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Currently an option for most of our downstairs - porch, hall, kitchen, toilet, utility and what will be a gym. Around 45 sq m I reckon.
Any hints, tips, gotchas? Can it be fitted without removing skirting? Best underlay (floor is chipboard)?
Ta.
According to our fitter and the supplier (who's also a friend) you actually want the skirting on first and the LVT goes up to it.
"Underlay" (not actually underlay) in your case would be ply - depends on how smooth the chipboard is. Our chipboard bathrooms were pretty smooth but still had ply fitted before the LVT.
Edit: and it's really good. Put Amtico in the hall as well and it's a massive improvement given the amount of traffic in and out of the front door.
We've gone for Quickstep Livyn LVT on the upstairs on our new house - partly at the recommendation of our builder who had installed it in other houses. Downstairs is a textured ceramic tile as we have underfloor heating and dogs - still waiting for the house to be finished. We also had LVT in our last house with no problems.
We have it in the kitchen and hall.
Can it be fitted without removing skirting?
Yes. If your happy with it looking terrible. Bit like the painting thread doing the floor without removing skirtings is the reserve of the bodgy diy'r. I have my lvt up to the wall behind the skirting - the installer did it (no expansion gap with lvt you don't want it moving ) then the skirting over it. There's no danger your going to get a perfectly straight cut edge against a skirting all the way round a room
Top tip is ...floor must be perfectly level. Anything more than a mm either way vertically and the floor flexes likes a bag o shit.
Not sure bout underlay for chipboard. Ours is on concrete slab which I had to skim with self level first
We’ve gone for Quickstep Livyn LVT
Which is what a friend recommended. I've seen theirs and it looks great.
According to our fitter and the supplier (who’s also a friend) you actually want the skirting on first and the LVT goes up to it.
Ah, good. Saves a bit of work/mess if that's the case. I was thinking some sort of mouse board might be an option too.
I fitted some in our hallway. Up to the skirting boards, as it looks like they haven't been removed since the house was built 120 years ago. It was laid on top of the existing laminate flooring, and any unevenness was dispatched with either a belt sander or small surform plane, then thoroughly cleaned. I also needed a profile gauge, as the door frames are very decorative, featuring four or five rounded bits on either side. Spray glue for the "belts and braces" approach.
Quite happy with the end result.
There’s no danger your going to get a perfectly straight cut edge against a skirting all the way round a room
And similarly nobody has a floor so flat that there isn't a gap somewhere between the bottom of the skirting and the surface of the LVT (if it's laid underneath the skirting), so a small bead of silicon is used to hide the gap.
In which case you may add well just go up the the skirting.
I have my lvt up to the wall behind the skirting – the installer did it (no expansion gap with lvt you don’t want it moving )
Ah..... Not glued down then? In that case you'd probably have to go under as it could move.
Glued down is probably better 😬
If you have a good fitter you don't need to remove skirting. Chipboard is not a viable base. Plywood is. Our fitter came the day before and laid self levelling compound in our large hall/kitchen/diner that had a mix of tiles, concrete and suspended wooden floor. 5 years old and still good. I've used Karndean in several properties. If I had chairs being scraped over it maybe I'd go for the next quality up but the basic is fine (if you have a good fitter).
If you're going to do a proper job, you can leave skirting on or remove and refit new, it doesn't matter much.
Chipboard should be over laid with minimum 5.5mm hardwood ply either stapled down with narrow crown staples or screwed, then the joints feather compounded and then skimmed over the whole surface with feather. Then under cut the architraves and door jambs, and GLUE down using an A2 trowel. If cutting up to skirts, a good fitter should be able to scribe to them 100% accurately. If concrete floor, then the floor should be skimmed smooth with min 3mm layer of 2 part smoothing compound.
Ah….. Not glued down then?
The clip together stuff and glue down LVT are almost two completely different products I think.
Are we talking lvt or the stick down vinyl.
I've both and I'm talking about the clicky lvt.
My sticky vinyl tiles are just laid up against the skirtings easy to cut and fit accurately unlike the clicky stuff which need space to work
As you say very different products. The click together stuff proving to be the more robust of the two ime
The click together stuff proving to be the more robust of the two ime
I'd go for a tile that's glued down every single time over a something that just clicks together and sits there.
That would be a theory but practice is looking very different from where I stand (on laminate looking at click on one side and glue on the other side) as you say well fitted it just sits there.
Does the click lvt sound hollow like walking on laminate floor?
We've got a glacial new build on the way so interested to see where this thread goes. Finding it hard not doing everything myself to give option of floor down before toilet and skirting etc.
Ive heard good things about the Polyflor lvt - quality and cost compared to the "big" names. Have their sheet vinyl in our current bathroom and it is bomb proof (not foamy cushion floor so a bit of a pig to fit in small spaces). Samples I've got of their stick down lvt look good so might be tiles in heavy areas downstairs and sheet in bathrooms.
Does the click lvt sound hollow like walking on laminate floor?
I assume that depends on subfloor because I know the phenomenon you speak of but with concrete subfloors it doesn't seem to be a thing with either the click lvt or the laminate in the dining room - albe it atroguard which is pretty close to lvt in that it's essentially composite decking with a laminate finish.
The stick down lvt is on ply over chipboard over kingspan and it doest sound hollow either.
Cheers Terry. New house will be many firsts for us - never had concrete floor, two storey, ashp etc 🙂
Think the lvt rooms will be stick down with slight bevel tile / plank edges to make them look a bit more realistic. Not going for the stupid stick down "grout" strips between tiles.
We had Quick Step LV from Howdens lad throughout the downstairs of our house last year. It looked awesome but it is more vulnerable to scratching that I would like. We got a dark oak so I guess scratches are likely to show but it really does scratch easily. I wouldn't buy it again or, if I did, I would go for a lighter colour that doesn't show the scratches.
Thread hijack, any tips for the best way to repair / restore scratches in a dark wood LVP?
Thread hijack, any tips for the best way to repair / restore scratches in a dark wood LVP?
If it was the glue down LVT you can pull out a damaged "tile" and replace it with a new one - I believe this isn't possible with click tiles without pulling up other tiles (depending upon the location.)
I actually think I'd try to find a Sharpie that was close in colour!
Ive heard good things about the Polyflor lvt – quality and cost compared to the “big” names
I fit loads of it, it’s very well priced if you go somewhere like FlooringHut. The Bevelline ones are nice and even the cheaper end of the spectrum is more than ok.