ArcaMax

I found myself driving through the breathtaking sheer granite walls of Franconia Notch in New Hampshire last Sunday. Cannon Mountain was on my left, and Mt. Lafayette was on my right. I was on my way to the quaint community of Sugar Hill to conduct an in-person consultation for a single mother.

The young woman was considering purchasing a house owned by two of her aunts. My job was to develop a list of must-do and should-do projects. I was then tasked with determining the labor and material costs required to complete each item on the two lists.

The cost of labor was astronomical. My estimates were on the high side because I wanted the woman to hire the contractors who would do each thing right the first time. I shared with her a story about another single woman I had helped out of a bind just months before.

This other woman decided to sell her condominium. She had luxury vinyl plank (LVP) flooring installed throughout the condo two years prior. The installers were jobbers who worked for one of the big-box retailers. They forgot, or were not prepared, to install small pieces of decorative trim where the LVP met up against pieces of woodwork.

The young woman was manic about hiding these small gaps. I asked her to buy and paint the small wood trim. I installed the trim in minutes, packed up my tools, and left without accepting any money. She, instead, treated my lovely wife and me to dinner.

Fast forward to my son’s house. I’ve shared in past columns about how I’m helping him finish about 1,200 square feet of basement in his new home. We’ve speculated on how much money I’ve saved him in labor costs. The number is now approaching $100,000.

A few days ago, we started installing his LVP flooring. We selected this material for several reasons. LVP is the perfect material to use in basements because it’s waterproof. The material is also eye-catching. Most people who see it will think it’s real wood.

You may want a new LVP floor in your home, but you’re holding back because the labor estimates have taken your breath away. I’m here to tell you that if you can fog a mirror and comb or brush your hair, you can successfully install LVP. The best part is that you need only simple tools to do the job in most cases.

The flooring surface below the LVP must be in the same plane. This means there should be minimal or no low spots or humps. The pieces of LVP interlock. These tongue-and-groove connection joints can fail over time if the LVP flexes as you walk back and forth across a hollow spot under the LVP.

Your first task is to use a long, straight edge to locate any dips or low spots. Use floor-leveling compound to carefully fill in these areas. This is time well spent, and you’ll discover the LVP will install with ease once the subfloor is even.

The LVP is so easy to install that the instructions can be followed by a child in middle school. The product I used instructed me to start in the corner of a room, working left to right. The first two rows of the material are installed simultaneously in a staggered fashion. This ensures the pieces interlock, allowing the rest of the flooring to install with ease.

LVP is plastic. Plastics have a high coefficient of expansion and contraction. The LVP is a floating floor, and it will expand if subjected to significant temperature differences. Sunlight hitting an LVP floor will make it grow like a weed. The instructions clearly state that you must leave a 1/4-inch gap around all edges of the flooring to allow for this movement. The floor will buckle and bubble if you don’t provide this gap.

You need a rubber mallet to install the type of LVP my son and I used. Be sure to purchase one with white rubber, not black. The white mallet will not mar the flooring. The mallet is used to lock the ends of each plank to the piece you just installed moments before. You’ll also use the mallet to tap a square-edge piece of wood that ensures the long edges of each plank are tight to the previous row.

I found that it only took me about 30 seconds to install a plank. I would kneel on the flooring I just installed so I could interlock the planks by pulling on them instead of pushing them in place. You’ll discover that great lighting is important. It’s mission-critical that you install each piece tightly. There must be no gap between the planks.

The LVP my son and I installed had the underlayment built into each plank. This made the installation go that much faster. We also made sure the concrete floor was perfectly clean. We had vacuumed it and then wet-mopped the concrete. It was so clean you could eat off it. Grit, small pieces of drywall compound, or slivers of wood can cause great frustration if they interfere with the installation.

There are many videos, some created by the LVP manufacturers, that show how simple it is to install this material. Watch a few of them if I’ve not yet convinced you how easy it is to save thousands of dollars!

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