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Most videos put together by W. David Lichty,
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My last toe is about 8cm wide and I can’t get any of it to lay flat no matter how much I tap it and pull it in towards that joint, it still sticks up.
Row not toe!
I've not heard of a row so thin for click-together flooring. Generally, when starting (which isn't part of this particular video) you measure the room and divide by the plank width so that you can both start and end with rows over half the width of the planks - for just this reason, tiny width rows are a pain. Not being there and seeing it, all I can suggest (blind) is to use a rubber mallet to tap it down while pulling the planks together, but you might need to redo your initial row. It works like this: Simplistically, let's say your planks are 5" wide, and your room is 182 inches. You'd have 36 full width rows, with 2" left over. Rather than starting with a full width row and ending with a 2" wide row, you'd take 1" off each end, the first row and the last row, giving you 4" planks to work with at the start and the finish.
(re: 'toe') Yeah, I knew what you meant.
12 years later, and this is so helpful
Really helpful
My diy install lvp is running into this issue. Ebery couple months i have to re tap down with the flooring mallet. In certain areas. From what im gathering this is likely the fix i need because its not fully lockinf, right?
From your description, yes.
Could you do this method with sheet vinyl on concrete? Was thinking of using 3m VHB instead of glue.
Honestly, it's been too long since we worked with sheet vinyl, so I don't want to confirm. I would ask a local shop/installer before trying this.
Hi, Excellent video, 12 years old and still the best video. Detailed explanation as close ups to help me understand the process. I have a question. In my situation I have a hall ending in the middle of a room. I need to start the install in the hall, then run into the room, but that means that I need to install in the room from both the groove side as demonstrated as well as the tongue side. Is that possible?
It really isn't, just because of where your hands have to be. It will take some planning, but you should start in the room, and then extend the installation of your rows when they get to the hall zone. The issue you have to contend with is that in any installation, you don't want to saddle yourself with having a row (usually at the end) where the planks need to be cut by more than half of their width. So if your room is such that you can install 7" planks until the end, at which point you'll have 2" left, instead of giving yourself that 2" final row, you'd cut 1" off the starting row, and 1" off the final row, leaving you with much more manageable 6" planks. It's an important step, and in your case you'd also need to factor in where the hallway comes in, so that you also don't have a 2" row going down one of the sides of the hallway. Basically, it will either just work out well, or it will work out badly, in which case you might have to treat them as separate installations, and use a transition piece where they meet.
so that works great on first board, but then, i'm struggling with, do i install that method and then tap into the end of the adjacent board, or do i install the end, and then I can't use that methodology, so i have to tap in down the long side of the board, seems counterintuitive
With angle-to-angle installations, you will always engage the short end of the new board first, then lift it and its connected boards to engage the long end. The only new wrinkle with this product (and some with similar locking mechanisms) is that in that step, you'd make sure go the full 45 degrees with the long side, but it doesn't really change the method.
Ok but how do you engage the short end of the plank when it also needs to engage at 45 degrees. Makes no sense
With an angle to angle, you do the short end first, regardless of any angle requirements. Some locking mechanisms will snap together at 20 or 30 degrees, these at 45 degrees, but in all angle-to-angle click-togethers, the new plank has to be raised to some degree on any side, the short side is done first, then the long side is done by lifting the plank, and any planks connected, in order to lock in the new plank. The specific angle of lift does not change that process, so in this case, it's just a steeper angle you'd need to make sure to meet when doing either side.
I have just been introduced to this type of flooring in the UK - struggling to get my head round it - having it done by supplier so didn't need to know how to do it but seeing your video made it so much easier for me to understand the product. Thank you
Great video
Thanks for a great tutorial! I have an issue with my vinyl planks in the new apartment and would be very greatful if you could advise. Basically whoever installed the planks a couple of years ago did not do it properly and the planks are kinda wobbly at the corners in many places (I can see that the locking mechanism is broken in those places). The planks were installed without any glue. So I was wondering if it was technically possible to disassemble the planks and reinstall them using some proper glue this time. If I do so, will the planks sit tight despite the broken locking mechanism? Or do I need to purchase new planks instead? Thanks in advance! :)
Hiya! I'm forced to speculate a bit since I don't know a lot of exact things. First, when you refer to an apartment, my mind jumps to the standard apartment arrangement, which is that we pay rent, and basically everything the landlord owns that falls apart is their responsibility: the lock on the front door, the air conditioning, any water pipe issues - and flooring. And pulling up and putting back down even _some_ flooring can turn into a big deal, evoking the question, "Why didn't you save yourself the trouble of doing it and have _us_ do it," or "Why didn't you save us the trouble of your having done it, and discovering halfway through that your lack of expertise mattered..." so I'm assuming that this is indeed your purview, but I wanted to point that out just in case you have a very welcome, "Oh, yeah!" moment, and could wash your hands of the work and cost. That said, I can tell you what I know about the situation in general. 1. _In general,_ locking mechanisms are designed to be used maybe three times. The theory is that you might lock some planks together, then realize that something needs to move, so you unlock them and then re-lock them. One, two, three. That doesn't mean they self-destruct like Ethan Hunt's secret messages after the third try, just that they're not made to disconnect and reconnect over and over, and you could be crossing this particular product's threshold just trying what you want to try, especially given the condition in which you've found some of these. 2. You can really only pull planks up in one direction: the opposite from which they were installed. You'd need to find the edge row that ends in 'grooves', not 'tongues', and that's where you'd start. Not from the sides, and not from the opposite side of the room, because ultimately you have to put these back down, and that's tongue-into-groove, tongue-into-groove, tongue-into-groove, not groove-into-tongue (which you'd be impossibly stuck with if you undid this from the wrong direction). So depending on where these issues are, you could be puling up a _lot_ of planks, agitating a lot of locking mechanisms. 3. Doing this will may void the warranty. This is not because doing it is necessarily harmful to a floor, but because of how warranties work. You have to install things exactly their way, or they won't guarantee it anymore. Now, a) it may not void anything; check your floor's documentation, and b) the warranty might already be void under the 'original owner' thing many come with, or it might not yours to activate, so this may just be a non-issue. Okay, the irritants out of the way, then: It is very likely that you _can_ glue the joints together, for a floating laminate or vinyl floor with a click-together installation. It is (almost) never required, nor even recommended, but it's allowable because the whole floor needs to float, not the individual planks. Some tips: I. Since I don't know your product, go to a home or floor store, or call the manufacturer, if you can determine who it was, tell them your floor type and brand, and ask what adhesive you need. Different materials need different adhesives to even work, so don't guess on this. II. You should be applying a _very_ thin coat of the stuff into those joints, so it doesn't squeeze out and either dry into bumps on the top surface, or glue the flooring to the subfloor if it squeezes out underneath. III. If you can, experiment first, either with a small pair of easy-to-access planks or any available spare pieces. The thing is, even if you do this all perfectly, and the flooring (or your subfloor's unevenness, which could be the original culprit) just isn't up to it, it might not work. So it's probably time-risky to try, but potentially not cost-risky, because if it doesn't work, then you're buying new planks, which you probably had to do anyway. - David
So you lift the whole second row to a 30 degree angle? I’m installing it now and I can’t lift a 4 peice run to a 30 degree angle
Hey there, Broadly, no, you don't have to lift the whole row, just the most recent plank along with your new one. Yes, this can naturally give some lift to prior planks in the row, but you don't have to have hands on the 10-12 feet of prior planks. They'll go up as needed, then back down, and shouldn't disconnect, nor adjust in any way that tapping them back into total squareness shouldn't restore.
Thank you so much Gents!!!
Our pleasure!
I have recently had issues with vinyl plank flooring and seeing this video is interesting to me.... however, i have a slight bump mid way through my flooring that I'm not sure i can fix really. The previous owners had laminate in that room but i wanted to upgrade the floor (both times the planks have snapped at or near the tongues), would this type of flooring work, or am i doomed to laminate flooring? Any help is greatly appreciated!
First, to get the technicalities out of the way, whether you have laminate or a vinyl, the documentation will insist upon a flat, even surface, to the tune of not more than a 1/4" variance across anywhere from 3 to ten feet in any direction. That's about both warranty voiding and genuine functionality of the flooring. If you have more bumpiness or waviness than that, technically, you'd want to build a little subfloor over your subfloor, which would then be nice and flat, or use this stuff called Leveling Compound, basically a liquid you pour and spread flat, which hardens into a new, correctly flattened surface on which your flooring can go. Real answer part one is that whether it's a little ridge or more of a slope, a harder plank is going to have a bigger problem. It can't form fit the bump, so it's going to wobble or rock where that lift is under it. This floor, and those like it, more resilient (bendable) floors, might be more accommodating. Loose Lay *can* be glued down, and in such an area, would need to be. That's likely as much a help as it would be a hassle, and you'd likely want to glue down a few surrounding planks, too. That would preserve the bump, meaning you'll still feel it underfoot, but perhaps that's better than a rocking plank or two. The real answer part two is that the advice to flatten that floor is pretty sound either way. Any floor installed over it will have a voided warranty, but beyond that, any flooring installed over it can have issues, whether from unbalanced hard planks, the continued presence of the bump through your glued-to-it resilient planks, or some installation issues, like your glued planks not being able to be fully square where the floor raises.
@@FloorsToYourHome thank you for the reply! Looks like levelling out the floor is the way to go cause I'm definitely sick of redoing this floor over and over again. Thanks for your help 😊
I’m having trouble getting my laminate to click in, one side of the board will click in but then I click the opposite side in and the one that was just clicked in will come out, what can I do about this?
It's hard to be specific without seeing it, so I'll show you what we can instead. We have two videos showing the installation, and maybe you'll see something that helps: Angle Angle Laminate and Vinyl Flooring Installation Tips kzread.info/dash/bejne/gneersiDgpaZd5s.html Laminate Flooring Installation Tips: Best Way To Start, and Handling Problems kzread.info/dash/bejne/jKajqdKCeNmwcdI.html (This one is our most viewed video, with over a million views, so it's got to be helping some people, and I hope it does for you)
This video just resolved a lot of dispute. My floor has been pulling apart showing lipping at the corners indicating that the shorter edges are not fully locked and joined. The installer is blaming manufacturer defect claiming that short edges need to click when pressed, otherwise nothing will keep the planks together and over time they will pull apart. The inspector hired by the manufacturer blamed poor installation particularly inadequate stagger because it is in only 6-8 inches (in some places only 5) and never 12 as indicated in the insert coming with the planks. The installer dismisses the insert claiming that manufacturer's training manuals require 4-6 inch stagger, which I think is flat out lie but whatever. So, dispute back and forth; meanwhile the floor is slowly falling apart and the worst thing is that that particular floor not made any longer, so not even a chance to replace damaged planks. After watching this video I am confident that installers are plain incompetent.
Sorry to hear that, dexivoje. Not all of them are, but following the specific documentation that comes with a specific product, over any more generalized direction, is Installation 101. That's why we put the documents right up on the site, so do-it-yourselfers can see _exactly_ what they're in for, because 'exactly' is how you install flooring.
I also check all the edges to make sure there aren't any stray wood pieces clogging the grooves. I use an old toothbrush to clean all 4 edges so there isn't any wood debris preventing the edges from locking together. Whenever I need to hammer in boards that won't lock tight I use a scrap piece of laminate (about 6' long and I shave back the decorative top so it won't bang against the decorative top I'm hammering in place.) and lock it in place while I whack on it with a hammer to get the nice tight seam I want. I helps prevent chipping of the decorative edge.
Good tips, all!
Thanks for the advice, I will give this a try.
Thanks god bless
Where can I find that color your applying in this video. Natural wood color? Loose lay 5mm.
We're a flooring outlet, so while we always have a lot of choices (23 different Loose Lay products out of almost 300 vinyls in stock today), but for us, once they're gone, they're gone. I would start here: floorstoyourhome.com/vinyl-flooring/golden.html and filter by type to see if we currently have a close match in any given month.
@@FloorsToYourHome I've tried looking before and on your website you have loose lay in natural wood color but it's water resistant not waterproof and it does say that it can mold underneath which I would not consider purchasing. But thanks.
We have no loose lay which is not fully waterproof. I'd be surprised if anyone does, because the material used to make a loose lay floor just *is* inherently waterproof. But we do have a _lot_ of floors which look and sound like a lot of other floors, just within our own site, so I don't doubt we have a product like what you've described. As for mold, and I'm not trying to sell you on us, just hoping to help wherever you do wind up shopping, the waterproof flooring material, a vinyl, isn't good mold food, but what it does even better than some other floors is trap moisture that might rise up under it. Being waterproof, it isn't porous or very 'breathable', and any trapped moisture in a dark place can grow mold, if it has something to eat. Wood and carpet are good mold meals. It can't eat vinyl. It *can* eat stuff contained in concrete, which, with wood, is what 90+% of subfloors are made of. Material-wise you're best with vinyl and ceramic, but if you have specific reasons to want an especially mold-resistant situation, I would talk with a very local specialist who knows your area's climate and water tables. Should you seal your subfloor? There are situations where that wouldn't be good. Will a simple moisture/vapor barrier take care of it? Find someone smart and well-regarded in your area and ask, then get a floor which can accommodate their answer. While any flooring could go over a sealed concrete subfloor, with loose lay vinyl you can't have an additional moisture barrier, so if that were the necessary solution, loose lay would be ruled out, if that makes sense.
Nice vedio
Still didn’t work but thanks for the demonstration
Great easy video to follow thank you from the uk
Instantly worked
Videos 11 years old but still the best one on the net. My question Is in this exact room had he used tape in only the spots where he used adhesive would the floor not be raised up in those sections?.
Ricky, do you mean raised by the tape itself? The material of the tape being under the flooring, lifting it up by however thick the tape is?
So drop and lock is really position and hammer into place?
Yeah, pretty much. A mallet is pretty a common floor installation tool. Some manufacturers call their installation system tap-and-go - the 'tap' is referring to the mallet. You'd use it with a tongue and groove hardwood, and on both the long and the short sides of an angle-to-angle installation.
Can you stall this over tile?
As long as it's a glued down tile, and the surface of the tile meets the tolerance requirements of the subfloor's flatness. A strongly textured tile might blow that, so check your product's specific installation documentation (we post all of it with each product) to get those numbers.
The only answer I am after and I can't find it anywhere is how do I click the longside in and the side at the same time?????
A reasonable question, and the answer is that you don't! One side always goes together before the other. This super quick video says which side is to be first, based on the two main installation methods: kzread.info/dash/bejne/f2ihuciDp9vPqrQ.html We didn't _show_ the angle-to-angle method very well in that one, but this jumps right to the spot in another video where we do: kzread.info/dash/bejne/gneersiDgpaZd5s.html Does that help?
Literally couldn’t figure how it flat for 30 minutes I’m subscribing
Sooo glad i found this video!!! Thanks for posting.
Does it matter what direction you lay the pad down when installing laminate flooring on top of it? For example does it have to go the same direction or the opposite direction of flooring that is going on top of it?
Oh, that's a good question no one's asked yet! The answer is that it does not matter. The directions can be parallel to each other or perpendicular to each other, and as long as both are otherwise installed correctly, you'll be fine.
@@FloorsToYourHome Great! Thank you for the response
Ok, I've watched countless how-to videos now on laminate flooring. This one has definitely been the best and easiest to follow. Thank you!
Great video
Fortunately your floor does not have more than 2 or 3 boards 🥱because the problem starts on the 4th board. Ridiculous
Ridiculous system. Just imagine 5 long boards. Go back to dealer or to stove that'S it.
Scamming bullshit
You didn’t show puting the end pieces or show the end seams actually locking
Excellent video
Thank you very much!
What about taking it off a product box. It's like a shiny box. I want to resell something and i need to remove it. I've tried in the past just rubbing it off but it smears all over the place, how do I avoid this? Any ideas?
You know, I really don't have any good ideas, Amy. I'm sorry to be no help. In our case, the advantage is that we're rubbing the grease pencil off something designed to be _walked_ on for 25+ years, which is not the case with any box.
What kind of glue?
L K , it's going to be specific to the product. Each product's installation instructions will note which adhesives can be used with their materials. Some companies will recommend a type, and others, like Shaw, will recommend specific Shaw adhesives. We always post those documents on our product pages, in part for that reason. People need to know what's involved and what they'll need for their installations. To give you an example of how specific they can be, I'll quote a few of those docs we have up now: "Pressure sensitive releasable or permanent hard-set adhesive" "For some commercial applications and special substrates, a two-part epoxy or urethane adhesive is recommended. Typical applications for these types of adhesives are wet areas, floors subjected to heavy point loads and/or rolling loads, and floors that will be exposed to extreme temperature changes or extreme temperatures." "If installing on a landing or on a stair tread, flooring must be glued directly to the stair tread using hard-set adhesive. Special procedures must be followed. Request more information from our technical department." "ProSeries Adhesives: 4510 for a releasable system; 4584 or 4564 for a permanent system..." "Milliken loose lay LVT is to be installed in a perimeter fashion with Milliken TPS or Acoustic-Loc LVT adhesive. If it is determined that a non-Milliken approved adhesive is to be used on an installation, Milliken recommends a written warranty be obtained by the adhesive manufacturer warranting this specific installation with their products." As you can see, each floor can have its own guidelines, so wherever you buy, be sure to check those on your specific choice of flooring. - David
Do you have any videos replacing a piece in just say center of a room?
For a click, or even more specifically Drop & Lock floor? No, we sure don't, Jerry. We haven't had the opportunity to set that sort of shoot up, yet. Broadly speaking, you would 'uninstall' the flooring to the point of that plank, replace it, then reinstall back to your wall. You would start from where the installation originally ended, not from where it began. So, if your floor was installed starting from "the wall with the window," and ending at "the wall with the fireplace," you would go backwards. At the wall with the fireplace, remove your trim to gain access to the flooring to pull it upward, and uninstall that last row, working your way row-by-row to the bad plank. You'd swap it out, then reinstall right back to the fireplace wall (in my imagined example). With all of the planks connected to each other, there's just no other way to remove one from the middle. It's a lot of work, but with a Drop & Lock, it's easier than it would be with an Angle to Angle, and it's less rough on your locking mechanisms. So it's less likely to break both your back and your flooring than it could be. - David
Best video on KZread. Thanks!
Tip....where two plank ends butt together the plank edges might not be quite in line. Look closely. A 0.25mm staggered edge is all it takes to not allow the next board to lock in. Use a piece of scrap and a mallet to gently align the two boards taking care not to hammer against the fragile tongue.
That's what I call a "pro-tip from experience, A&O." We have it in other videos, but not this one, so thank you for mentioning it here! (readers, here's a visual of what they said) kzread.info/dash/bejne/jKhrsJlwqJbRZ6g.html - David
I don't see how this would stay in place especially with pets or kids running around. Also any inconsistencies in the floor that fall at a joint would show? Am I wrong??
Inconsistencies would show through as much as they would with any resilient floor. There are preparation standards for this (we post documentation on all of our products, so you can check any out that you need to), not extreme ones either, but if they're ignored, yes, an unaddressed, substantial flaw in the subfloor is going to affect these planks, and all vinyl is more likely to 'transmit' such issues through than the rigid planks of a hardwood or a laminate. As for pets and kids, no - again, if the subfloor is as level and flat as prescribed in the documentation. We've been selling these for 10 years now, and they remain the category of our flooring about which we get the fewest callbacks for issues. To be honest, it surprised us for a few years, but these are well engineered to meet flush and flat. You can see the host scooting his rubber-soled boots cross it, trying to get a rise out of the planks (at 4:26). If you are concerned about some area, though, you _can_ use glue under those planks, even just at the joints. Glue isn't forbidden, just inessential for most installations. Shawn goes over that process in the last third of the video.
You don't see a video on net fit installation very often ! First here on KZread for me anyway! Nice and accurately done !
Glad you liked it!
I love seeing a bathtub just overflowing in the middle of a room no context
Is this floor waterproof
Most vinyl flooring is, yes, as long as you mean the material. Water won't hurt it. This doesn't mean that something like a flood of water won't get past it to your subfloor; it means that once your flood situation is cleared up, this material won't be water damaged,
This is the only method that worked for me even though the manufacturer instructions say you should lock the short side first
Yeah, sorry about that, on behalf of the planet. When Drop & Lock first got really popular, we caught quite a few manufacturers putting the other method's instructions in those boxes. It's why we made this (and keep it on our Drop & Lock product pages). It's _such_ an easy method, as long as people are given the right directions.
Old video or not - I enjoyed hearing the kids - always makes a video seem more personal and human! :) Back to the subject, I've put down angle-angle many times and have always been frustrated with any row longer than about 6 feet. By the time one board is down and the joint is tight at the end, it has inevitably separated slightly on the long side. I ended up doing entire rows at once to alleviate it, but what a pain. I'm looking forward to laying this version - should be much easier.
Scott, it is a much easier way to lay flooring. A lot of people get frustrated because general installation demos show the other method, and that won't work with Drop & Lock (and sometimes the manufacturers insert the wrong instructions!) but you should be all set after seeing this. It's one of our most liked and positively commented-on videos, so I think Brian must have hit the nail on the head with it. - David