Vinyl plank flooring

[fidgiegirl]

We are planning to install vinyl plank (the faux wood look) in our basement.  Has anyone put in this kind of floor and if so, what brand did you get and how is it holding up?  Other good suggestions for sites to look at ratings, etc.?  I have read some brands look crappy really fast, and that others wear like iron, but never sure which brands are which.

Did you install yourself and how did the install go?

Thanks!

[CanuckStache]

Super simple. Did this in a few hours taking my sweet time. I used the Allure brand from Home Depot - and because a few boxes had been opened, I managed to talk the manager into 50% off :)

Just put it down, line up the next plank, etc etc. It's really hard to mess it up.

Then, what I did is took a rolling pin and used my body weight to go over the floor and press it all down. Worked perfectly, and saved money by not renting a roller from home depot.

Been installed for about 6 months now, no issues. The only thing I noticed is if you drop something sharp, it will make a little ding / scratch - but that'll happen on most flooring anyways!

[frugi]

+1 on the Allure vinyl plank.  We used the adhesive-edge (less expensive) kind over ancient asbestos tile in our basement and two years later it's holding up fine for the most part. If your floor has some really high/low spots you should hit them with some leveling compound first- the vinyl is pretty tolerant of an uneven subfloor but if the floor is too wonky the vinyl will start to pull up.  We put in 350 sq ft over two evenings, and it was very easy.

[Nords]

We are planning to install vinyl plank (the faux wood look) in our basement.  Has anyone put in this kind of floor and if so, what brand did you get and how is it holding up?  Other good suggestions for sites to look at ratings, etc.?  I have read some brands look crappy really fast, and that others wear like iron, but never sure which brands are which.
Did you install yourself and how did the install go?
Thanks!

Konecto about seven years ago in the rental property.  Today it looks as good as new, after years of tenant neglect & abuse.

The darker colors hide the abuse better than the lighter colors.  It's also worth making sure that the floor is absolutely clean of debris, since a chunk of dirt can later show up as a small lump under the vinyl.

My 14-year-old daughter and I did the 20'x20' installation in an afternoon... including removing/reinstalling molding on walls that were not parallel.

[plantingourpennies]

If this is the kind of stuff you're talking about, we can't recommend it at all. 

http://www.lowes.com/pd_33259-84875-WD4011_0__?productId=3032606&Ntt=vinyl+plank+adhesive&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dvinyl%2Bplank%2Badhesive&facetInfo=

After serious prep work on the kitchen floors in our duplex, we tried this "peel and stick" plank vinyl and it was terrible.  It didn't lay flat and we ended up ripping it all up, getting a full refund from Lowes, and tiling the floors.  It was more expensive and added a good month to our timeline, but the tile will last much longer than the sticky vinyl ever would have. 

That said, we like the wood look and will probably end up with wood-look porcelain tiles similar to these: http://www.lowes.com/pd_397694-1813-1095207_0__?productId=3815455&Ntt=wood+look+porcelain+tile&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dwood%2Blook%2Bporcelain%2Btile&facetInfo=
when we redo the floors in our own house.

[Mrs WW]

Please do thourough research on the moisture situation in your ground slab before putting something sealed, like plastic in on top of concrete! I would also recommend you to rethink pvc flooring as it might contain harmful ftalates and pvc itself being harful environmentally. My advise as a residential architect, would be for you to tile the floors, thus avoiding any moisture issues now and in the future as well as a guaranteed longevity of the floors. You can easily diy a tile floor, just choose medium size tile 15-30 cm or so an laying it should be a breeze!

Good luck!

[MountainFlower]

Please do thourough research on the moisture situation in your ground slab before putting something sealed, like plastic in on top of concrete! I would also recommend you to rethink pvc flooring as it might contain harmful ftalates and pvc itself being harful environmentally. My advise as a residential architect, would be for you to tile the floors, thus avoiding any moisture issues now and in the future as well as a guaranteed longevity of the floors. You can easily diy a tile floor, just choose medium size tile 15-30 cm or so an laying it should be a breeze!

Good luck!

Yeah but, if you tile over concrete, you have to put down a bond breaker like Ditra which can double the cost of the project.  That stuff is pricey.  I do appreciate the reminder about phalates.  We have been considering this type of flooring, but I hadn't even thought about phalates.   Maybe time to rethink...

What's the difference between vinyl planking and laminate planking? 

[Mrs WW]

I guess practises vary from country to country. Standard practise here (sweden)would be an open, unglazed tile directly on a clean and grease free slab. Bond breakers are mostly used for wet rooms.

Laminate floors are made from wood composite with a photo print and then a thin plastic layer on top. This type of flooring is easy to put down, cheap and if you go for a little better than the very cheapest - quite durable. This will need an underlayment, which can be cheap or as expensive as you like.

[Spork]

*IF* you go with laminate... be careful of what sort of laminate you go with.  Prices for these are all over the board (even within a brand, there will be varying price levels).

My previous house was almost entirely done with laminate, put down by myself over several years and in phases.  I had the best results from the very old-school glue-up Pergo.  It wore well and lasted forever.

The snap together planks -- varying results from "pretty good" to "not good".

The biggest factor is what the core of the product is made from.  They seem to make them out of varying things: wood chips mixed with epoxies, recycled paper mixed with epoxies and sometimes something very MDF-like.

The paper core products do not deal well with spills, pets and moisture.  Anything that lands on the laminate will wick its way through the cracks and into the core.  Over time the core will swell and you'll get very distinct cupping at the seams.  I had an old dog with bladder control issues and it was really not good.  The old school (glue-up, wooden core) product wore very well and cleaned up nicely.

My sister had a water leak with the paper core laminate... and the leak wicked pretty much across her entire house in a matter of  a couple of hours. (Even though a leak cleanup specialist arrived and pulled up the floor within a few hours... the whole thing was ruined.)

[fidgiegirl]

Nope, not interested in laminate, just wondering about the vinyl.  I have appreciated the replies, some good food for thought, if you have further experienced I'd still love to hear them . . .

[horsepoor]

We put them in our kitchen and they are awful.  We got cheap ones that *sort of* snap together, and stick to the subfloor with double-sided tape stuff meant for indoor/outdoor carpet.  We followed the instructions carefully, and painstakingly prepared the subfloor, and the crap started curling within about six months.  Now some planks are totally separated from each other and we've had to learn to avoid tripping over them.  We'll be ripping them out and starting over in the not-too-distant future. 

Now last year in the bathroom we put down the 12"x36" vinyl stick-down Allure Traffic Master and have been very happy with it so far.  It was easy to install, looks great, and all is good so far, though it does not get nearly as much traffic as the narrower planks in the kitchen.

[fidgiegirl]

horsepoor do you remember the name of the crappy brand so we can avoid?  It is helpful to know the Allure is working well for you . . .

[horsepoor]

I don't.  It was on clearance at Lowe's - some off brand in brown boxes.  We definitely got what we paid for, though it looked nice when freshly installed.  I think with the vinyl, you're best off avoiding the actual long, skinny planks and going with something wider so there's less chance of curling.  I know someone else who has had problems with curling planks, though not to the extent of ours.  We also put the cheaper stick-down ones in our rental and noticed that the wood grain had worn off in parts after ~2 years, but then, we had awful tenants, so there's no telling what they put those floors through.

[fidgiegirl]

Interesting, the two people with not great products on this thread both got them at Lowe's . . . will have to remember that!