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  • Brick hearth – undercut?

    Posted by Chuck on June 17, 2021 at 3:26 pm

    Hi, Joe,

    We’re just getting started on reflooring pretty much the whole house (daylight rambler) with Mannington ADURAMax LVP & LVT. I’ve attached a layout of the upstairs and a couple of photos for starters, and I have one question initially. We anticipate starting on the east end (kitchen, dining room, living room) to get some experience, because the layout is easiest. The planks & tiles will all lock together and won’t give us any transitions to worry about. My question relates to the hearth. I’ve attached a photo of the whole hearth & a closeup where I’ve pulled the carpet up. Is it possible, and a good idea, to try to undercut the brick to allow the flooring to slide underneath, or should we do something else? If we cut it, what’s the best way to do that?

    Thanks,

    Chuck Royalty

    Chuck replied 3 years, 3 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Joe

    Administrator
    June 18, 2021 at 8:00 am
  • Chuck

    Member
    June 18, 2021 at 4:40 pm

    Thanks for the ideas on the hearth. We’ll kick those around and see what we think we’ll like best. It’s a relief to not contemplate undercutting the brick.

    You’re correct in the way we’re laying LVP/LVT in the living room, dining room, and kitchen. As you requested, I’ve attached some photos of the planks & tile. They’re laid out in the order (LR, DR, Kitch) they’ll be used and, I think, oriented the way you described – working away from the groove starting at the north wall. I also show them clicked together. If you need more closeups, or if I’ve misunderstood how you described the orientation, let me know. The critical transition line is the one from living room to dining room, which has to land in the doorway, and with the dining room / kitchen transition slightly less so, since the floor will be level across the transition.

    As you noted, the kitchen (and bathroom) tiles will be staggered. We haven’t settled on the exact offset of the stagger, but they will be staggered.

    I think that starting on the north wall of the master bedroom looks best, as you noted.

    Thanks

    Chuck

  • Joe

    Administrator
    June 21, 2021 at 11:05 am
    • Chuck

      Member
      June 29, 2021 at 7:26 pm

      Joe-

      I was surprised and gratified at the information you’ve provided and the amount of time you spent on it. I didn’t anticipate you getting into the entire upstairs with my first question, so I didn’t provide all the detail you’d need in the layout. I’ll try to give you more background and answer the questions you posed in the video. I’ve annotated and attached the layout with some of that information.

      You talked about arranging planks so that edges fall within doorways. That was something we gave a lot of thought to, because we wanted hallways & rooms to be different patterns of LVP, but we also wanted to avoid transition strips unless absolutely necessary.

      We looked at a lot of brands of planks before settling on Mannington. We wanted LVT / LVP locking compatibility, again to avoid transition strips where possible.

      Plank width is 5 7/8” per plank, measured across 10 planks as you described.
      The plank edge falls at almost the center of the living room/dining room opening and at the edge of the kitchen – which is lined up with the wall that contains the pantry door. So the plank/tile transition works well.
      Plank edges fall within room doorways on both sides of the hall, both upstairs and downstairs (which I’m still working on the layout for).<div class=””>

      Height of tile

      I pulled some carpet away from the entryway tile to check the height of the tile. It’s right around 3/8” (or a little more – it’s a little uneven), which is 1 – 2 mm thicker than the plank. Our plan was to use an end cap on the plank rather than a T or reducer. That way the height of the transition strip is minimized. The end cap will sit on the plank like an overlapping stair nose, and will only be about 1/16” thicker than the tile. I’ve attached a couple of photos – obviously I’ll have to clean up the excess glue on the subfloor, and the tile is slightly uneven, but I think it’s workable.

      I don’t know if you have any more comments on this part, but I wanted to answer the questions you raised in your video. I’ll probably start a new thread with other questions later.

      Thanks

      Chuck

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