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Planning to begin installation.
Joe,
Thanks for the great videos on prep and installation. I have watched many of them in preparation of installing new floors.
We are ready to purchase Cali Pro vinyl plank flooring and begin the installation. I am planning to buy 5% more than needed for breakage and other issues, per manufacturer recommendations. The flooring plank size is 48″ x 7.125″ x 7/32″. We have experience installing prefinished Bruce 2” wide oak hardwood, throughout multiple rooms, but have never installed vinyl plank flooring. I would be curious if you have a different recommendation on the 5%.
We are installing the flooring throughout the entire house, both on the ground and upper floors of the home. Attached are two floor plans. We plan to install upstairs first to gain experience with the flooring, where mistakes probably won’t be as noticed. We also will be moving several bookshelves from downstairs to upstairs after installing the upstairs floor. Moving them to a finished area will keep us from needing to move them twice. After looking at the layout, I would be interested to know if you would recommend a different order.
The downstairs flooring will be laid on top of a concrete slab and upstairs on wood subfloor. The preferred orientation direction is shown on each floor plan.
After researching, we plan to either use the Cali underlayment or the QuiteWalk Luxury Vinyl underlayment but are leaning toward the QuietWalk as it comes in rolls versus sheets that need to be put together like a puzzle.
For the stairs we probably will use the Cali stair treads, or we may buy wood treads and stain to closely match the floor. The vertical portion of the treads we plan to install white painted wood. Would you have any recommendations on wood stair treads?
For
the top step Cali does not sell a stair nose that will overlap the floor to provide
the needed gap (per your video). So, I
will probably need to buy another brand, do you have a recommendation as well? Also, the top step is right next to some horizontal
white wood that the railing is mounted into (See picture). I will use an end cap to finish the flooring
up to the wood, per your video, but the end cap will probably finish right next
to the stair nose. While I think the
stair nose will match up with the end of the white wood, if it does not, do you
have any recommendations on how to finish the two, right next to each other and
make it look good? -
14 Replies
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watch this http://somup.com/cre028btiu
Here is the link I mention in the video-
https://www.facebook.com/groups/126691170847106/user/100001547540496/
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Joe,
Thank you for the answers. They were very helpful. I will go back and watch the videos you mentioned. I tried to look at the Facebook link you provided, but it said I did not have permission. Any suggestions?
Mike
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Joe,
After watching your video about installing plank around a bank of walls, I believe it might be better to run the flooring, on the ground floor, perpendicular to the hallway, and not parallel to it, as shown in our drawing. Then the flooring will run the full length of the house and going around the center walls might be easier.
We initially chose parallel with the hallway as Cali recommends “Lay planks preferably following the direction of the main source of light”. Our house has many windows on the front and back. Would you please let me know your thoughts on this as well, when doing the video?
Thank you
Mike
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Can you answer a couple more questions for me?
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Hi Joe,
Thank you for the questions. I really appreciate you taking the time to look this over. Your timing is perfect as your initial comments gave me things to consider that I have been working on.
Here are my answers to your questions, as well as a couple of updated layouts to clarify my answers…
The opening to the dining room is a French door we had installed when buying the house. Before, it was just a standard opening. I also forgot to show, but there is a similar set of French doors we had installed in the hallway as well. see updated first floor layout.
Living room is not sunken, as the entire floor is one level. I think the lines are a function of the drawing software showing there is an opening in the wall.
I realized my use of ‘downstairs’ has caused confusion. This is the first floor, built on a slab poured at or slightly above grade. There is no crawl space or basement under this floor.
Regarding the direction of the planks on the first floor (downstairs), I would still prefer to run them in parallel with the hallway, unless you think running them perpendicular would make it better to get around the center walls.
Upstairs bedroom – sorry about the missing doorway. Yes, the doorway is in the slanted wall.
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Here is the basement video-
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here is the upstairs-
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Hi Joe,
Thanks for the amazing videos. I watched them both and will go back and watch the other videos you recommended.
Three questions
1) We do plan to start upstairs in the bedroom, and not downstairs. Any issue with that, with the angled door I need to work with? I would expect not as downstairs also stars with an angle.
2) Please see the attached picture for the master bath. I assume I will need a reference line to keep the planks going parallel through the bathroom. Would you recommend I draw one by measuring from the plan on either side of the doorway? Or is there a better way?
3) Downstairs, at the angled wall (the recommended starting location) there is some tile on the floor (see picture). Would you adjust any of your recommendations based upon knowing there is tile there?
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Hi Joe,
Thanks again for all of your recommendations. We have pulled up the carpeting in the first upstairs room and found it needs to be leveled. The subfloor is OSB (not outdoor grade). I looked at Ardex Feather Finish and spoke with their technical service line who said the Ardex feather finish can only be used on grade 1 (outdoor) OSB. Non-outdoor grade will draw moisture from the Ardex and possibly delaminate resulting in uneven areas. Ardex recommends that we should overlay plywood over the floor and then use the Ardex on that new plywood. Doing this would probably mean I would need to install over the entire upper floor, which would be expensive and add time to the job.
I considered using 30# tar paper, which I have used under Bruce oak hardwood, without issues, but that hardwood was nailed. There is an area about 4′ x 12′ that would need to be built up, more in the center, less on the edges. It dips nearly 3/8″ in the center.
Any recommendations?
Thanks
Mike
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Hi Joe,
Happy Easter. You can ignore my last question as I did some investigation and found that Uzin makes a skim and repair compound that when used together with their acrylic based primer, can be applied safely to OSB. It is a lot more expensive than the Ardex, feather finish, but is allowing me to build up the area.
Thanks
Mike
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You can also use a modified thinset.
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Good morning Joe,
We have started installing and are about finished with the first upstairs room. So far so good. But I now have a question about finishing the first row along the railing floor board.
As I come out of the room, I plan to follow your recommendation and temporarily fasten the first row of boards to the floor to ensure the hallway floor is parallel to my line. I have laid out a couple of boards to help visualize my comments. They are not the final boards we plan to use so can be moved.
My question has to do with the final piece that will go into the corner and is outlined in red. I am planning to undercut the wood and slip the board under both pieces of railing wood. But the board in the corner needs to go in last. It seems like it will be difficult to slide it under both pieces of wood and fasten in place with it being the last one installed.
Would appreciate your recommendations. Thanks
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