Vinyl-plank flooring saves money, speeds installation

As with many house projects, the latest one for us began with a mistake.

Someone mothballing an efficiency apartment turned an unneeded refrigerator to “defrost” instead of “off.” And he left the doors slightly ajar.

The refrigerator sat there for months serving a bit as a dehumidifier. And when the shallow drip pan under the fridge quickly became full, water overflowed and damaged the flooring.

It wasn’t all bad. The flooring was 1980s-era peeland-stick squares. So we turned this mistake into an opportunity to update.

The three-room apartment (bathroom, bedroom and a room that served as kitchen, living and dining room) had been part of a bedand-breakfast for about 30 years until Dad retired from that second career. Now, it’s used for the occasional large family gathering or when guests drop by the farm.

In picking new flooring, we considered that the space doesn’t see a lot of traffic, but the flooring needs to stand up to the occasional kitchen spill and snow- or rain-covered shoes.

I was interested in laminate flooring because I’ve never installed it and I like the laminate that my daughter and son-in-law had installed in their house. Their flooring has held up nicely, even under the beating given to it daily by three dogs.

But I did a lot of reading, and a lot of head-scratching (and sample-scratching and picking) in the aisles of the flooring departments at several stores. At one, a helpful clerk suggested I consider

vinyl planks.

They cost about the same as or less than some laminates; they have the same wood-grain look but do not require a foam or plastic underlay; and they are thinner. Because they are vinyl, they are more resistant to damage by water.

Avoiding the underlay appealed to me because it would remove a step in the installation process and cut costs. And the thickness was important because I wanted to avoid a trip hazard when transitioning from the new flooring to the carpet in the bedroom or the existing vinyl flooring in the bathroom.

The planks we chose are 3 feet long and have a 1-inch sticky edge that sticks out on

two sides. The sticky side is up, and during installation, the next rows of planks are laid onto those sticky edges to lock them into place.

There is no glue on the bottom. This is a “floating” floor, like most laminates. That means that it has the ability to expand and contract with heat and cold, so it doesn’t buckle or bulge.

Planks come in manageable boxes, which allowed us to carry them easily to the second-floor apartment. I say “we” because one daughter did the prep work to get the floor ready, I did the planning and hauled the material upstairs, and my wife and another daughter installed the flooring.

While I spent about eight hours pruning fruit trees, the two of them installed the flooring in the 12-foot-by18-foot room — and they did

a great job. It looks terrific. Here are their tips:

■ Read the directions. (That should go without saying, but they note that men in particular seem to need to be reminded.)

■ Make sure the subflooring is level, even and clean.

■ Take great care to draw or strike a straight line on the floor to start your first few planks. Being slightly off at the start will grow into something that is far off the mark by the time you reach the other side of the room.

■ Press the planks tightly against one another to avoid gaps.

■ Wear knee pads.

■ Have extra knife blades on hand. (Planks are cut with a utility knife. Like glass, if you score them on the top side, you can snap a clean break.)

■ Measure carefully and

use a metal straight edge to guide your cuts.

■ Stagger the application of the planks by starting with a 3-foot-long plank. Beside it, lay in one that is 2 feet long. The next should be 1 foot. Repeat the pattern across the floor to avoid having a straight line of seams.

■ Use a roller (the instructions call for a 100-pound roller) or the feet of your partner to tamp down each plank to the sticky edge beneath it.

My tip is to find someone who is willing to install the flooring while you go outside and prune fruit trees, or something fun like that.