How to Install Vinyl Plank Flooring as a Beginner | Home Renovation

Welcome back to Fix This Build That. Today we're installing vinyl plank flooring I've installed ceramic tile before but this is my first time doing laminate or vinyl flooring now I'll be installing this in this laundry room and giving you all the beginner tips that I learned along the way I started by moving the laundry machines and everything else out of the room and apparently elves don't really steal your socks They just hide them under the dryer But while the machines were gone It was a great time to paint the rest of the wall that I didn't paint because I didn't think anybody would ever see it Now, I know I'm not the only one so comment down below and tell me where your unpainted walls are hiding in your house Next I pulled off the quarter round molding to prep for install. I would have pulled off the baseboards, too but since I have wainscoting installed It would make a huge undertaking and in the end you won't really be able to tell the difference anyway In the vinyl planks that I'm using are a little under 4 feet long and just under 8 and 3/4 of an inch wide I'll have a link below to this exact product as well as all the tools that I use during the vinyl plank flooring installation Which I tried to keep as basic as possible Now before the install you need to do a little planning and for a nice-looking room you don't want a super-short board at the beginning or end of a row and you don't want to narrow run at the end of your installation either on the install instructions with your flooring should help you figure this out or You can nerd out like I did and make a 3d model of the room and lay out the planks Exactly how you want them beforehand. Seriously though for an over analyser like me this is the only way to go you can map out and stagger the seams and play around with the different layouts based on the bump outs in the room to see how it's all going to look if you don't have any programs you can do this with just find a nerdy friend and have them do it for you or you can Always just use graph paper, too And with my layout all done, I went back to the laundry room to start the install you always want to start on the left side of the room in a corner due to the positioning of the tongues and the grooves on this flooring I pried up the transition piece between the current vinyl sheet floor in the carpet Then I cut back the carpet to make room for the new transition strip, which is a metal channel Then there was a small gap between the plywood underlayment of the vinyl sheet and the tack strip the carpet So I filled in the gap to give that channel a little place to be attached I used a sample piece of the flooring as a spacer and I undercut the door jam with flush cut saw now This will let the flooring slide underneath the trim for a clean look and on the baseboards I'll cover those gaps with quarter-round that I took off earlier I Cut the other side of the door too and I cut into the baseboard a bit that I could slide the floor in cleanly under The whole jamb so that wasn't just a mistake. I did had on purpose Now next I measured the transition channel for the door opening it has marks on the back where it's supposed to snap cleanly But it just bent when I tried to do it, so I grabbed a hacksaw and not cut to size instead. I positioned the channel so that my finished transition piece would just hit the middle door stop then I secured it to the floor with screws and During my layout. I decided to take two and a half inches off the width of my initial starter row And this will give me two and a half more inches of width on the other side of the room to avoid those narrow strips That I mentioned earlier you'll see that in just a bit Now my walls aren't exactly straight either and I needed to account for that in this cut I used the vinyl sheet design as a straight reference to lay the planks on and I measured the gaps across the wall If you've taken up the flooring or don't have a reference line You can always snap a chalk line and use that to reference the measurements. I Mark, the first plank on both ends for this angled cut line vinyl plank flooring can be scored and cut with the utility knife So I went ahead and grabbed my t-square to score the plank between my two marks The problem I found is when trying to snap the plank along that line since I couldn't really grab it and pull it up to snap it I put a piece of scrap wood underneath the score line and Just beat on it with my mallet until it snapped as you can imagine. This went pretty badly I quickly realized that scoring and snapping for the long cuts is not a great option So instead I took it down to my shop and I laid out a new line That was a quarter inch in from that jagged mess that I just made Then I used a circular saw to cut the line and it turned out great now really? I was just trying to avoid using power tools as much as possible But using a jig saw table saw or circular saw is really the only way to go here The final plank is a floating floor and it needs to be held off the walls a quarter-inch in all the directions So to do this I use these wedge spacers from the flooring install kit that I link and I taped them to the wall I laid down the first plank under the door jamb, but it was still a bit far from the metal channel So I marked the piece along the door jamb and I used a jigsaw to quickly trim off that corner, and then it fit in there nice and smooth and The next piece gets dropped in and locked into that first piece and using a tapping block across the front on the seam Aligns the boards flush with each other and this got me to my first partial board I measured the gap to the wall and I transferred it over to the board Then I used a 12 inch carpenter square to score line on the plank with my utility knife. I flipped it over and I snapped the plank by pulling up on the hand while supporting it behind that scoring line To finish the cut. I flipped it over and cut through the backing to release the piece when I snapped this board It really turned out a little bit jagged It was because when I scored the plank the second time the blade veered off that original line a little bit So make sure if you're gonna go over it twice that you stay on that original line or you're gonna need to clean up the edge like I'm doing here Hey , If you like what you're seeing so far and you haven't done it already Go ahead and hit that subscribe button and ring that bell for some more great content. I cut this small piece the same width as the other first row boards And then I installed it on the end now to pull the board tight I used this small pull bar that hooks over the end of the board and helps you pull that into place using a mallet now to start the second row I cut a full plank down to 18 inches long and This time was a lot more careful scoring that line and the piece snapped nice and clean Connecting the boards from here on out is pretty easy you just angle the tongue on the long edge into the groove of the road before it and then you lower the plank and tap it into place using this tapping block from that kit that I mentioned earlier a Few taps with a non marring mallet across that short seam also is gonna lock it into place Now working in a small room has a lot more stops and starts because I could only put down One or two full boards in each row before needing to make another cut At the end of this row I had a really small cut to make off the end to make my board fit And you can't really score it and snap it because it's just too short So go ahead and use a circular saw for this as well After I got the first two rows in I use some dumbbells to weight them down and keep that floating floor from moving as much There's only so many different patterns on these planks So I made different piles of them in the room to help keep the floor as random as I could So when I came in to grab a board, I'd rotate through them so that the similar planks weren't close to each other This is a great way to make sure that your floor looks as best as it can And while I'm working my way down these next few rows. Let's talk about today's sponsor Filter buys a family-owned business making hvac filters here in the US and they have a great origin story Their Factory in Talladega, Alabama has been in the family for three generations And they actually used to make parts for US tanks in World War two in 2008 The factory almost shut down But one of the grandsons of the original owner felt compelled to come by the facility from his grandfather and save the local jobs They switched over to making furnace filters and now they have over 600 sizes in stock with free 24-hour shipping and custom sizes available I have a link down below in the description where you can find out more and thanks filter by for sponsoring this video When I got to the other door jamb I had to notch the piece like before I Laid out the plank and I transferred marks where the door jamb was and how much I needed to take off And when you're doing this I always try to err on the side of taking off too little versus too much so that you don't get stuck with any big Gaps, but after a few back-and-forth, I had it fitting really nicely to install the plank I slid it up close to the door jamb and then locked it in place with that prior row Then I used the tapping block on the end of the board and just tapped it in place until it slid all the way into The trim as you're working through the room You can start using some of the offcuts from one in the room to start or finish the other end of the room Keep that in mind to make the best use of your flooring so you don't have a bunch of scraps that you have unused at the end It's a little hard to see here, but I'm really staggering the seams of these planks randomly You want to avoid having a consistent spacing between seems like a brick laid pattern because it just won't look natural to the eye And when I got to the bump-out on the other side of the room I measured and marked the planks for the knotch and this corner was way out of square So I made sure to measure at the beginning and the end of each side of that notch I made the angled cuts with my jig saw and taking that extra time Gave me a great fit When I got back to the sink vainly you can see why I made that first road narrower than the full-width because if I had have started with a full width plank Then this little sliver in front of the vanity would have been under two inches. I Also planned the staggers that I didn't need to notch this narrow piece either And I would just have a small notch on the next full-size plank Planning these little details ahead of time is really gonna make your flooring install go much smoother and look a lot nicer now if you have a board that doesn't want to lock into place make sure to check the tongues and the grooves for debris a Little bit of flooring got stuck in this groove and it kept it from seating properly Now another little surprise in the install was this overflow drain in the floor? I'm gonna work around this but if you have a floor outlet or another obstacle to work around you can use these same steps. I Measured the distance off the side of the cabinet and off of the back wall and Mark the plank Then I used a Forstner bit a little bit larger than that pipe in the floor The final flooring is pretty easy to drill through with normal woodworking bits. So it goes pretty quickly And next I laid the board in place and I finished the row before putting an extension onto that drain I just marked it and cut a one and a half inch to one of the quarter inch PVC down pipe to length and I installed It just below the surface I added a little bit of caulk around the edges and that gave me a nice watertight seal and it looks way nicer than that one Did before it and the water will have a place to go if it ever leaks out Now from here, I could reinstall my quarter round molding in my carpet transition since this is a floating floor Just make sure to nail into the baseboards and not into the floor when you're putting on that molding and I cut the final transition piece to size and I see the lit in that metal you channel that I installed earlier with my mallet This floor really brings the laundry room together. It looks awesome in here I think installing vinyl plank flooring is a great option for an easy install with a big impact and you'll have some really durable flooring Hey, if you want to see how I did that wainscotting in that room or how to tile a bathroom I've got a playlist for you right there with home renovation projects I've got another one for you down there as well that you might like until next time guys. Get out there and build something awesome

Channel: Fix This Build That

Views: 18,498,360

Rating: 4.7490702 out of 5

Keywords: How to install vinyl plank flooring, installing vinyl plank flooring, How to install vinyl flooring, installing vinyl flooring, lifeproof vinyl plank flooring, How to install vinyl tile flooring, vinyl plank flooring, vinyl plank flooring install, how to cut vinyl plank flooring, loose lay vinyl plank flooring, luxury vinyl flooring, luxury vinyl plank flooring, flooring, home renovation, how to, diy, do it yourself, diy project, fixthisbuildthat, fix this build that

Id: 6KEthELQfro

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 24 2019