Best way to lay flooring

[subordinate]

After painting the room, I figured, might as well replace the old sheet vinyl flooring. (I know, who was the nut case that thought of putting bathroom type flooring in a basement room?)

From the looks of it, it might be abestos, so I rather just lay some underlayment then the laminate.

The guy at the store said not the best idea, being there's going to be some hard/soft spots.

Looking for some hints/ideas on how to make this job easy/cost-efficient.

Cheers.

[subordinate]

I was thinking of this inter-locking (floorboard i guess) underlayment to put over the vinyl, no idea on pricing yet, looks expensive versus your typical foam.

Edit: There was a small hole with the cracked flooring? I opened it a bit and noticed it's pretty sizeable. I think best thing to do is fill it over, lay the under layment and laminate, call it a day.

There might be some minor creaks, but that's fine.

[finbar]

Crunchy!

The ply underlayment looks good in the pic but the liquid underlayment looks failed.

Cut out the punky vinyl to solid underlayment.
Patch with ardex.
New underlayment fastened down over the whole mess.
Finish seams.
Install finish floor of choice.

[subordinate]

Thanks Fin for the great advice.

I would go with that route if I wasn't lazy.

Can I just patch with ardex, then lay foam, then install 8 or 12 mm laminate? I've read that 8 sucks, but there won't be that much traffic in this room.

[T4RAWR]

go with 12mm laminate.

rip up the old floor and get it back to sub, check for level, level with ardex if necessary. should be less than 1/8" gap in a 5 foot distance.

put down an underlayment that is a 3-1 or 2-1 that has vapor barrier, or put down 6mil poly then foam underlayment. you will probably need something that can deal with the moisture from concrete in a basement.

dont cheap out on underlayment, the thicker stuff is far more forgiving especially if your floor isnt perfectly level.

do it right instead of being lazy and just laying it over the vinyl.

if color isnt really a big deal you can get some decent deals at king of floors. they'll discount the price of the underlayment if you purchase together with flooring.

btw, what kinda square footage are we talking here?

[finbar]

Originally Posted by subordinate

Thanks Fin for the great advice.

I would go with that route if I wasn't lazy.

Can I just patch with ardex, then lay foam, then install 8 or 12 mm laminate? I've read that 8 sucks, but there won't be that much traffic in this room.

Patch, lay foam and laminate is fine.
Go for quality, redo sucks.

[604STIG]

Use the thickest underlay available. (I can't see the pics cause my work computer blocks them) so if this is a basement install keep in mind that in the winter the floor will get cold and the thicker pad underneath helps with that. When you get drastic temp changes the floor will contract/expand accordingly. Also, when you get your laminate flooring, open the boxes and let them sit in the room that they are going in for a day or two so they will acclimate and go in easily. If not, you will have problems during and after the install process with the boards expanding/shrinking, can cause some ugly gaps to occur in the floor.

[subordinate]

Just slightly under 100, so I was merely wanting to get rid of the ugly vinyl.

Saw a deal on Lowes for some ugly barn colour laminate, 12mm at 1.09 per sq ft. I read reviews that this swiftlock was a piece of crap, hard to do, yadadada..

Instead, I was pleasantly surprised it was pretty easy to install. I just layed out each row, then connected it, - instead of one by one to complete a staggered rows.

Thanks for all the advice guys, I'll definitely go the quality route next time when it's in a larger area that's used often.

P.S. if it buckles or expands too much in the winter, I'll update this, so the ones looking for hints/helps can realize going the quicker way will screw'em time and $ in the long run.

And the ones that gave quality advice here can say "I told you so".

[T4RAWR]

did you remember to leave expansion gaps under the baseboards around the edges?

usually its 1/4" or about 4-6 mm if you use metric.

[subordinate]

Originally Posted by T4RAWR

did you remember to leave expansion gaps under the baseboards around the edges?

usually its 1/4" or about 4-6 mm if you use metric.

Yes!

It would suck if I didn't lol.

[T4RAWR]

Should be alright then. Generally its recommended that you acclimatize the laminate for 48 hours in the summer or for cold/winter installations to acclimatize for 72 hours with the heat in the room cranked at max.

If you left the correct expansion gap it should be alright. Clean up spills quickly because the laminate will absorb the water and swell if you dont.

Good job on install. How about some pics to share with the rest of us?

[subordinate]

Yep, acclimitized for close to 48 hrs with the 1/4 (tried my best with most lol) inch gaps.
All the baseboard trim has been installed. And apologies for crappy iphone pic. I think the hardest part is figuring a good design to minimize wastage and to allow for at least 6" difference between joints for better integrity.

After that, it's a matter of cutting and piecing together. And the pain in the ass is opening all the boxes to find "matching" patterns. Since they come in slightly differing colours. A true pain, but I think as long as you look out for clumps of the same colouring and just mix it all, it'll turn out decent. I rather take this route than spending way too much time matching patterns/styles/colouring.

And yes, 12mm (or higher) all the way. Makes a huge difference. Those 8mm ones are flimsy. Oh yeah.....don't cheap on on colour like I did. I regret not getting a nice darker finish. Oh well, live and learn.

[T4RAWR]

you're supposed to open 3 or 4 boxes and pull boards at random, not pull "matching" boards

expansion gaps are important.

if you're super lazy, you could just leave the baseboards on and install a shoe moulding on the baseboard to cover the expansion gaps.

also, you'll get a nicer overall product if you run the boards perpendicular to the wall with the windows.

looks like you did a pretty decent job though

[subordinate]

Lol, yeah, I realized that shoe moulding tip after the fact. I wouldn't say lazy persay, more smart!