Tips on Installing Vinyl Plank Flooring Home Guides. Vinyl planks floors give the illusion of real wood. Born out of the DIY generation of home improvement, vinyl plank flooring is an affordable surrogate for traditional hardwood floors. Download Adventure Fishing 2 1 Keygen Download there. Building-Supplies/install-vinyl-plank-flooring-transitions.jpg' alt='Installing Hardwood Flooring Over Plank Subfloor Tile' title='Installing Hardwood Flooring Over Plank Subfloor Tile' />All about installing hardwood, Laminate flooring over different types of subfloors such as Plywood, Plank boards, OSB, Concrete slabs, Particle Board. Along with being far more inexpensive compared to natural wood, vinyl plank flooring is designed with the average homeowner in mind, which means it is easy to install and requires very little in the way of skill or tool knowledge. Even so, there are still a few tricks and tips you can use to help speed up the installation and give you the best results. Floor Prep. The only major rule for installing vinyl plank floors is that the surface needs to be flat. Level is not necessarily important after all, a floor can be flat and have a plane to it. When preparing to install a floor for the first time, the installation surface needs to be flat and free of debris. The quickest solution is to use a floor scraper to ensure there are no high spots in the subfloor, but if there are high spots that a floor scraper cant quickly scrape off, you may need to use a belt sander or a floor grinder, depending on the type of subfloor material you have. From there, sweep or vacuum the floor to ensure there is no dirt and debris left behind. COREtec Plus Installation Instructions Page 2 of 4 Revised 81313 PREINSTALLATION SUBFLOOR REQUIREMENTS All Subfloors must be Dry. If you are working with glue down vinyl planks, the manufacturer may include a paint on primer to help the adhesive stick. Undercutting. The best finish results for any type of flooring is where the cuts of a floor slide underneath the door jambs, casing and baseboard trim running around the room. As a general rule, baseboard is installed after the floor is installed, which makes covering the vinyl planks easy. However, door casings and jambs are often installed before a floor, which means you need to undercut the jambscasing. This allows you to bury the cuts under the vertical sections of a door, hiding them from sight and giving the illusion of a seamless installation. For smaller projects, a handheld jamb saw works just fine, but for larger, commercial projects or for areas with many doorways, a power jamb saw is the best option. You can also use mechanical saws to undercut baseboard if necessary, such as installations where baseboards are already in place and you dont want to remove them. Perimeters. All materials breathe with the weather, expanding when it is warm and humid and contracting when it is cooler and drier. As such, all of your perimeters need to have a gap to allow for expansion. Against areas such as a cabinet base or a bathtub, this is a visible cut and should be around 18 inch from the edge of whatever you are installing up against. This void is filled with caulk after the fact. For baseboard areas, however, you have anywhere from 14 inch to 34 inch of flexibility to play with, depending on the thickness of your baseboard, which covers this gap. Since the cuts dont need to be uniform because they are covered by the baseboard, scrap material works well in these areas. For example, if you are cutting off the ends of boards as they run into the wall, you can sometimes save on material by using the cut offs themselves if they are long enough or wide enough. Remodeling Aspects. Vinyl planks are one of the few floor materials that can be installed directly on top of another flooring material if its flat and structurally sound, provided that you are working against a hard flooring material. When working over tile floors, first coat the tile floor with a self leveling compound to ensure all the grout joints are flush and full. There should not be any indentations or depressions left behind, as these will be visible later on down the road after foot traffic presses the vinyl planks down into the depressions of the grout joints. About the Author. Tim Anderson has been freelance writing since 2. His has been published online through GTV Magazine, Home Anatomy, Trav. Buddy, MMO Hub, Killer Guides and the Delegate. He spent more than 1. Photo Credits. JupiterimagesPolka DotGetty Images.