How To Prep Floors For Luxury Vinyl Planks: NYNR Refresh Challenge

Thinking of luxury vinyl flooring?  Check out these tips on how to prep floors for luxury vinyl planks.

The first floor renovations are in full motion FINALLY!  Along with the kitchen renovation, we have been tackling the dining room as well.  I shared my modern bohemian dining room plans for week 1 of the New Year New Room Refresh Challenge and some modern bohemian dining room inspiration last week.

This past week, we’ve made so much progress in the renovation including gutting out the kitchen and dining room, as well as prepping the floors for the installation of luxury vinyl planks.  Luxury vinyl planks (LVPs) are not necessarily the newest in flooring, but it’s definitely growing in popularity due to all it’s special features.  I’ll be sharing more about LVP and which one we decided to use for the first floor very soon.  In the meantime, we have been busy prepping the floors for the LVP.

 

 

The first thing we had to do is move all the furniture out, which was an ordeal in itself.  The display case was much heavier than I had remembered.  We had to enlist some additional help for the renovations and they have been such a helpful pair.  You may spot them in some of the pics throughout the reno.

 

Issues you may face switching from hardwood floors

Once we removed the carpet, we noticed that the floor had just a little elevation issues.  We hadn’t noticed too many issues since the carpet and hardwood floors hid practically everything, but it was a bit noticeable once the subfloors were visible.

 

 

Another issue we came across, which we hadn’t really thought of, was the spacing issues between the door frames and stairs.  There was such a huge gap left once we removed the hardwood flooring that even the thickest luxury vinyl planks of 8mm wouldn’t have fit that gap.

 

 

Securing underlayment or plywood sheets to the subfloor not only helps even the flooring, but also provide some height needed for the LVP under the door frames and base of the stair railing.  Read on to see how easy it truly is to reinforce your subfloors and prep your floors for luxury vinyl planks.

How to prep floors for luxury vinyl planks

1.Remove any hardwood or carpet in the area you’d like to cover with LVP.

2.Sweep or vacuum any particles on the floor and subfloor before installing your plywood planks.

 

3.  Measure out your spaces and cut the plywood to fit.  I purchased 26 sheets of 4x8x1/4 plywood and we used a jigsaw to cut the wood to fit around any pipes and air vents.

 

 

4.  Use heavy duty construction liquid nails to secure the plywood to the subfloor, then add extra  stabilization by screwing the plywood down using 1 5/8″ drywall screws.

 

 

Repeat until you’ve covered all desired areas then comes the easy part…. installing the luxury vinyl planks!  We opted for a click and lock LVP and we’re excited to get it installed now that the floors are even.   We also have a better solution to solve the spacing issues seen on the doors and staircase.  The LVP flooring can easily slide in and lock right into place.

 

 

Be sure to visit the other ladies sharing their week 3 progress!  Remember that you can join in on the fun and refresh your own space this month.  Simply link up your blog post’s link in the linkup at the end of this post.

 

 

Casa Watkins Living  //  Domicile 37 //  House Homemade  //  Iris Nacole  //  Monica Wants It  //

Jeweled Interiors   //  Pocketful of Posies  //  This Is Our Bliss  //  Up To Date Interiors

A special thank you to the official sponsors of the New Year, New Room Refresh challenge.  Most of the products are getting in this week, so be sure to follow me on Instagram to see when I unbox them!