Finally got my glue down vinyl cuts under 5% waste

Two years back, I was burning through about 15% of the material on every glue down LVP job, mostly from bad cuts on tricky walls. I switched to a 7-inch sliding bevel gauge for marking angles instead of just eyeballing it off a tape measure. Started doing that about six months ago after a job in Tempe where I messed up three planks on a single fireplace bump-out. Now I measure the angle, set the gauge, and trace it right on the plank. My last three jobs came in with waste under 5%, which feels solid. What's your go-to trick for keeping waste low on those weird angled cuts?

2 comments

2 Comments

jason5621mo ago

Nice! I read a forum post a while back where a guy swore by using a cardboard template for really wild angles, like those old house hexagon floors. He'd cut the template to fit the gap first, then trace that onto the plank. Seems like it would save a few messed up boards while you're figuring out the shape. Your bevel gauge trick is probably faster for most stuff though. Getting under 5% is seriously good.

ivangrant1mo ago

Yeah, the cardboard template method is solid for the crazy cuts. I've done that before when I had to fit some trim around a stone fireplace that was all kinds of wrong. Still messed up the first piece because I traced it onto the wrong side of the board like an idiot. My bevel gauge is great until my hands are full of sawdust and I forget which angle I locked it at. That's when I just start cutting scrap until something fits.