I've been doing some research on flooring while I'm doing a full basement Reno in my house and have settled firmly on LVP. My hang-up now is on the type.

A few years ago we put down loose-lay LVP in my parents basement and it was piss-easy for amateurs like us to install, and has held up amazingly for about 5 years of being a second kitchen/kids play area that gets very regular use.

I have been browsing this sub for a few months now and have seen tons and tons of LVP, but very little loose-lay. Cost and performance-wise, they seem comparable, but installation seems a million times easier, and maintenance is infinitely easier since individual planks can be removed.

I guess my question is, what downsides am I missing? Why isn't loose-lay used more? Have any of you had bad experiences with it?

Hello all,

Just wanted to put out a PSA as I work in flooring and see comments CONSTANTLY telling absolutely everyone to get vinyl plank in their home. Reality is that vinyl plank is a cheap floor with tons of issues that doesn't look good. Before you write me off, please read and consider what I'm saying.

Let's start with the basics.

There's 3 types of vinyl planks: click, gluedown, and loose lay. Loose lay is a complete lie, you always need to glue it down. You'll understand why later. Click vinyl is also called SPC or WPC and is often referred to as a floating floor. This is exactly the same thing as laminate, just made with vinyl instead of wood particles. Gluedown LVP is obvious, but generally come in 2 thicknesses: 2mm and 5mm.

Vinyl plank is made of mostly vinyl, though the quality/purity of the vinyl can vary. Some brands boast 100% virgin vinyl, and others literally sweep the floor of the plant and dump the garbage into the vinyl mixture. This detail matters a lot. A picture of wood goes over the vinyl, and a wear layer goes overtop of that.

Vinyl by nature expands and contracts more than any other kind of floor.

Now that we have the basics, let's go through the history of vinyl so that you can see the issues and how they have evolved.

Sheet vinyl had long been a staple in homes of varying values, but was a pain to install and hard to repair. Naturally vinyl plank was the next best option as you could replace separate pieces. In the beginning they made them with horrible visuals and terrible wear layers. This got better over time.

The next issue that people noticed was that vinyl expands and contracts with temperature changes, and now that the planks are all individual, if your installation isn't right, the product doesn't get to acclimate properly, or you have a lot of windows you will end up with a plethora of issues like gapping, planks pushing up against each other and peaking, delamination of the picture from the vinyl layer, etc. the more the temperature changes, the more expansion and contraction that happens. This isn't a process that can happen over and over. Once vinyl is stretched like an elastic, it doesn't go back to its original shape. This is why you can't loose lay vinyl - it will expand and contract and not be held in place by anything. Having a virgin vinyl, (that hasn't already been stretched and compromised) proper stable substrate, and a good quality glue REALLY helps this issue.

The next logical fix for these issues was click vinyl. If the planks are all connected but still look like separate pieces it looks more like hardwood and allows you to get around the subfloor requirement because it's a floating floor. Click vinyl in my opinion is the worst kind of flooring that there is. Now that the floor has become one piece again it's extremely susceptible to pinch points. If you don't install properly, put your baseboards on too tight, have a waterfall countertop, have one of those fancy big fridges, etc. you will have failures. If you have uneven subfloors or even sometimes not enough supports in the construction of your house you may find you crack the click system of the vinyl as you walk on it. Failures failures failures. We literally had one of the manufacturers tell us this year that two of our builders don't put enough supports in the accommodate their product. 🙄It's the product we spend the most money fixing for customers by a huge amount.

A good looking, good quality vinyl is not cheap and contrary to popular belief, most are not completely waterproof. They will fare better than laminate, but won't survive flooding.

A lot of these factors will differ depending on where you live and what the climate is like. Where I live everyone does vinyl because it's more of a rural area and looks/feel don't matter so much. I will be installing 5mm gluedown vinyl in my house because I'm broke. If that's what is in your budget then just make sure you do it right. But if you can avoid it please do. Just trying to help people make good choices for their homes. A lot of us may only get to do a reno once!

I removed the previous glued down sheet vinyl that was from the 90s.

I've been scraping up the residual glue and paper from the felt back the previous vinyl left behind.

Room is 10x12 at best. Kitchen.

I was going to glue down the new vinyl but multiple people keep saying I shouldn't bother and just loose lay it and shouldn't be bothering with all of this prep work I'm doing either.

The nail holes aren't bad but I was going to fill them but have been advised that that doesn't really matter either.

The instructions for the sheet vinyl said for me to prime the floor and I have been unable to find the primer needed.

The vinyl is from Lowe's. Just the cheap carriage point design.

How much prep would you do if you were me?