Which flooring landlords are using?

Question

Folks,

For rental units which flooring you have been using which is economical and last long for following area?

Rooms

Family room and living rooms

Washrooms

Kitchen

JD Martin · Answer

Luxury vinyl planks. Mostly I have been using the "SmartCore" brand from Lowe's but there are others. 100% waterproof (the entire thing is plastic). Can also be taken up and reinstalled if you had a flood that got under the planks, assuming you were careful pulling them apart. I prefer the wood grain embossed look, which gives you some pattern and texture so you can more easily cover scratches later.

JD Martin · Answer

So deflection is the amount of actual flex in the floor when you are walking on it (or put something really heavy on it). You can't have much deflection in the subfloor in order to use a floating LVP - I don't know the acceptable amount but I would say it's probably not more than 1/16-1/4". If there's too much flex the flooring is going to come apart over time in the locking tabs.

Peaks and valleys are another problem. If they are pronounced, you'll have to grind down peaks before you can lay the flooring. Valleys that are very minor you can go straight over, but that's along the lines of deflection. You can use underlayment to soak up minor valleys. Or you can use floor patch to fill in valleys.

Slopes that are continual are generally not a problem; if the floor is flat but unlevel the flooring doesn't care, assuming the slope all runs to one direction; if you have multiple slopes in different directions that will be a problem.

JD Martin · Answer

I've used mostly SmartCore from Lowe's the last couple of years. I've used a couple of other brands but I prefer the SmartCore in terms of something that's readily available and holds up well.

If your flooring is coming apart after a couple of years either there's a lot of deflection in the floor, the floor was extremely uneven in the first place with a lot of peaks and valleys, or the flooring was installed incorrectly (or the locking tabs were damaged before installation). You can, if you want, put a bead of glue on each plank as you install them to keep them from ever coming apart. In any case, one of the drawbacks of the LVP is that it requires a fairly even floor and the subfloor can't have a lot of deflection. The floor can be sloped - the planks don't care about that - but voids are going to create weak spots and movement in the separate planks. You can take up some of this issue by putting down a thicker underlayment, but ideally you'd correct bad areas with floor leveler before you got started. As for subfloor deflection, you need to either beef up the joist structure or add another, more solid layer of subfloor above what you have. Which you do depends on how easy it is to access, how much old flooring is still in place, need for retrimming casings, how many bad spots there are, etc. I wouldn't re-plywood an entire floor with only one minor soft spot if I could access it from the basement, but if there was deflection everywhere I'd put down a good layer of tongue & groove OSB or plywood before I started with the flooring.

Owen Dashner · Answer

LVP all the way. Every room. I used to rationalize using carpet because it is 1/3 to 1/2 the cost, but not any more.  Make sure you get a minimum of 12 mil wear layer (20 preferably) and do a scratch test before you buy to make sure the product will hold up to abuse.

Paul Shannon · Answer

You'll save money in the long-term with Luxury Vinyl Plank.  Even in bedrooms in some of my home.  I pay about $1 more per square foot installed than if I used carpet, but carpets 5-7 years and LVP I've not replaced.  Waterproof and can take a beating.  Really can dress up a room well/looks great.  Pay a bit extra for the click-in kind versus the glue down.

Annchen Knodt · Answer

@JD Martin I'm trying to figure out how to prep my subfloor for an LVP install and came across your post here.  I'm curious what you mean by "deflection" in the floor.  I've got some peaks and valleys in my wooden subfloor and one area with a bit of a dramatic slope (1" over 4') and I'm leaning towards using a self-leveling type compound to fix the problem spots (largely because I had 3 contractors advise against doing any structural work since it looks ok in that regard)

JD Martin · Answer

Vinyl all the way. Virtually all of them are waterproof. Laminate is not.

Hamad Khan · Answer

Would you recommend '12 mm laminate' or 'vinyl plank mm click ones' for rental units. The price difference is almost half between the laminate and vinyl planks. Please advise. Thanks

Hamad Khan · Answer

Does any of you ran into click being breaking for LVP floors? I have been noticing that after few years the click for floors are brraking and causing issues... I used 4 mm luxury vinly planks. Any thoughts?

Hamad Khan · Answer

Which LVP you recommend?

click one

peel and stick ones

glue down

and how many minimum mm thickness is better?

Which flooring landlords are using?

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