Vinyl plank flooring installation
Vinyl plank flooring installation is the most requested floor we fit, and the one where the preparation matters more than the product. The planks are tough, waterproof and forgiving to live on. What they are not forgiving about is the floor underneath them, and every complaint we are called to look at traces back to flatness, moisture or an expansion gap. It sits inside our floor repair and installation service.
Service family Floor repair and installation
Scheduling Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Service area Six counties across Southeast Michigan
Phone (734) 540-0347
What vinyl plank is, and the two kinds
A printed and textured wear surface over a rigid core, sold in plank and tile formats. Stone composite cores are dense, heavy and the most dimensionally stable, which is what we fit in basements and over uneven subfloors. Wood composite cores are lighter, slightly warmer underfoot and quieter. Both are waterproof as a material, which is different from the floor being waterproof.
Where it makes sense and where it does not
It makes sense in kitchens, baths, laundry rooms, entries, basements, rentals and any house with dogs, because it takes water and claws better than wood. It makes less sense in a formal room in a period house where the floor is part of the architecture, and it is not the right answer directly over a floor that is soft or still moving.
Floating, glue down and the click joint
Most plank floors float: the planks lock to each other and to nothing else, so the whole floor moves as one sheet with temperature and humidity. Glue down installations bond every plank to the subfloor and suit very large open areas and commercial traffic. Floating is quicker, cheaper and removable. Glue down is more stable and far more work to lift later.
What gets checked first
- Subfloor flatness measured with a long straightedge
- Moisture in a concrete slab, tested rather than assumed
- Whether the existing floor can stay down as a base
- Door clearances at every opening in the run
- Room dimensions against the plank length, for the end cuts
Flatness, and the tolerance the maker asks for
Every manufacturer publishes a flatness tolerance, and it is tighter than most subfloors deliver. Exceed it and the planks bridge the dip, which you feel as a spot that clicks and flexes underfoot and which eventually opens a joint. Where a straightedge shows daylight, the floor gets floor leveling before a single plank is laid.
The expansion gap nobody leaves
A floating floor grows and shrinks across its whole width, so it needs a gap at every wall, every cabinet toe kick, every door jamb and every pipe. Laid tight to the walls, the floor has nowhere to go and buckles in the middle of the room on the first hot week. That gap is hidden by baseboard or shoe, which is why the trim is part of the job.
Underlayment, attached and separate
Many planks arrive with a pad already bonded to the back, and where they do, a second underlayment underneath is a mistake that makes the floor spongy and voids most warranties. Where there is no attached pad, a thin foam or cork layer quiets the floor and helps with minor variation. Over concrete, a vapour retarder is the part that matters.
Basements, and moisture from the slab
Plank flooring is the most common basement floor we fit because it survives water that would destroy wood or laminate. The slab still needs testing, and a slab passing moisture needs a barrier under the floor even with a waterproof plank, because moisture trapped between the two grows things. In a basement finishing project that sits in the build sequence.
Over tile, over vinyl, over wood
A floating plank floor can often go straight over existing tile, sheet vinyl or a sound wood floor, which saves demolition and disposal. Grout lines deeper than about a sixteenth of an inch get filled first, because the plank will telegraph them. Two layers of existing sheet vinyl or any loose material comes up rather than getting built on.
Cutting around a doorway
The mark of a properly laid plank floor is at the door jambs, where the plank runs underneath the casing rather than butting against it with a bead of caulk. That means undercutting the jamb with a jamb saw before the floor goes down. It takes an extra hour across a house and it is the single most visible difference between trade and amateur work.
Baseboard, shoe and the edge detail
- Baseboard removed and refitted rather than caulked to the new floor
- Shoe moulding used where baseboard cannot come off
- Expansion gap held at every wall, cabinet and pipe
- Jambs undercut so planks run beneath the casing
- No fasteners through the floor at any point
Wear layer, and the number that matters
Ignore the overall thickness and look at the wear layer, measured in mils. Six mil is a rental grade floor. Twelve to twenty mil is a household floor that will take a family and a dog for a decade or more. The difference in price is small and the difference in how it looks after five years is not, which is the one specification worth arguing about.
Heavy furniture and pet claws
Plank floors dent under a point load rather than scratching, so a piano leg or a refrigerator wheel is more of a risk than a dog. Wide felt pads under everything heavy and a proper mat under a rolling chair solve it. Claws and sand are the two things that dull the finish over years, and both are easier on plank than on an oiled wood floor.
Sunlight, and the floor that shrinks in a sunroom
A floating floor in a room with large south facing glass gets hot, and a hot floor expands and then contracts as it cools, cycling every day. In sunrooms and rooms with full height windows we either move to a glue down installation or increase the expansion allowance. This is the failure mode that catches people out in a Michigan spring.
Where plank stops and hardwood starts
If you want a floor that can be sanded and refinished in twenty years, that is hardwood flooring and not this. Plank cannot be refinished, so its life is the life of its wear layer. We will give you both prices and point out that a plank floor in a wet room will outlast wood in the same room by years.
The floor underneath, before anything new goes down
New flooring over a bad subfloor is money buried. Soft areas get subfloor repair, loose areas get squeaky floor repair, doorways get floor transitions and doors that now catch get door adjustment. All of it happens in the same week, by the same crew.
How long the work takes
One average room, over a flat and sound subfloor, is a day including trim. A first floor of eight hundred square feet is three days. Leveling, moisture barriers and removing an old floor each add a day. Landlords running rental turnover repairs book it between tenants because the floor is usable the same evening.
Book vinyl plank flooring installation with our crew
Lay a straightedge on your floor, look under it, and measure the gap. That number and the square footage are most of a quote. We cover Dearborn and the surrounding counties, handle trim carpentry and water damage prevention alongside, and an annual home check keeps the edges tight. View our Portfolio, then contact us now for a free quote.
