Going to try and lay this myself, so what in your opinion are essential tools?
i was told a stanley knife for cutting the 'boards' which i do have, but its the 6mm thick stuff so not sure itll do the job. i saw some of the 2mm stuff that was way more flexi, i guess thats what they were thinking when they recommended that method of cutting? this feels more like laminate altho obviously its not. its the clickable stuff with underlay.
any tips? start from the most visible edge? its for a kitchen diner, so plenty of corners to go around, so i guess i'll need to make plenty of cuts.
thanks
Main thing is prep. The floor needs to be nice and flat, or you'll have issues down the line.
Score with a decent knife, then snap it over the edge of something (we use our workbench). Jigsaw with a decent metal blade works for cut outs. The cuts are razor sharp, so be careful handling them.
Some brands require knocking with a non marking mallet to lock the joints in. Don't be afraid to give it a good old whack!
Other than that, pretty easy.
One of these bars is essential for knocking the boards tightly together. Only needed for edges, for other bits I use a sacrificial offcut and give that some welly.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/unika-laminate-flooring-fitting-kit/64749
What brand of flooring is it?
You will need defo need a jigsaw too with fine blade and possibly a fine tooth handsaw.
I've just put down 30m2 of Karndean Click LVT and that you could just score with a stanley knife and snap. Get plenty of blades if you are doing it this way. The Karndean was also good as you could fit it straight over floorboards.
But measure, plan, measure, plan and measure, plan again before you start laying!! You don't want to end up with a 10mm cut on a finishing edge.
I've just fitted some Quick-step Aquanto and I'd be surprised if I could score and snap it. I've used my rail saw and jigsaw to get the finish I needed.
Yes, measure and plan. Make sure you don’t end up with any thin strips parallel to a wall, or short stumpy bits butted to an edge.
Also, it can take a bit of visualising what is the scrap peice and what is the work piece when cutting strips down, just keep in mind the relationship and the pattern between the tongue and groove when doing anything other than plain full pieces.
I did the Karndean LVT and my first peice cut to shape was around a door opening and I cut the wrong side of a scrap piece. If it is scored and bent type flooring, a really solid straight edge, with a sharp edge for the knife to run against is helpful. You can use a straight scrap edge of the flooring, but that will probably be knicked and sliced very quickly. I used a long spirit level but it was too deep really for the length of the blade and the radiused corner of the spirit level was hard to keep a true straight line with the blade.
A lot of the Quickstep is laminate (wood based), not LVT. The Karndean Rigid Core I've just put down is only 4.5mm thick but as stiff as a very stiff thing!
What brand of flooring is it?
its Woodpecker Craft Twine Oak.
ive got a jigsaw with a selection of blades, and also a heavy old circular saw.
my only handsaw is a coarse toothed jobbie, i could probably do with acquiring something with fine teeth.
and yes, ill measure measure measure, plan plan plan.
thank you
Main thing is prep. The floor needs to be nice and flat, or you'll have issues down the line.
This – when we had ours done, the whole floor was over-boarded with ply, then fixed at 20cm centres (IIRC). Ten years on it still looks very good, but in low light, you can just about see small bumps from the pin-heads under. If it hadn't been boarded out, I can imagine it would look awful by now as it would show up way more imperfections.
Woodpecker Craft Twine Oak
Is that rigid core?
If so you can lay straight onto existing floorboards if they are decent. Mine were, I just had to pack underneath a few mm on the odd one.
If you floors are a bit dodgy you'd be wise to put some plywood down.
Is that rigid core?
im not sure what that is, and im away from it at the moment so cant check.
im laying onto concrete, from a floor that ive ripped the kitchen tiles from. the builder who did a bit of work for us has stated that he believes that the floor is flat enough for the clicky/underlay stuff, but would need a screed if using glue down. that was one of the reasons for choosing the clicky stuff.
EDIT: its this stuff, supplied by MKM.
https://woodpeckertrade.co.uk/product/craft-twine-oak
If it is going on a concrete floor I would get some self leveling compound to make sure the floor is properly flat
From their Stratex FAQs it sounds like you'll be OK then.
Just make sure you give it a good sweep and hoover. Even small chunks of concrete can create pressure spots.
https://woodpeckertrade.co.uk/page/faqs
im laying onto concrete, from a floor that ive ripped the kitchen tiles from
The company who did mine laid to concrete, they did an initial self level, the guy who laid it showed me a tiny rise in the floor and said that as a perfectionist he'd really rather put down another screed before laying (he was totally open that I didn't have to, but said if it was his own house he'd do it). We did, it's a great finish too. If you can put a level down you should be able to see how bad it is I'd have thought.
Laying LVT flooring
I am paying some people to do it for me for the first time in my life! Experience before was scoring with a knife and snap on the edge of trusty old Black and Decker workbench was fine. Plus a really fine jigsaw blade and lots of carboard aided design / templating. Ours was quite thick, but I cannot remember the brand.
Next week I have 36m2 of Moduleo large plank European Oak going down...
im laying onto concrete, from a floor that ive ripped the kitchen tiles from.
I missed that bit.
I'd be amazed if you've managed to remove all the old tile adhesive to give a smooth finish.
It may be level but you need it smooth or any sharp/rough points will damage the flooring.
I really wouldn't use a rail/circular saw, you'll just trash the blade. Scoring and breaking is how it's done. For thin strips cut off the long edges trim with a hardpoint saw, the cut can be cleaned up with a handplane if required (fairly easy to re sharpen). when laying it's best to lay the first board in a row, leave the front edge propped up about 30mm, angle the side of the next board in and push (hard) the board home with the palm of the hand, keep moving the support wedge along to the board you've just done, pull out the wedge and drop down the whole row. If it doesn't go flat, use the tongue of an offcut and a hammer to gently pull up th joints. No battering with hammers required!
If the floor needs screeding for LVT, it needs it for click LVT also is my opinion. 95% of a successful flooring job is the prep, skip it at your peril. If tiles have come up, unless it been scraped to within an inch of its life, you’d not catch me putting any sort of LVT over it without smoothing compound.
I had the ground floor done in click together LVT several years ago. Honestly worst decision I ever made on house stuff. It did look better than old school “photo of a bit of wood” laminate but even with its textured finish, it really wasn’t fooling anyone.
within a year a few of the joints were failing and within 2 years it was failing everywhere.
room by room I’ve replaced it with decent quality oak like I should have done in the first place
90’s house with very flat and very stable chipboard sub floor so not like it was fitted over wonky Victorian floorboards or some uneven base - really no reason for it to have been so fragile. It wasn’t even cheaper than getting proper wood!
Ours has been fine where it's on a decent surface but someone put it down in a bathroom on top of very thin ply, 6mm iirc, it was very creaky from day one and it only lasted a few years before all the joints were snapping which was really quite hazardous.
We had Invictus glue down LVT put in to our kitchen diner after a recent extension. The sub-floor is a mix of solid concrete in the new added-on bit, chipboard floor in the old kitchen & tongue & groove floorboards in the old dining room.
I was sceptical, but the flooring company were confident that they could get it smooth enough between sub-floors that we wouldn't notice it. There is a 2mm lip where the tongue & groove floorboards transitioned to the chipboard. They said they could plane a graduation between the two so it would be imperceptible when walked on.
I asked several times if we should get the chipboard replaced with floorboard to match the dining room and was told this wasn't necessary.
We should have done it. You can clearly feel the change in floor height, even though it's only a very small amount & is boarded over with 6mm ply. They tried to smooth it, but it's not fixed it.
We are also starting to see the outline of the concrete where it meets the wooden part of the floor even though they laid a latex self-levelling compound once the ply covering was on top of the boards in the rest of the room. You can feel this underfoot too.
This is a long-winded way of saying; make sure the floor is super-flat and smooth before laying the floor. Otherwise you will feel it. It might look OK to start with, but any imperfections will reveal themselves with time.
If the floor needs screeding for LVT, it needs it for click LVT also is my opinion. 95% of a successful flooring job is the prep, skip it at your peril. If tiles have come up, unless it been scraped to within an inch of its life, you’d not catch me putting any sort of LVT over it without smoothing compound
This 100%
ok thanks, got a builder coming round in the morning to have a look and give us a price for levelling 🙂
cheers
EDIT: to those that can see/feel the difference/bumps etc, is that with 6mm stuff? ive laid a few test boards down and it seems fine, but theres a big difference in the flexible 2mm LVT and much firmer 6mm.
well firstly, i cant believe im in a minority of one with this one. i laid a few boards down to see how itd fit across the room, and yes, looks likely i'll have a thin board on one side due to the width. my wife says "shouldnt you lay them across the room rather than lengthways?" dont be silly etc etc, the floor should follow your eye down the length of the room, make it feel longer etc etc. bit later my lad asked the same question. same answer. i told them if we asked 100 people id put money on 99 of them saying lengthways, towards to patio doors, your eye leading you outside etc etc.
builder came round this morning questioning why id laid them lengthways and told me that they should go across the shortest distance due to expansion. apparently they can expand 1mm in length per board so you should always go the shortest distance.
i did a test re-lay and it just doesnt look right to me. what say you experts? 🙂
secondly, he agreed that it needs some self-levelling compound putting down first, although, where i was expecting the whole kitchen diner to need it, he said it was just a fairly small area, just to make a smooth transition between the 2 levels which arent a great deal out. hopefully thatll be done this week.
thanks
Re setting out - traditionally you’d lay as you say, along the longest length and towards sources of light as the light shining in can make undulations, joints or cupping of traditional boards more prominent. However, sometimes laying widthways can be more pleasing to the eye, so that wins out in that case.
Re the expansion, with click stuff, you need an expansion gap, which can be hidden under skirting or kitchen plinths etc. glue down you don’t as long as it’s fitted to a stable floor and at the correct temperature and has acclimatised correctly. It’s the main reason I’m not keen on click stuff, it’s difficult to disguise the expansion gaps in retro fit applications.
I always lay floors towards the main light source of the room
builder came round this morning questioning why id laid them lengthways and told me that they should go across the shortest distance due to expansion
Expansion is in all directions rather than just along the length (how would it only expand along the length of the board??).
Anyway, as already said, I'm pretty sure that with a floating floor you need to allow an expansion gap which is often hidden under the skirting.
Glue down LVT does not move and is laid right up the to the skirting and any gap hidden with a sealant.
Expansion is in all directions rather than just along the length (how would it only expand along the length of the board??).
yeah i maybe worded it badly, i suppose he/they mean the longest section of the room (which leads to the main source of light, the patio doors).
its actually L shaped when you take into account the kitchen. he stated that altho both parts of the 'L' are roughly the same length, if it was to go crossways and lead into the kitchen, then theres more space to expand as the boards would be going under the kicker board and stopping short of the unit legs. if you see what i mean 😀
anyways, ive pretty much decided to go with my gut rather than theirs, and lay it lengthways towards the patio rather than across, which as someone up there ^^^ suggested might show every slight undulation.
ive been googling/AI'ing and it suggests that for my dimensions, a 5mm gap would easily be enough to cope with any expansion.
thanks
From the less perfectionist end of things, there's a range of acceptable results for LVT and not everyone necessarily wants the same level. If you want billiard table, that's harder. But if you're content with a little unevenness as long as the floor still works and holds together, that's not so hard. Push that slightly too far and you get a bad floor, which makes it tricky. I think generally people's expectations are higher for LVT than for other floors and that colours the advice but you can fall a fair way from perfect, and still have a really good floor.
Another thing that I think isn't mentioned enough is that you can lift it back up and re-lay it, as long as you're careful. Especially when it's new. So you can absolutely lay it, see if you're happy with the level etc, and if you're not then take it back up and escalate the prep. This is basically what got us over The Fear, when we did my brother's place, I was worried the floor needed more work but we knew we could experiment. in the end it's got a level of unevenness that might bother some people, but it's good enough that it all works fine and feels fine, however many years on it is. And it's still pretty much the flattest thing in the house.
well the floors down now, grandaughters boyfriend (a joiner) did it and he's done a good job. however, sods law dictates theres a couple of dips that are noticeable when you walk on them, and sods law again theyre in the main area that you walk on all the time.
i watched him put it down and as the cuts are all done now then i think it would be easy enough to just unclick this area (near the finish) and put a bit more self-leveller down before re-setting. sooooo, we're not there yet, so near 😀
i need to buy a couple of thresholds tho to finish it off, one at 1.6m and is 6mm LVT to carpet, (about the same thickness), and one doorway width of LVT to thin vinyl, so in effect 6mm to nothing.
could you give me some advice on what profiles to go for please?
thank you
just a bump on this please as im getting conflicting advice.
i need to buy a couple of thresholds tho to finish it off, one at 1.6m and is 6mm LVT to carpet, (about the same thickness), and one doorway width of LVT to thin vinyl, so in effect 6mm to nothing.
could you give me some advice on what profiles to go for please?
ive been advised that the 1.6m wide threshold for 6mm LVT to 6mm-ish carpet should have a carpet gripper on one side. other people say not. and how do i fix it down, screw to the floor? if its glued to the LVT then i guess itll move with expansion which will affect the carpet. im just confused over what to buy.
and i guess the section for the door width (6mm LVT to zero height vinyl) will be a completely different profile?
could anyone link me to a couple of profiles that would do the job please?
thanks
ho hum, not having much success. ive been out to the local carpet/flooring shops this morning and still getting conflicting advice!
this is my floor as its been left for now, ive left an overhang on the carpet until i know where to cut it.
we'll be having new carpet, but i have to make this good for now.
1st flooring place today said to use 'Z edge' something like this......
the next place said just glue the carpet down, no gripper required, then any wooden T bar threshold will do. im not sure how secure that is tho.
i also wondered about using that wooden gripper that goes round your skirtings, screwing some to the floor to hold the carpet, but i guess itd be too thick and would make the carpet stand higher than the LVT.
i cant believe its this much of a minefield, surely LVT to carpet joins are quite common, i just cant find a definitive answer.
oh and i need 2m width too, so thats another hurdle as most appear to be either 900 or 1.8m :-/
help please? 😀
I think your on your own here 😁
Every time we have had carpet fitted, the fitters seem to treat the edging strip as an afterthought.
When we had our LVT flooring done earlier this year, because it transitions to a bare varnished floorboard, they just used a self-adhesive aluminium strip. I am dreading it being removed when the hallway gets redecorated & we put more LVT down.
In your shoes, I would probably go with the strip you have linked too. Regarding the length - I guess you'll have to use two sections of it?
I think your on your own here
ye-es, you could be right. hot air ballon pilots, surgeons, squirrel fluffers (i may have made that one up), we have every occupation imaginable on here, but LVT threshold fitters...... maybe not 🙂
Did you offer Haribo (pic 1 17/11) to sweeten the deal?
i wondered if anyone would mention those when i realised they were in shot 🙂
You will need to join two sections. I'd put the join at the centre or the least used side of the doorway. As for joining to the existing carpet don't use the threshold shown above. They wear through far too quickly. I'd use a solid threshold:
Or a metal one
You will need to join two sections. I'd put the join at the centre or the least used side of the doorway. As for joining to the existing carpet don't use the threshold shown above. They wear through far too quickly. I'd use a solid threshold:
Or a metal one
thanks. although the doorway is a separate concern, thats 6mm LVT to zero rise, (itll just be a bit of vinyl), so the above wooden ramped threshold would suit that, so thanks 🙂
no, my problem really is a 2m wide gap where new kitchen/diner meets lounge carpet. 6mm LVT to roughly same height carpet. i need something that will keep the carpet stuck fast (gripper?) and opinions are divided on glue, gripper, z section threshold ^^^ or just bog standard t section laminate threshold, but that would need the cqrpet fixing independantly first.
its a minefield!!
I use these guys for weird threshold requirements, have a gander to see if there’s anything suitable https://www.nationalstairnosings.co.uk/threshold-transition-strips/
thanks but no, there doesnt seem to be anything on there that would do the job sadly :-/