Don’t know how to answer the questions below?
While any new flooring product can look great in your home, choosing the right product for your environment can help to ensure that your floor will look great for years to come. Wan’t more insight? Reach out.
Questions To Answer Before Starting A Project.
Finding the right product for your application.
Areas With High Moisture?
In areas water is frequently present, hard tile, sheet vinyl, or vinyl plank will give added protection against water damage. These materials will not absorb water and when installed properly, can prevent water from reaching your subfloor.
Bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry rooms are areas where your floor will most likely come in contact with water. It’s no secret some products will perform better than others in this environment. Laminates, hardwoods, and carpeting will all absorb water. Over time wood or composite planks will warp or absorb, while carpeting will hold moisture to the subfloor which can cause your subfloor to weaken or fail.
High Traffic?
"Commercially rated" carpeting or plank flooring will hold up better to high volume traffic and abrasives like dirt or salt.
Hardwoods, plush carpets and vinyl products with a thinner wear layer may prematurely wear and fatigue when exposed to heavy traffic and dirt or salt.
Places Where Excessive Weight Is Present?
Heavy items such as pool tables or safes can also have an impact on your flooring. Floating/locking floors may see a failure of the locking system with heavy items set next to end or side joints. In the case of glue down or lay loose vinyl planks, it may slightly flex and lift at the seams when under the pressure of a heavy item.
Surface Preparation
There is a saying in the flooring industry; “your floor can only be as good as your subfloor.” What this means is that the better the condition of your subfloor, the better the overall look and feel of your finished floor will be. Some materials will be more forgiving than others, depending on your application.
OSB subfloor:
Many homes utilize 4'x8' OSB as its subfloor. As long as it is free of any major holes, gaps, or globs of paint or drywall mud, the OSB will work well for plush stretch carpeting. When you move to shorter pile carpet, such as with some berber or commercial style carpeting, some imperfections can begin to show through to the finished surface of your floor.
If you choose to install sheet vinyl, or a glue down, or lay loose luxury vinyl plank, you can even begin to see the pattern of the OSB particles telegraph through the material showing the pattern on the finished surface. With application of these types of material, we would most often recommend installing a 1/4" premium plywood over the top of the OSB to give you a smoother surface to install your sheet or plank vinyl on.
Concrete:
When installing any flooring on concrete, the same rules for OSB still hold true. The most important thing with a concrete subfloor is knowing whether or not there is in-floor heat or any type of plumbing embedded in the concrete. If there is, it will limit your options for carpeting install and some types of transitions. The biggest issue that tubing or plumbing will create is that it becomes almost impossible to install tack track for stretch carpet or install any type of nailed transition.
Another issue with concrete floors is if the surface is painted or epoxied. Depending on what is coating the concrete, you may void manufacturer warranty by trying to glue carpeting or vinyl to a painted concrete surface. If the concrete is uneven, puckered or wavy, you may need to apply self-leveling compound to get a smoother and flatter subfloor to install product on.
Wood plank:
In older homes we will often find wooden plank subfloor. Many times this will have several layers of paint, patches, and can be quite uneven. These floors are usually treaded much like an OSB sub floor. Plush carpet with pad would most likely look and feel fine over this subfloor, but for most other products it would be best to install 1/4" premium plywood over the existing floor to give the best surface possible for vinyl products or commercial carpeting.
While these three types of subfloors and their issues are the most common, there are still anomalies that come up from time to time. While these circumstances can't be generalized, we have ways of working with these issues as well