c/flooring-installers

Took me 6 years to figure out I'd been cutting my underlayment backwards

I was over at a job in Salem helping a buddy lay some LVP and he watched me flip the roll over before cutting, then asked why I always installed the smooth side down, and suddenly I realized I'd been putting the slip layer against the subfloor this whole time.

Tried glueing down LVP in a basement last week... bad idea

I've always floated click-lock flooring in basements but figured glue-down would be more stable. Used the same glue I always use for sheet vinyl and boy did that stuff bubble up through the joints after three days. Learned real quick that glue-down luxury vinyl needs forced air circulating for at least 48 hours before you walk on it. Anyone else make this mistake or just me?

Used to wipe my trowel clean every 10 minutes and now I just let the thinset crust up between jobs

Stopped by a old mill conversion in Lowell and the plank layout blew my mind

I was up in Lowell last weekend checking out some of those old factory buildings they turned into apartments. One unit had this wide plank flooring that was all random widths, from about 4 inches up to 10 inches mixed together. The installer didn't stagger the end joints in any pattern I could see, just let them fall wherever they landed. It gave the whole floor this loose, natural feel that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. Has anyone else tried doing a truly random stagger on a job and had the homeowner push back about it looking messy?

Hit 13,000 square feet of luxury vinyl plank in 3 days last week and that's not even the crazy part

I know everyone talks about hitting big numbers on sheet vinyl or carpet, but for me it was LVP. I did a 4,800 square foot house in Bakersfield with basically no help, just my apprentice. We laid 13,000 square feet over three days because the homeowner kept changing rooms last minute. The weird thing is nobody talks about how much faster LVP goes when you stop fighting with the subfloor and just use a good moisture barrier and leveling compound ahead of time. Most guys I know say LVP takes forever, but I think they're just not prepping right. Has anyone else noticed that the big numbers come when you stop worrying about perfect cuts and start moving faster?

Got told my cuts were off by an old timer last week

Guy I was working with on a glue down LVP job in a retail space pointed out I was measuring from the wrong side of the blade on my utility knife. Turns out I was adding about a 16th every time which threw off whole rows after 20 feet. Changed how I mark my cuts now using a sharpie dot instead of guessing. Anybody else have a simple habit fix that saved them time?

Saw a crew in Nashville using foam underlayment on a slab last Thursday

The GC was all about it for sound control but I'm still sketched out about moisture trapping under there, anyone dealt with that on a concrete pour?

Tried LVP on a diagonal layout in a 400 sqft living room

Thought it would look sharp and modern, so I set the planks at a 45-degree angle instead of straight. Took me twice as long to cut each piece and I burned through 3 extra blades on my saw. Ended up with way more waste than I planned, probably 15% extra material gone. Lesson learned: diagonal looks great but only if the client is paying for the extra time and material. Anyone else try this and regret it?

Luxury vinyl plank I hated at first is now my go-to for basements

I was dead set against LVP for years. Thought it was cheap plastic that would never hold up. But a customer in Denver asked me to do their whole basement last fall, about 900 square feet. They wanted that rigid core stuff with the attached pad. I grumbled through the whole install but man, it was easy to cut and click together. Six months later I went back to fix a different issue and that floor looked perfect, not a single seam issue even with the humidity swings. I'm still not a fan of the hollow sound when you walk on it, but for a below grade slab where hardwood would just rot, it's hard to beat. Any of you guys had a product change your mind like that?

Hot take: prefinished vs site finished hardwood is a bigger debate than it needs to be

I did a job last year where we put in prefinished oak in a living room and site finished maple in a bedroom down the hall. Fast forward 12 months and the prefinished has these tiny chips near the dog bowls while the site finished just has some light scratching. The client paid about $2 per square foot more for the site finished but the labor was way more. My buddy swears prefinished is the way to go for rentals but I'm leaning the other way now. What's your experience been with longevity between the two after a few years?

Glue down LVP in a basement - I was a hater but now I get it

For years I swore by floating LVP in basements. Thought glue down was just for commercial jobs or people who didnt know how to do a proper expansion gap. Then I did a 1,200 sq ft basement in Raleigh where the slab had these tiny hairline cracks everywhere. Floating wouldve been fine I guess but the homeowner wanted something that felt more solid. I used a trowel notch size 1/16 x 1/32 x 1/16 with Bostik's Greenforce and man the difference was night and day. No hollow spots no clicking sounds when you walk on it. Also didnt need transition strips at the doorway because the glue down is thin enough to slide under the jamb. Took me about 3 extra hours compared to floating but the end result was way cleaner. Anyone else switch camps on this or am I late to the party?

I finally caved and tried a pull bar instead of a tapping block for tight spots

Been doing hardwood for about 6 years now and always used a tapping block and hammer for those last few boards against the wall. Kept seeing guys on here swear by pull bars but I figured it was just another tool to lose in the truck. Last week I had a job in a tiny bedroom where the gap was barely 2 inches from the baseboard and my tapping block couldnt get a good angle. Borrowed a cheap pull bar from the guys at the supply house and honestly it clicked the boards in way cleaner on the first try. Has anyone else put off getting one and then found it saved a ton of frustration?

My uncle's 'just eyeball it' advice almost cost me a whole job

I was installing some wide plank hickory in a living room in Des Moines last summer and my uncle Bob stopped by to 'help'. He's been laying carpet for 30 years and thinks he knows everything about flooring. I was trying to get the first row dead straight with a chalk line and a laser but he kept telling me to just eyeball it and go. He said builders don't use lasers and my grandpa never needed one. Two hours later I had a 3 inch gap at the far wall because the whole room drifted. I had to pull up 4 rows and redo them with a proper reference line. Has anyone else had an older relative give terrible advice on site?

Overheard a homeowner tell their kid 'the floor guy is just here to make noise'

Old timer told me to rip instead of crosscut for engineered wood, I argued for months then tried it

Last Tuesday was my best day in 3 years on the job

Finished a 1200 sq ft LVP install in a Denver condo by 2pm, owner tipped me $200 cash on top of the contract. Has anyone else had a random weekday just click like that?

Tried a manual vs electric floor nailer on a 2,000 sq ft job in Atlanta

After three hours with the manual nailer I had only done half the living room. Switched to an electric one and finished the whole house by lunch the next day. Has anyone else had that moment where you just wish you'd switched tools sooner?

The week a 900 square foot glue-down job turned into a total nightmare

Got a call last Tuesday for a rush job, a whole office space in Springfield. The subfloor was concrete and they said it was 'clean and level'... it was neither. Spent two full days just grinding down high spots and filling cracks with patch, my arms are still sore. The real kicker was the adhesive, the client supplied some off-brand stuff that stayed tacky for hours, every plank slid around. Finished yesterday and I'm just hoping it holds. Anyone else had a glue turn on them like that?

Overheard a client in Phoenix say they'd just use a mop and water on their new luxury vinyl plank, which made me cringe.

I had to step in and explain that even a damp mop can force water into the seams and void the warranty, so please, folks, make sure you're giving your clients the right cleaning instructions after the job is done.

Had to get a perfect seam on some 12-foot vinyl planks in a Denver kitchen remodel

Instead of the usual glue, I used a tiny bit of clear silicone at the joint and clamped it overnight with some scrap wood. Anyone ever try something similar on a tricky floating floor install?

Can we talk about that $150 laser level I bought for tile layouts?

It paid for itself in one big kitchen job by cutting my layout time in half, but what's a cheaper option that still gets the job done for smaller bathrooms?

PSA: I learned the hard way about moisture testing on a slab in Phoenix

I was installing some engineered hardwood in a condo last month and skipped my usual moisture test because the slab looked bone dry. Two days later, the homeowner called me back to show me a small but clear cupping issue starting along the west wall. I grabbed my meter and the reading was 4.5%, way over the 3% limit for that product. I had to pull up about 200 square feet of flooring, let the slab dry with a dehumidifier for a full week, and reinstall it all on my own dime. Has anyone else had a slab surprise them like that in a dry climate?

Had to pick between a 12-foot plank and a 14-footer for a weird angled hallway in a 1920s bungalow last Tuesday.

I went with the 14-footer, thinking I'd trim it, but then spent an hour trying to pivot it around a corner that was basically a right angle, you ever have a simple choice turn into a geometry puzzle?

My uncle told me to always float a glue-down floor for a full 24 hours before you roll it

He said this back when I was helping him on a big vinyl job in Phoenix, and I thought he was just being extra careful. The glue can said 4 hours was fine, so on my own first solo job, I only waited 6 hours before I started rolling. Big mistake. The floor looked perfect at first, but after about a month, I got a call back. The planks had started to cup and lift at the seams because the glue hadn't fully set. I had to rip out and replace a whole 400 square foot section on my own dime, which cost me almost $800 in materials. Now I follow his advice to the letter, no matter what the bucket says. Has anyone else had a glue set faster or slower based on the humidity where you work?

My boss in Phoenix told me to never use a 6 mil vapor barrier on a slab, and the moisture test I ran last week proved him right.

The reading was 98% after 48 hours, so now I ask, what's your go-to thickness for a really damp concrete pour?