my dining room. I really like it, and it really is waterproof (it's the stick-to-itself type). Plates? They don't break quite as easily as a hard floor, but physics dictates that dropped dishes that land at a certain angle are going to break regardless of the flooring medium. Don't drop your dishes, problem solved. It is nice and warm, though. I hate cold floors...

[greg lindsey]

Thanks Will, if your talking about the flooring that has the "tabs" that run the length of the flooring so that they actually stick to one another, thats one i'm thinking about using.