The Truth About Vinyl Plank Flooring 1 | THE HANDYMAN |

#thehandyman

[disenfranchisedcitizen]

You should seriously consider renaming this title as there are no truths being told.

[MichaelDavis-cyok]

This flooring is awesome, but beware! My wife wanted the kitchen re-floored, so I watched several YouTube videos on how to do it. Lucky wife; she found a bunch of it on clearance at Home Depot, something like 90 percent off. Not so lucky for me; it went from me re-flooring the kitchen to me re-flooring the kitchen, living room, hallway, food storage room, and back door landing; everything from our front door to our back door. That turned out so nice that she took her mom over to Home Depot as well. She decided I needed to re-floor most of her mom's house; entryway, living room, dining room hallway, bathroom, kitchen, laundry room, back entry way.

[alexafa]

I'm a professional flooring installer mostly LVP and laminate. I suggest you use a wood chopper when you cut your end pieces and use a tapping block with a pull bar also a pry bar (crowbar) works pretty good to get the last board in. You can get ¼ spacers online and don't get those black flat ones those are garbage, I use the red kind that curves, one side is ⅛ and the thicker side is ¼. I'm highly considering making a video too and what I use and how I install.

[KyleTaylorLucas]

OMG. I wanna adopt him! Thank you "The Handyman"!

[Handyguy]

For those commenting about the 1/4" expansion gap needed for LVP flooring, the gaps main purpose is for repairs to a piece of flooring if it gets damaged. The space you leave along the walls allows for a specialized vinyl plank spreader to spread the planks on either side of a damaged piece to replace it. And yes, it also allows for expansion room though with vinyl it is minimal compared to wood products such as laminate flooring which wick moisture and then dry out over and over with changes in humidity or vapor intrusion. 🙂

[kevinmelhorn]

I do this for a living so I have some knowledge for you. Troxell super soft knee pads are awesome and worth every penny. A couple things you could use are a good tapping block and a flooring cutter. That material looked easy to score and snap but some of them are way too tough and would take much longer.

[SaylessSuge]

This looks so easy, specially from the ending as well. Makes more sense when you said tap it one time the lines will go away. Doing handyman since last year glad I asked AI on IG for the videos and it came straight to here & a few as well I’m glad I saw this video and watched it fully you did an excellent job with the floors

[n.barrett]

I cut and laid this kind of flooring in a 900 ft. apartment all by myself with no experience, so it really is simple. Just have a laminate flooring chopper {Home Depot etc for 50 bucks} and a jigsaw {so you can cut your wood to go around door jambs etc.} and take your time with the cutting and you'll be fine :) I'm no handyman at all, so really, you can do this. :)

[webbit]

Im a licensed and insured handyman in Montana. I come here to get tips and tricks on things I may or may not have done before. I have a big planking job coming up.Thanks for the upload

[robhoffbauer]

Love the channel, I'm a flooring wholesaler and there should be a vapor barrier between the cork and concrete (6mil poly, etc).

[Snookchaser]

The older I get the less inclined to do flooring work I look for jobs I can do standing up with as little on my knees work as possible

[Neznisgip]

You went the extra steps by removing that flooring from under the cabinets, adding shims, and removing the dishwasher. I doubt the homeowner knows how much extra time and effort it took to do that. Most would just cut the flooring under the toe kick, and run the new flooring far enogh under the dishwasher, so that the faceplate hides it. Good job.

[aanon]

i paid attention to the parts where there was actually a 'gap' between the planks that you can hardly see but would affect the flr moving. & a little extra tap to close that seems a small detail, but its really important. for someone putting in their first vinyl flooring.. thanks for showing that.

[kscheuerman]

I so enjoy watching very good work from someone with high standards. This was very satisfying. Thanks so much. Great job!

[MadeiraIslands]

The key words are (Vinyl Backed Cork)., You want to make sure your vinyl flooring is 100% full vinyl.

[CheekyMonkey]

Excellent video! Very informative. Thank you.

[anonymoususername]

I've been doing floors for 20 years hardly ever wear knee pads but when I do it's those cheap foam ones you can buy at Walmart for like $4 they are lightweight and just enough padding to where your knees don't hurt

[elijahwatson]

That stuff seems nicer than what I put in my kitchen. It's a LVP product with no backing. Went down easy, and seems like it's holding up well, until a few nails in the subfloor popped out a little big and projected right through the vinyl. 🙄

I imagine any sort of backer like this has would have prevented that.

Supposedly I can replace a piece in the middle of the floor by cutting the piece out and cutting off a tounge and super gluing it to the next piece or something like that. I haven't tried yet and fear I'll somehow make it look worse if I try.😅

I don't necessarily find the "waterproof" statement to be a lie. I think of waterproof as being "from the top" in this case. If I spill a gallon of water on it, it's not going to destroy the product. Now, a flood where it makes it underneath? Yeah, not THAT waterproof.

[somos]

Cork padding IS the underpayment, and it is a far superior (and expensive) at that.

Now, people should be aware of vinyl flooring releasing harmful fumes and gases, so stay away from the made in China stuff. Go for some made in the U.S with the approval of FHA even if they’re a bit more money.

Also, you got to have a gap all around for flooring shifting. If you want to keep your baseboards intact you can just add quarter rounds.

[Guillotines_For_Globalists]

We had luxury vinyl tile installed in January, nearly the entire home. It is a fully waterproof product by J&J Flooring Group. A commercial product, also thicker than most of the residential types. Each piece was 9"x48" although the installers cut down the length to give a more natural look. We went with 3 different colors per floor and also choose the textured products over the smooth products. We are very satisfied. So much better than carpet!

This product is also a glue down, not tongue and groove. Apparently the glue never really gets hard so you can theoretically peel up a piece and install a new one if there is ever damage. We have plenty of scraps and full spared pieces left over so it's nice to know that if the unusual need arises to replace, it can be done in a snap of the fingers.

On the lower level they glued down right on to the concrete slab. On the other two upper floors they did install a high quality 1/4" sub-floor and then went over the joints and gaps with some sort of other compound prior to gluing.