What vinyl flooring thickness would you use?

Question

I'm shopping for flooring for a rental. I'm leaning towards floating vinyl. What thickness should I get? Also, any brands you usually go for? Finally, Home depot, Lowes, Lumber liquidators... where do you shop for good savings and good quality products?

JD Martin · Answer

Pay attention to wear layer. Get something at least 12mils wear layer. That's the "picture" that's printed on top of the piece of plastic you are putting on the floor.

Personally, I am a fan of SmartCore - I've used it in a lot of houses (and my own) and it has held up well. I do not like the Lowe's brand ProCore - the lips are weak. I don't have a preference for thickness one way or the other and instead tailor that towards the floor I am working on - if the floor has a lot of variation in it, you want a thinner plank that can follow the contour. If the floor is really tight, then thicker planks tend to feel better underfoot.

Waleep Alvi · Answer

Its possible for you to buy cheaper flooring but you will find that some of the thinner options will not be as comfortable underfoot. If you want a long-lasting durable floor look for the more robust products.

Tammy Mason · Answer

That is one of the main reasons that so many homes include in the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, and in some cases throughout the whole house. Many vinyl tile manufacturers offer warranties of 15 years or longer and some offer lifetime guarantees. When properly installed, vinyl tiles should last 20 years or more.

Anthony Barnard · Answer

We use Home Depots Lifeproof vynil planking for all of our construction jobs. They have lots of color options and it's water, mold, scratch resistant which means you can install this in every room of the house. With the protective coating you know that even if tenants spill water and leave it on the floor you have a much longer grace period before your joints swell. Couple that with a lifetime residential warranty, it's a product that I highly recommend.

Rico Nasol · Answer

Agree that builddirect.com has good flooring. The often have quality clearance LVP for around $2/sq ft for a 12mils wear layer with the underpad attached.

Johann Jells · Answer

Just this weekend I laid 8mm from LL in a small kitchen. Pretty nice stuff, even better than their 5mm 'Tranquility' of which I've laid >1000ft. Did not use an underlayment on wooden sub. I love being able to score and snap rather than sawing like laminate, but the 8mm you need some specific tools to do that.

What I really liked about it was the bevel edge. Butt edges in flooring are always a failure point. The bevel gets rid of that. I also like to use a stone pattern in the kitchen so I don't have clashing wood patterns since the other rooms have laminate.

Naz Hossain · Answer

Whatever thickness you get, try to get it with padding so you dont have that extra cost in material and labor

Polo Vazquez · Answer

I've used the Home Depot $2ish per sq ft vinyl flooring and it has held up very good. It isn't as think as the new $3.15 flooring but it is waterproof and scratch resistant. Most of the time I look online for discounts and if I don't find one then I go to the store to look for them. Stores will sometimes put store specific leftover boxes on sale and it might just be enough for your project size. I've found $3.15 psf  vinyl at $2 and $2.15 psf vinyl for $1.81. It adds up to a pretty good saving.

JD Martin · Answer

I still saw because I usually have a chop saw and table saw set up anyway, but I've considered getting one of the snappers. That's a good point on the bevels, I forgot to mention that but I also like the beveled rather than squared edges.

Patrick McGrath · Answer

@John Fider

Go with anything that has the padding on the back. If it has the attached padding it usually pretty good stuff. We have a woodfloorsplus.com near here where all the contractors go. I order all my flooring from here and have my contractor pick it up day of install.

What vinyl flooring thickness would you use?

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