Luxury Vinyl Tile Gaps

[Paul A.]

Has anyone ever had any issues with Luxury Vinyl Tile coming apart? We bought the LVT from Home Depot- paid around $2/sq ft. for a decent quality product- not the cheap one. We had it installed in July- everything was great for a few weeks- then gaps started appearing in the home. 

It was installed on the first floor on a concrete slab, and upstairs on wood flooring. We are seeing gaps on both levels- more pronounced on the first floor. 

We are assuming it is due to the humidity and changing temperatures we see here in upstate NY. However some of these gaps are around 1/2 inch to an inch on the bottom level. Does anyone else have this issue?

We chose LTV primarily because it seemed pretty durable and resistant to water. Not going to do a good job of that when there are huge gaps in the flooring. We are live and fixing the unit as we go- but when we leave are we going to trust the tenant to "hammer the gaps back in?"

The installers just said it moves sometimes due to the shifting of the house- maybe... but not this much I don't think. Any ideas? 

[Jeff Copeland]

I have installed a lot of vinyl and laminate flooring. You can clearly see that it isn't every plank - some were installed correctly, and others were not. 

It's likely the installers either:

1. Did not fully "click" the ends of those boards together, or

2. Damaged the "lip" on the ends of those boards during installation, so they will not click/lock into place (if you look closely, you can usually tell if the locking lip is damaged on either board).

If you want to avoid pulling them all up and starting over, you could try knocking them back into place (they make a special "Pull Bar" for this purpose. You might even try (very carefully) adding a dab of adhesive (something easy to clean up, such as caulk) before knocking them back together. May as well try that first - you have very little to lose.