Hi BP! Hoping for a bit of advice. 

I want to convert the floors at my 2b/2.5b rental in Clayton to luxury vinyl planking. It currently has carpet everywhere with the exception of the bathrooms and kitchen (tile). A few questions.

1. Can anyone recommend a good flooring installer in the Raleigh/Clayton market?

2. I've looked into Lowe's Smartcore LVP product and wondered if anyone else in the market has used this? Any other brands you've liked?

3. I've been told converting stairs from carpet to LVP/wood can be expensive. But it seems odd to leave the stairs as carpet. Any advice here?

Thanks!

Hey Carl,

I would recommend calling Brent Rice with Multifloors. He is based in Raleigh but goes all over to install floors. His crew is excellent and I've done tens of thousands in business with him over the last few years. He is very good. A quick google search will take you to his company's site.

LVT doesn't work on stairs - they'll need to be carpet or hardwoods unfortunately. I recommend leaving them carpeted because LTV flooring with hardwood stairs would probably look odd.

LTV over carpet is HIGHLY recommended in my personal experience because LTV doesn't need to be professionally cleaned every 12-24 months and doesn't need to be replaced every 3-5 years. If you can afford to pay for LTV up front it will save you a lot of $ in the long run. All about how much cash is on hand though.

I also recommend asking Brent about the different LTV products available on the market. It is possible he can provide you with something that is just as durable, but slightly cheaper - as he has access to all material types.

Let me know if you need any additional management tips for the Raleigh area.

Best,

Langdon

Thanks @Langdon Clay , I really appreciate the feedback. I'll reach out to the Multifloors team. I've certainly been thinking more about the benefits of LVP and will be going in that direction. It seems just having carpet on the stairs could be rather odd so I am considering extending the carpet to the second floor landing/hallway as well until it meets the door thresholds. After that point it would be LVP in the rooms. If you have any thoughts on that let me know. With that said, thank you for your help!

I don't understand why LVP on stairs "does not work".  I installed LVP on stairs in one of my rentals a couple of years ago and it works just fine.  

Interesting point, @Andrew S. . For what it's worth, I just received a some other flooring estimates and none of them included the stairs. The major reasons I heard revolved around price and durability.

One company was open to doing the stairs but advised against it in a rental due to cost. As an example, each LVP stair nose which serves as the cap installed on the top edge of the stairs was $25-50 without installation costs. For a staircase with 12 or so stairs that's getting up there.

The other installer I spoke to works for Lowe's. He said they don't even allow for LVP installation on the stairs because the noses often break too quickly.

@Andrew S. It can work - in my experience my flooring contractors have said either said they won't do it, or they highly recommend against it. I should have explained that in more depth.

@Carl Boswell carpet on the stairs and through the landing does make perfect sense in terms of aesthetics. It will add slightly to your long term costs but not the end of the world by any means as the costs will be very minimal. 

Thanks Langdon

@Carl Boswell Did you just purchase your property in Clayton?  From your bio, I see this may be a long term hold.  Our family has a 3 br in town that has been rented for the last 30 years,  but has a lot of deferred maintenance.  I'm curious about your deal since it may inform how we proceed with our property.  Please PM me if you don't want to discuss in public.  Thanks

Hey @Michael C. , some partners and I purchased the property in July. I believe the seller was asking for 152k. We ended up buying it for 142k and agreeing to rent back to the seller at a below-market rate ($400) for three months while their new build was being completed. The property is generally in good shape, but we are looking to put down new flooring, hence this thread, and do some painting before we turn it over. We intend to self manage it and rent it out in the neighborhood of 1,150 to 1,250. 

1. Most investors do this themselves or have local day labors, since you are out of market your better off getting a couple quotes form companies and pricing Lowes direct.

2.  Lowes LVP is very good, I use the ProCore  ($1.68sqft) as go to in rentals and flips and their groutable planks in bathrooms/kitchens.

3. You have to cut off the nose on stairs to the install, and this more handyman work than flooring contractor work.  The nose pieces are expensive and flooring can't be installed as a floating installation on stairs.  There is typically filling work on the sides after you cut off the overhang. I leave carpet on stairs in rentals, but it was my own house I would go through the extra work.

Thanks @David R smith , I did price out a few, and checked with Lowe's as well. I've since realized it does not seem worth the extra effort/expense to change the stairs from carpet. Interesting comment about grout in the planks for the bathroom/kitchen areas. That bit hadn't come up in my conversations with any of the contractors. You've done grout in the kitchen and bathrooms for all your properties?