How To Install Waterproof Vinyl Plank Flooring | DIY Flooring Installation

hey guys I'm Tony today I'm gonna show you how to install luxury vinyl plank flooring nose product is durable budget-friendly and it's a texture that mimics the look of real hardwood the best part is this is gonna be one of the easier flooring installations you can do now with little know-how I'm going to show you how to do it yourself do it right now this final plain flooring can be installed in any level and in any room of your home we're gonna be installing these waterproof smart core ultra vinyl planks in a basement a similar to laminate this uses a tongue and groove system that simply locks together and with that I get this furniture out of here so we can get started before you start you're going to want to read your instructions for any specifics typically real wood products are gonna need a few days to acclimate to the room they're going into this final product however is ready to install right out of the box next I'm going to measure the room to calculate the square footage so I know how much material to get on top of that I'm gonna add 10% for any waste or mistakes made along the way with vinyl floor planks you're gonna want a dry solid level and clean subfloor if you have carpet like we do it's gotta go I like to take a pair of pliers grab it by the edge and simply pull it back now once you get enough of it back it's a good idea to take a knife cut it into strips so it's easier to carry out of the basement consider wearing a dust mask while you're doing this then roll up the padding next remove the tack strips I like to use a hammer and pry bar you can try different tools and figure out what works best for you if there's any glue leftover from the carpet it can be removed within a flooring adhesive remover and a scraper if you have existing tile or vinyl it can remain as long as it's in good shape and secure if it has deep joints or a heavy texture it'll have to be removed or fill them with a leveler now it's best to do a moisture test on your subfloor for a wood subfloor you can use a moisture meter like this for a concrete subfloor call a pro we had ours tested a few days ago next we're gonna check our floor for a level now most importantly we want to make sure that the floor is even we don't want any bumps or Peaks now back here we found some old mortar spots but these can easily be removed with the scraper if you have any actual high spots in the concrete use a grinder to knock them down for any low spots you can use a self-love allure we're gonna start by using a floor primer on the area then mix up the leveler and spread it with a trawl also fill any cracks check the package for the cure times now on to doors and moldings this product has to have enough room to move underneath them freely in our case our door has more than enough clearance if yours doesn't you're gonna have to take it off the hinges and cut it down with a circular saw however our door casing is too long so I'm going to take a piece of the underlayment and the flooring to use them as a guide and then use this oscillating tool to make our cut [Music] now this manufacturer requires a quarter inch gap between the wall and the flooring and we're not going to be removing our baseboards so once the entire floor is complete we'll cover that gap up using a shoe mold another option is to remove the baseboards and extend the flooring closer to the wall just keep in mind if the baseboards go on in the lower position you might have to repair the walls then make sure the floor is clean be sure to get along the baseboards now our subfloor is prepped you're not necessarily gonna have to go through all those steps but if you do now you know how to do it right now most flooring products that are installed over concrete below grade are gonna require a vapor barrier a sixth little poly or just fine we're gonna use this smart core underlayment this underlayment acts as a moisture barrier a thermal barrier has noise reduction and it's made to work with our flooring product just check the directions for installation details the stuff is super easy to install start by sliding it into a corner I like to take another box and set it on top to hold it in place for now and then it's simply unfolds across the room [Applause] with their next row in place it's time to make a cut we're gonna take our excess from this row fold it up the wall and make a mark we're gonna do our cut the nice thing about this stuff is has a grid printed on it which makes our cuts a lot easier to do we're gonna take our straight edge put it on the line and then bring it all the way down then we're going to take our utility knife and make our cut [Applause] [Applause] next we're gonna tape our seams using this underlayment tape I used a couple packages of the product on top of the underlayment to keep it in place then we're going to undo our tape move it out as we go then continue installing the underlayment to cover the subfloor stager seams if you have any so typically the best way to lay your floor is to have the long side of the plank run parallel with the longest wall in your room and for our product we need to make sure that the joints are spaced at least eight inches apart also to make sure that the flooring is square in your room it's a good idea to mark a starting line along the wall first mark the center of each wall and snap chalk lines to form a cross then measure from the center of the starting wall subtract the expansion gap and the width of a plank and Mark this distance at the ends use the marks to snap a starting line along the wall I'm gonna be starting our installation on this long wall one because it's an exterior wall and more likely to be straight and two because it allows me to install the flooring in the direction that the installation instructions recommend figure out the width of the last row you'll need to install so you don't end up with skinny planks to do that take the length of the room and divide it by the width of the plank for instance if your room is a hundred and ninety two inches long divide that by 7 inches to get twenty seven point four three planks that's 27 full planks multiply the XS times the width of the plank for the size of the last row point four three times seven equals three point zero one so about three inches if you get a tiny sliver cut a little off the first row now before we start laying our planks we're going to need to install some spacers or on the perimeter of our room so we can maintain our quarter inch expansion gap I like to use pieces of tape to keep them in place so they don't move our installation is going to be a flow getting floor which means it's not attached to the subfloor this is the recommended installation for a basement you can also do a glue down application on other floors of your home which is going to be the recommended application if you have heavy furniture like a pool table now for our first piece I rip the tongue off the long side and the short side these are the sides that go against the wall I made this cut using a table saw but you can also use other types of saws to cut this material now we've removed the tongue end from the long sides of all the planks in our first row we're gonna take our second plank put the tongue into the groove lay it down and lock it into place continue installing the first row and cut the last piece to length if needed remember to account for the expansion gap now for the first piece in our second row we need to make sure that it's at least 8 inches long we're gonna take the tongue place it in the groove and lock it down and also remembering the stagger our seams at least 8 inches now for our next piece we're going to angle our long end tongue into the groove lock it down keeping the short end seam as close as possible now I've taken a couple scrap pieces and cut two of the sides flat these are going to lock into our piece we're installing so in case we miss hit our tapping block it won't damage our new piece of flooring we'll move that down locking in as we go then we're gonna take it putting it over the seam between the two pieces and I'll take another scrap piece lock it in the end take our tapping block tap the short ends into place here's a tip use a weight or box of planks to hold the rows in place as you install repeat the fold and lock process until the installation is complete mix planks from different boxes to mix up the color and texture consider setting the mixed stacks of flooring around the room so it's ready to install as you're working remember to stagger the joints at least eight inches and keep the expansion gap and make sure all the joints are tight as you're installing now we've come to this post in the middle of our room so we're gonna have to notch our flooring to fit around it we're still gonna use our spacers so we can maintain our quarter inch gap which we're also going to cover with molding once the flooring is complete we're going to take our tape measure measuring off our first piece get our measurements and we're going to put them on our board then we'll take the measurement for the depth of our cut and we'll draw our lines using the speed square and now we're ready to make our cut try not to tap or the knot just cut now to find the width of our last row I'm going to take a piece and slide it into place and then take a measure at each end off the wall allowing for that quarter inch expansion gap now I take the width off each end in case the walls out of square and I'll transfer the marks to our board and I can make our cut now we can install it using the pull bar then we'll repeat the process by using the pull bar along the long end and you installing the last row when you get the doorway openings you'll have to slide your flooring underneath the casing now these pieces can be a little tricky but if you work it you'll get it we'll start by pulling the long side and first with our full bar then we'll step our n piece in with our tapping block for our next piece we'll slide it under the other casing just like the first two start finishing our project we'll remove the spacers then we'll install our shoe molding remember to nail into the baseboard not the flooring to finish off our flooring project we're going to install our transition strips if you have any extra underlayment like we do you're going to cut it off using a knife then we'll take some silicone sealant and run a small bead along the edge to create a watertight seal then we'll take some sandpaper and scuff up our transition stretch then we'll add a small amount of construction adhesive not too much the stuff can squirt out to the back of our transition strip we'll set it in place press down and then we're gonna use some weights to hold it in place until the adhesive sets up other types of transitions installed by setting a track then snap into transition into place so this installation took us a couple of days to complete but once you get the hang of it things move along pretty quickly and now you know how to do it right [Music]

Channel: Lowe's Home Improvement

Views: 2,039,996

Rating: 4.8254724 out of 5

Keywords: how to, how-to, diy, d.i.y., lowes, lowe’s, how to install waterproof vinyl plank flooring, how to install vinyl flooring, how to install flooring, flooring installation, diy flooring installation, vinyl plank flooring, how to install waterproof flooring, waterproof flooring, how to install smartcore, smartcore, smartcore flooring, smartcore vinyl flooring, installing flooring, installing smartcore, installing vinyl flooring, installing vinyl floors, installing vinyl plank floors

Id: PfoG04-2glc

Length: 15min 17sec (917 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 23 2019