LESLIE: Pat in South Dakota, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
PAT: Yeah. I have a question about some flooring. Our flooring is about 25 years old. We have carpet and vinyl laminate, about 800 square feet. And I know the subfloor is good but I want to pull up the old carpets and lay some flooring down. And I saw some vinyl – some of the new vinyl-plank stuff.
Now, I’ve laid a laminate floor before that had the backing attached and that wasn’t too bad. And I was just curious – the main floor, I want to do it all together because it all runs together. But it’s got a bathroom. It’s a quarter-bath and a kitchen and a dining room and the family room and a landing in a hall. So there’s lots of corners and stuff like that. And I’m just curious what your opinion is on that new vinyl-plank flooring. Is it easier to install, more durable?
TOM: Yeah. I think you’re talking about the engineered vinyl plank, I think. The EVP?
LESLIE: It’s like the rubberized vinyl. It looks like a plank. Some of them glue together with an overlapped tab that has an adhesive already on it. Some of them, you actually put an adhesive down, almost like a mastic, and then apply it like a tile. So it depends on which kind you’re looking at, because one of them is much thicker than the other and they both then have a different prep and a different adhesion process. So I think you really need to look into which that is.
PAT: Mm-hmm. Now, the one I saw at the home show here, locally, was – it was kind of – it was a vinyl. You could bend it and it looked like a wood grain but it was kind of a click-together installation. But it wasn’t like the solid, the firm laminate flooring that clicks together. It wasn’t soft. You can’t bend that but this vinyl stuff you could bend. And it looked pretty nice.
TOM: Yeah, Pat. You’re talking about a product called EVP or engineered vinyl plank. That’s another type of vinyl flooring much newer to the market. But from what I’ve seen of it, it’s 100-percent waterproof. It does click together much like other types of laminate floor would and the finish on it is super durable. Lumber Liquidators makes one that has a 30-year finish on it and it looks just like wood. So that is definitely another option for you.
PAT: Now, do you – the stuff I’ve laid before already has the backing attached. The click-together laminate? That has backing attached. Now, for something like this, do you just lay it right over the subfloor and the linoleum in the case as long as it’s even and good?
TOM: Yeah. In fact, this is a floating floor much like a regular laminate floor would be. So it’s not adhered to the old floor; it lays on top of it. So, as you say, as long as the floor is flat with no big dips or bumps or humps in it, then it just is going to lock together and lay right there and you’re going to trim it along the edge, against the baseboard molding.
PAT: OK. Well, thank you for your help.
TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project.
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