Best part of this is that you could put this in an apartment, and pull it up when you move! I *LOVE* this idea, and I love this store! I just bought my laminate floors from them (in person), and the staff is great.
We’ve had this installed 9 years ago throughout our house and I love it!!!! It’s warm on your feet and cushions falls, both glassware and people!!! Our floors are not perfectly even and it went down right over them with no issues!!!
Yes, it can! And the brilliant thing is that if your basement floods, once you've settled the other issues with the water, these planks would just go right back down. You wouldn't need to buy a new floor. - David
Put this in my kitchen and adjoining laundry area, love it. Must do a good prep on subfloor, as you do with any floor covering. Also, you must put in very tight, no gap between floor and wall, the vinyl will shift if there is any gap at all. They do make a "sticky tack" glue that you can use on your border pieces, this glue is great because it does not get hard, after three years I can still pull the glued pieces up without any harm and can put the piece back down on the same glue. Very easy to install.
Loose Lay can be glued down in places. It is even recommended to do at certain rows if your room is long. If your floor has a slope, you can glue the Loose Lay down in those areas. If it has dents or really small 'basin' areas (say, 10" in diameter), you would want to fill or level those. Installing over certain levels uneven flooring may void a warranty, but it definitely can work. The second part of our installation video shows this process. - David
I love this product, i found it a few months ago in South Africa, but since then asking for it everywhere even Decorex, no one had heard of it, so i've gone back to the tiny shop i found it in, and will be ordering soon, and installing next weekend!
Ms. 231, we have NEVER thought of that! We talk about how you can take it with you if you move houses, but your suggestion makes even better use of its easiness. Brilliant. Thank you for saying that - you've just titled my next blog post! - David
+Floors To Your Home (.com) ///Hello can i order these from you? I can measure living room ,hallways,bathrooms,and bedrooms,....... I like that sample color you showed in demo there.....Whats the number?
I bought the Supreme Elite Freedom Gold Rocky Mountain Oak. I installed in two bedrooms in Southern CA. Unfortunately this vinyl floor is very sensitive to the temperature. We noticed the edges of blanks raised when the room was around 85F and 90F. Also I noticed that some planks have big different in thickness: 4.81mm to 5.20mm. It does not look good. Yes it is water proof but be aware of these two problems.
I am very interested in this product. What happens when you accidentally spill something? Doesn't it go through the seams? I would like to use it in the kitchen where there is a lot of water traffic.
The water can eventually go through the seams, yes. I've put a link to a picture int he video description for you, showing how the tops of these planks push together. They are designed to hold water in place for a good while, so spills and splatter should not be an issue if you clean them up in a reasonable time. If you leave a spill for a few hours, and it may well get through, as it definitely will with click together floors. - David
ganna be talking about your producing in class tmrw :) an ideal new materials in the markets. thnx :) planing on buying this is the near future for my home and the good thing is that i m designing it myself . this is deff one of the materials that i'll use. great video hope to see more
this is the worst product ever !! If your floor is not perfectly and 100 percent leveled , and basements have drains and floors slouped down towards the drain , seams on tiles will be raised just a little and vary vissible in any light , good luck
i am flooring installer in business for 17 years . I preffer if people install this floor them selfs , If i do installation of this product there is no warranty on installation to gather with pealing stick tiles ( self glue tiles ) Everything else i do warranty installation for two years
Ideal solution for basement flooring! It is definitely our option #1 right now. One concern though - what happens If the basement floor happens to be even the slightest bit uneven.. will it cause the planks to eventually stick out and become a tripping hazard ? Also, just to make sure I'm on the same page here, the planks being "waterproof" means just that they are easy to remove and wipe in case of a spill, not that they are an option for basement bathroom flooring, right? Thank you :)
I've posted a link to an article settling the four main 'waterproof' confusions we often have with flooring. To answer briefly here, water will not hurt these planks. Steam and spills will not hurt these planks. A flood will not hurt these planks. They pull out of the way the most swiftly of any floor if you need to get to your subfloor, and then they do just wipe off and go right back in place. They are the *best* flooring option for a basement or bathroom (and a bathroom basement!) - David
@@muccica9598 Unattended water can get through seams eventually, the seams of this 100% waterproof flooring. The flooring is waterproof. Water will not hurt it. Period. If there is any other definition of waterproof, I haven't heard it. But this floor, like all other floors, will not shrink wrap your house. It is not a magic flood shield. Niether is sheet vinyl, which water can get around at the walls. Flood any floor, and water can soak in, get through seams, or go around the flooring at the walls. If you have a flood, you'll have to deal with it no matter what you put down. Most floors will then also have to be thrown out and replaced. Not this one. The flooring is 100% waterproof. That's what it means. It's what it has always meant. This fits the bill fully. I'm sorry to be direct, but you're simply wrong about this.
1) What prevents water from getting through the seam and under the product? 2) What must be done at the floor borders to insure the seams remain tight/don’t spread?
1. Mainly, it's this: www.floorstoyourhome.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/IMG_03441.JPG That cut, along the edges, is designed to push the tops together into a good seal, but to be clear, sealing off the subfloor is not what this does. No floor really does that. If you have a pipe bust or a flood, your subfloor is going to get wet. I wrote a piece about flooring language that can be helpful, especially if that's your goal or standard for a waterproof floor: www.floorstoyourhome.com/blog/four-waterproof-flooring-terms-that-you-need-to-know/ The flooring is waterproof. It will survive your flood. It does not waterproof your house, though. None do, that we know of. 2. Keep everything snug. As we say in the video, and the instructions convey, leave no gaps between the flooring and the walls, or other vertical surfaces. This is how they differ from other hard surface, plank floors, where leaving an expansion gap between floor and wall is essential. These press firmly against walls and against each other.
It's hard for me to believe that is waterproof. Basement get flooded all the times and it's hard to believe water won't get under the tile between the cracks
That's right, Juve. We're not saying that this waterproofs your house. In the situation you cited, even sheet vinyl, with no cracks in it at all, wouldn't do that job, because water would get under where the vinyl stops at the walls. The flooring is waterproof. Unlike laminates and woods, the other floors with the wood plank look so many prefer, your basement floods, and even things like heavy spills that linger, will not affect these planks as they would those others. With a wood or laminate floor, you have the flood: you lose the floor. It's done, throw it away, and go buy another. With these, if you have a flood, yes, you still have to deal with the floor. No floor will prevent that; it's not what they do, but once you've restored your room to normalcy, these very planks go right back down. You still have your floor. It's 100% waterproof flooring. Even though that terminology _can_ lead people to wonder as you have, there is also no other way to properly say what this flooring actually is, and it is that. Water can't hurt it. A _flood_ of water won't hurt it. If you're going to shop around for flooring, check this out, so no one muddles you with language and gets you take something you actually don't want. Forewarned is forearmed: www.floorstoyourhome.com/blog/four-waterproof-flooring-terms-that-you-need-to-know/
Hmm. I suppose *very* sticky feet could? It's possible. The plank would pop right back down into place though, unless it actually stuck to your foot like so much toilet paper, but that would almost have to be deliberate, like if you stepped into glue and waited until it was _just_ the right kind of sticky, then pressed your foot onto the floor for a bit before moving. These planks are designed to be easy to replace, if necessary. As the installation video shows, you'd do that by lifting the edge of the plank with a box cutter, then pulling it up and replacing it. So they *can* come up, by design.
Quite well in most ways. It's not as slick as a laminate, or other rigid surfaced floors, so they're less likely to slip. These planks can lift out of place and go right back down, so if there's an accident that needs to be cleaned up, it can be done easily. If the mess is down so long it has time to get through the seams to the subfloor, then again, the necessary planks can be popped out, the subfloor cleaned, planks cleaned and then all goes back to normal, without needing to 'uninstall' to the mess area, as you would have to do with any click-together floor. Not being as rigid as a hardwood or a laminate (which has the strongest surface after ceramic or stone), you will want to take care of the nails on bigger animals. A 50 lb. dog wit untrimmed nails may be able to do some damage to these, where she might not on an AC3 or AC4 laminate floor with a good aluminum oxide surface coating.
Hi, +Chong Kim . This would not be great on an uneven surface. Any variance beyond 1/8" over any 10' span tends to be problematic for most plank flooring. Most home stores carry leveling compounds which can be used to smooth out rough cement, if that's your subfloor type, after which these would be fine. If you have a rough wood subfloor, you could just put another 1/2" wood subfloor over that to level it out, then these would work. From your description it sounds like you would need to do this before putting in any kind of hard surface flooring, not just vinyl planks. - David
Customer has modular home, floor moves therefore cracks in grout in kitchen. I thought floating floor to overcome this. Don't want to use click lock because you cant replace a piece in the middle. Even though your floor isn't glued down I'm guessing it would move with the sub floor and create gaps, or if tight than buckling. Another revue r said some of the pieces weren't the same thickness, I noticed no response.Thank you for any help, I'm looking for a solution. I like the idea I'm just not sure how it would hold up, in remodeling sometimes its hard to get the floor exactly flat, and they take a lot of abuse.
Hello, +Kevin Zazvorka, I can't fully grasp your situation from this, but I'll do my best. The thing that would create gaps or buckling in a loose lay floor would be movement of the walls, closer together or farther apart. That's assuming a normal subfloor beneath them. If your floor itself is causing the breaks in grout, and if by modular you're referring to what could also be called a mobile home, then it sounds like you have a pretty relevant subfloor problem. No flooring is going to work out if that is the situation. You might need to properly brace and resecure the subfloor, and then make sure that it's flat. The same degree of flatness is necessary for ceramic and stone tiling, laminate and vinyl plank flooring - basically for all flooring. Then, as long as your walls aren't moving, Loose Lay Vinyl Plank should work without gapping or buckling at all. Also, if you want to stick with your grouted tiling, then there is a new silicon grout available which apparently has some give to it. We don't sell it ourselves yet, so I can't be more detailed than that, but a home store or tile specialist should know about it. It might be just what you need. - David
No, we really can't. This flooring needs to be directly on the subfloor, to 'grip' it, part of what keeps it in place. This is also pretty heavy stuff, so over a plastic moisture barrier the installation would likely tear up that plastic as planks are slid together and apart, adjusted into place and so forth. Then most other padding starts at a 2mm, while the vinyl itself is 4-5mm thick. That's 40% of the height of the floor cushioned, which can cause tripping hazzards between planks as you press one down and step to another.+Herbert Michelle Lau - David
How do they stay together if they are loose lay? And can this be applied over concrete slab that has old wood flooring glue on it? And does it need an underlayment?
Cassie, they're held together by each other and by the walls. This is one of the only plank floors that does not need an expansion gap between the flooring and the wall, so it is installed snug. Each plank is right up against the next, and the flooring is snug with the wall. Also, these have gripping surfaces on the bottoms. They basically 'grab' the subfloor. The glue would need to be scraped off the concrete - you want a good, flat surface underneath. Underlayment is not only unnecessary, but we won't even sell it for this. You want these to lay right on the nice, flat subfloor. - David
Great product! We found that the basement slab tends to be very cold in the winter and the vinyl planks get very cold. Is there any insulation options that would work underneath the vinyl planks?
That's going to be a tough issue for any vinyl plank flooring, and more so for loose lay. For click-together vinyl planks, we used to recommend not putting any padding underneath them at all. The clicking mechanisms are thin enough that one could risk de-clicking them, but over time, manufacturers have made underlayments just for vinyl planks, and they work. You're looking at a max of about 1.5 mm of thickness, though, so if you go that route, for warmth, I'd recommend the densest option, a rubber over a foam, if those are options.. Unfortunately, with loose lay, "No Underlayment" is a hard rule. Those planks need to contact the subfloor directly.
Yes, in most ways. One big one is the the flooring itself will not be damaged by the liquid and need to be replaced. Even if the mess stays on it for a few hours, it won't affect the material, where it can with a wood based product like laminate or real wood. The nature of how this is installed results in a good seal on the top, so you should have time to deal with the accidents. It's not a perfect seal, as is having no separate planks at all, say with a sheet vinyl, but even if some of the liquid seeps through, you're not stuck with a permanent 'mess' under the flooring. These planks can be pulled up, and I don't mean uninstalling the floor until you get to the area of incident, but you can pull up just the affected planks, clean them off, deal with the mess itself, then when everything is taken care of and dry, put the same planks right back down where they were. Look here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yiO84zh9gUI.html Watch past the guy walking on the floor (unsuccessfully) trying to separate the planks, emphasizing the sort of seal, and next you'll see how they can be pulled out, even from the middle of a room, and replaced.
*Can* it? Yes. Will that void the warranty? Also yes. That may be of no concern to you, so if the point is only would it work, yes, it would work, assuming the other requirements regarding subfloors are met, and no, the rain won't destroy the flooring. It's 100% waterproof, the flooring, the planks - they won't be harmed by rain.
Not _any_ uneven floor; there will be tolerances, and anything under it would have to be attached, not floated, but Loose Lay *can* be glued, which could make it work in some situations with slope.
How much does it expand and contract with temperature change? My house has radiant floor heating. Will the flooring expand and pucker-up as the floor warms up? Thanks.
Kntryhart, for standard home installations, expansion and contraction is a non-issue. These are designed to not do either, which is why they are installed flush against any wall or vertical surface. There are exceptions for situations like installing greater than 20 feet in any direction, or for " areas of extreme conditions," which means things like entrances, where foot traffic can be unusual, rooms with high temperature variations, transitions from Loose Lay to other floor coverings, or when there are concerns with the subfloor conditions. Generally, one glues or tapes roughly every 10 feet in such cases. I say 'generally' because each product has its own specifics. With the four brands and types we have in stock today, all require installation in rooms kept between 65 and 85 degrees F, but one says that the temperature of the floor itself should not exceed 80, while another can tolerate surfaces up to 92 degrees, mentioning radiant heating specifically. Just as a shopping tip for you, especially with radiant heating, but also in general with flooring, wherever and whatever you buy, even another floor type, check the documentation first for just that information. It could matter even with carpet or porcelain. We post the documentation on each product's page for just that purpose, so people can see whether a particular floor will work for their situation. Whatever claims are made about a floor should be reliable, as long as the conditions listed there are met. Even if you've looked at 10 different sets of installation directions, and kept seeing the same things, still check the one you settle on. For instance, I was quite surprised to find a loose lay floor that listed a 92 degree subfloor temp when I checked into these just now, the others all having lower numbers.
First - this is a Loose Lay Flooring video, and no pad goes under Loose Lay. (That's for just any who might skim this in the future and miss that important distinction) Regarding your question, it might be possible for some makes and sizes of laminate flooring, and for some thicknesses of that rubber material, but those questions' answers will be specific to any particular laminate product, not general to laminates as a type. Check your specific documentation. If the answer is not there, check with your seller (if that's us, by all means call or email us!), who's the next closest source for you.
Would this type of floor work for an outside Porch ? Four seasons area , please indicate what would be the best type of flooring. New to Pennsylvania state & concerned w/snow & rain. Not enclosed completely, has roof but open and exposed to weather. Appreciate your input on this or recommendations. Thank you!
For starters, that use would void the warranty. No question. Second, we've sold more than a few of these floors - this one in particular - to people who planned to void their warranties. They've put it in RVs, on their walls - on a ceiling! No calls back with horror stories yet. Given your temperatures, all I can say is that, warranty or not, it *might* work. It's not the moisture of the weather which concerns me for you. The temperatures could also be enough outside the range that they might respond the way they don't indoors, expanding or contracting. So I don't know, I'm sorry to say. You could try, but you'd be stuck with the results. For *_surety_* , I'd look for a proper outside floor.
Our basement floor is concrete and is sloppy. Considering the slope I eliminated the luxury vinyl option, but saw this video and thought this would be perfect since they are flexible. But I saw in some comment that said these planks too need floor to be leveled. Please suggest what would be the side effect if put it on slope? Would it not hold properly or look little improper?
If by sloppy, you would include the feature 'bumpy', or something other than clean and smooth, then you would have issues with this flooring. It needs to lay snug with a good, clean, flat floor, so that each planks meets, on all four sides, the other planks, perfectly and snug. As for a slope, meaning that if you set a ball down on one side it would roll, seemingly of its own accord, to the other side, but the surface is otherwise nice and flat, then you shouldn't have those issues. The instructions would have you use an adhesive for any such sloping, and for the warranty's sake, you should follow those.
It could. This floor doesn't waterproof your subfloor (no plank floor does), so you wouldn't want to dump water on it and slosh it around as a mopping method on this anymore than you would on another vinyl, laminate or hardwood floor. There are a lot of places where that can be done (and makes sense to do), but the home usually isn't one of them. If you have a flood, whatever is going to happen to your subfloor will happen to your subfloor, as it will with almost any other flooring, but once you've taken care of the issue, hardwood would have to be thrown away. Laminates would have to be thrown away. These? Wipe them off and put them right back down. No new floor needed. Does that make sense? It's been hard for us to describe what they are in a way that doesn't sound like we're saying the other thing too. These are 100% waterproof, but they are no more a functional sealant than a laminate or hardwood would be.
This type of flooring cannot be put over carpet. It *must* go over a solid, absolutely smooth, flat surface. That's a definite with this kind of floor plank even more than it is for almost all others, those which are more rigid planks and click together. This is absolutely not an option to go over carpet. I hate to sound so firm, but it would be such a waste of your money. It's not really physically possible. In theory one could build a new, plywood subfloor over carpeting, but you'd have to screw it through that carpeting, ruining it, necessitating its removal anyway. Most apartments only have a 4" thick cement subfloor, which isn't thick enough to have another subfloor attached to it anyway. If it's a rental, the reconstruction to return it to its original condition would be charged to you by the landlord when you moved out - since you're paying, they may not be selective about that they're charged for this. It also could go against a homeowners' association's bylaws and get you sued. I hate to be so negative, but "no" is flying at us from all directions here, and with lots of exclamation points attached. - David
Hiya, +beverly dwyer! Well, there are two schools of thought. 1. I'm afraid this would not work well for you. Part of what holds Loose Lay flooring together is its snugness against the four walls of any room. With that driveway going in, a garage is necessarily missing one of those walls the Loose Lay needs. Also, your tires are designed to 'grip' the surface under them, and that with a lot more weight and force than the average foot, so plank movement would almost be a certainty. 2. The warranty would be voided. Guaranteed. According to that it must be installed indoors, and in a temperature controlled environment. But, with that in mind, it might still *work*, only if you glue it down. Loose Lay can be glued its floor. Usually this would only be done every ten feet or so, just to ensure that the planks stay flush in sections, but in this case I would glue every inch of it to the cement surface. Keep in mind, you would still be using the product outside of its designed purposes. That doesn't mean it will not work, but it *may* mean that. So really, see #1. - David
It's thick and heavy, with ends cut to meet snugly. Each plank installs square up with all of the other planks and right up against the walls. They hold each other in and the walls of the room hold the floor. In addition the bottoms of the planks have a gripping surface, so even with just 5 or 6 down we were unable to slide them around. Unlike most plank floors, these do not expand or contract with environmental changes, which is why they need no gap between the planks and the walls. - David
Yes, with some requirements, very close to the same ones that apply to any hard surface floor covering. The surface underneath must always be flat and level. The directions will have specific figures, but keeping the variance, both of any slope or any dips from grout or texture, under 1/8" over any 6 foot span is a general rule of thumb. For this situation thought it makes sense to level out the grout lines of existing tile because they're all over a tiled floor. You may do a lot of skimming, but the results will be worth the work. - David
If it meets the particular product's required subfloor standards of smoothness and flatness, a cement subfloor will work fine. As for a porch, this is warrantied as an indoor floor. _Warrentied_ . The thing is, these Loose Lay planks may be our most purchased to use outside the warranty products ever. People have put them into their RVs, on walls, a ceiling (at least one), all knowing that the uses would void the warranties, and they've seemed pleased with their results. It's good stuff, and probably more versatile than the manufacturers want to guarantee, but know that that use would (at present, for the brands we have as I write - could be different in a year!) void the warranties we've seen.
Floors To Your Home (.com) understood!! The concrete on my 3 season porch is smooth and flat. I’d like to use and adhesive to ensure they hold. Any recommendations that will work with your product?
A lot of vinyl adhesives will work with our stuff, but you'll also want one which designates itself as "frost free", since it's an outdoor installation, so I would go to a home store with informed help and have them direct you to their options. Also, even with adhesive, you'll still want to install these in direct contact with any walls or vertical surfaces. Any heat *could* 'melt' the glue, or at least loosen it, so you'll want that stability from having the planks as locked in as they can be.
Cheryl, it should be very do-able, but that particular installation wouldn't be warrantied. Loose Lay planks can all be glued. In certain installation situations it's even recommended here and there, so these could be attached to a vertical surface. Do read the documentation for your specific product though (and the adhesive, now that I think of it!) to make sure that it will do what you want it to do wherever you decide to put it. - David
I actually did this with my left over flooring about 2 boxes before I heard back from you. We would never try to warranty is as it wasnt made specifically for this but I tell you it looks great
So I posted a comment less than a half hour ago about furniture marring and denting. It was removed. Again, does it dent or doesn't it? I know it's easy to replace but do I have to because of denting or marring?
Hi, +Silver Man. Your comment wasn't removed. RU-vid's comments feature has been mucked about since they connected it to Google+, and I don't know what they're showing you. I spent the last half hour replying (looking some things up, mostly) and maybe they held it in limbo while I composed that reply. For me, it shows up under the video where you placed it (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yiO84zh9gUI.html&lc=z12lvtgjsmfxthds323mczwhpxmlsdqu0.1457367866468291), but in case it's not there for you, here's what I wrote there: +Silver Man I'm glad, and maybe not surprised, that we don't have such comments. The Loose Lay is thick, but it's also really dense stuff. It's solid, not spongey, not even a bit. The owner of Floors To Your Home has had it in his basement for a couple of years with a pool table and a treadmill on it, and those haven't dented it yet. But let's say that it is able to dent. Bar stools necessarily move around, so those would be fine. One person in one spot for one whole night on a bar stool won't even leave impressions. The couch could do, if it has very small tips on the feet, like those little, round ball-shaped ends that are put on to make a couch easy to move. It's like a stiletto vs. a standard heel on any shoe, it concentrates the pounds per square inch. That can be handled with those thick plastic cup-holder type things people put under furniture feet. If there would be an indention, that one would pop back up. It's possible that a really heavy piece with tiny feet left in a single spot for more than a year could leave an indention that might be permanent. We haven't had that come up as a complaint yet, though we've only had these for about 3 1/2 years at this date. Your best bet is to get a sample. Ours are a nice size, about 9" by the width of the product, as long as it fits into our shipping containers. You'll see and feel what the material is, and can test it yourself with whatever you think represents your situation at home. The instructions for one of our brands list these maintenance tips: "Support furniture with wide-bearing, non-staining floor protectors. Ideally, the protectors should be at least one inch in diameter, made of non-pigmented hard plastic, and rest flat on the floor. Non-staining felt protectors are also acceptable. Casters with a minimum 3/4" flat surface width or floor protectors are recommended for all moveable furniture. Make sure any metal protectors are rustproof. Replace your narrow dome furniture rests with wide-bearing ones." Other list that their product has passed the standard ASTM F-1914 indentation test. I'd love to give you real specifics on it, but the standards document is only available for purchase, everywhere on the internet: www.astm.org/Standards/F1914.htm. Basically the test replicates a 500 lb. piece of furniture supported by four legs, each with 1/4" diameter feet, left in place for 10 minutes. The material is checked right away, and then again 1 hour afterwards. What does 'pass' mean? That would cost us to find out exactly, but I think it means "no indentions left after the hour." - David
@@FloorsToYourHome I guess what I meant was.... Hard wood or tile flooring keeps your house cooler during the summers than carpet. Is it the same with this material?
Thanks for clarifying, as I must be reading your question incorrectly, maybe still, so I'll do my best. As far as feel to the foot, these floors would be closer to a wood than a carpet. Carpet pretty much always feels warm to a foot, where all hard surfaces tend to feel cooler. These are less thick than wood, but also much more dense, but I think wood would still fare a little better. As for air or room temperature, looking at flooring as part of the insulation of a room, ...materials have what's called an "r-value", which is a number representing how well the material resists conducting heat; in layman's terms, an "insulation level." The higher the number, the better it insulates. Carpet ranges from about 0.7 to 1.05. It depends on the material. Wood ranges from 0.25 to 0.9, roughly, again, depending on the material (the species of wood). Vinyl planks, tiles etc. come in around 0.2, lower than both of those as far as insulating a room.
At this moment $2.79-2.89/sqft. We expect more in, possibly from new manufacturers, so that could change soon (what I mean is that we would have other things differently priced).
Thank you for your interest Michael. We currently have 11 oak patterns for the loose lay vinyl, 10 of which are from Supreme Click (who is featured in our video). I included a link that goes directly to the loose lay vinyl. You can narrow down to just the oak patterns by selecting that species in the filters along the left hand side. www.floorstoyourhome.com/vinyl-flooring/loose-lay.html - David
I have a deck wraparound 3 story building with a 4 foot deck walkway. They all have overhangs but would be considered a wet location. Will this product work?
It might work, Terry, but I'm not recommending it. Normally my qualification with this product is about the warranty. We have people asking if this can go in RVs, on walls, on ceilings and all sorts of non-standard placements, and we have many customers who have purchased it and done those things, quite happily, as far as we know, but it *does* void the warranty. This floor is backed up so long as it's used as designed, so if you do something else with it, the manufacturers do wash their hands of it; so often I'm saying, "Sure, it probably works, just know that you're tearing up that warranty when you choose this option." Again, quite a few people have taken that plunge. In your case, I worry about walking on this floor wet. One of the manufacturer recommendations is to not leave spills. The flooring itself is waterproof, but, like all other floors, it does not magically waterproof your house, so while it will survive any spills, even flooding, it's not designed to keep those from slipping through the seams and hitting the subfloor, so the directions are to wipe up spills immediately. A side effect of this is that the surface isn't _necessarily_ designed to be slip-resistant. It's expected to stay dry, so no effort is put into making it safe to walk on when it's wet. Some may accidentally be just that, but some won't be, and walking across these planks sprinkled with drops of rain might make a really dangerous slipping hazard, and one on a third story deck, no less. If you put these out, they could survive the weather. We put a sample outside under a drain spout for a year, in Indiana, where weather changes weekly, let alone monthly, and it was in good shape after that year, but you have other concerns than the longevity of the material, and I would want those possibilities settled before trying anything like this.
Will no liquid or anything leak throught the seams? Looking to get something like this for my apartment. Our carpet have long fibers and my boys are in that stage that they'll make messes and stain things.
Yes, it could. The material is waterproof (so your flooring isn't ruined by spills and floods - the same planks go right back down), but it's still separate planks. Installed properly, they should keep liquid atop for a while, because of how they're cut - note this cross-section: www.floorstoyourhome.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/IMG_0344.JPG But left for a while, yes, liquid will eventually get through. It will with any floor that isn't a big, single sheet (ie sheet vinyl). The advantage this one has is the ability to pull up any planks you need to, clean under them, dry off the planks and return them to their spots. That's a lot less work than uninstalling a floor to the point of a leak and reinstalling it after clean-up, which you'd have with many other floors.
Right now, all Supreme Elites are marked Free Shipping. Yes, there's a minimum order to reach that, but those are pro-rated as they approach the number. If you checked the shipping on just one carton, but you really want 400 sqft, then your high number won't multiply out as you might think. So, I picked one and entered the single carton amount as if shipping to California - $244.42 (frankly, we would wrap the heck out of it and ship UPS Ground in that case, taking it closer to $40, which *is* still high, but that shows what freight would be). Then I entered 400 sqft - $119.26 total for shipping. At 600 sqft. and up, shipping is free, but the closer you get to that number, the less we get charged. Yes, we are at the mercy of the realities of shipping big, heavy stuff. Since we ship heavy things cross country, very small amounts tend not to be our shipping forte.
The requirements for what it can go over aren't so much material specific as they are condition specific. Any additional flooring beneath a Loose Lay floor covering must be attached, it cannot be floating. That won't be an issue for you. There will be a levelness, or smoothness, tolerance though. You can check the instructions (ours are online), but in general it tends to be about to 1/8" across any 10 foot span. Any difference greater than that would not be recommended. In your case, if the surface of the tile was textured, or if there is a dip where the grout is, this issue could come up. Then you would want to pour a self-leveling compound over it or install another wood subfloor over it, so the Loose Lay is going over a good, flat surface. - David
We don't think so, Tom. It's heavy, dense stuff, not floatable material. You'd still have to take it up yourself to dry underneath it before putting it back down, so the point may be moot, but it's not going to lift up and float away, even in a few inches (or feet) of water, providing it doesn't enter the room in a big, sudden rush, of course. We dropped some of these, with some laminates, into an aquarium to demo the waterproof differences. It's not a scientific response - they're not even fully submerged - but there was no lift on these pieces at all: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FFikbjei6HQ.html
I am going to be redoing my living room and dining room floors hopefully within the next 6 months as we have other projects to do first I would like to know if you could email a project list of prices along with images. Are your prices compatible to the Big Box store? how is it for sliding Furniture across?
You can certainly see flooring prices on our website, and we can also send up to 3 samples for free. I'm not *exactly* sure what you mean by a project list? Feel free to email us at customerservice@floorstoyourhome.com, or call us, and we'll talk through whatever we can to help you out. Thanks! Adam
Oh, of course, that's easy to do. Welcome to the Malapropism Club, already well attended by me. As Adam said, the prices are on our website with *multiple* images of each floor, so you can really get a look at them, and, of course, email us (or him!) at customerservice@floorstoyourhome.com if we can get you that information in a better way for you! - David (video guy)
It's a very common question (on this video, no less!), Nick. My standard answer, at least I _hope_ I've been consistent here, is 1. You probably *can*. The material will likely be fine if you do, bar extremes like "we do have the occasional volcanic eruption." 2. Your warranty will disappear. It's a peculiar floor, this, and it does a peculiar thing very well, namely it doesn't expand or contract due to the environmental changes in a normal household which will cause almost every other type of flooring to expand or contract, something which factors into how floors are installed. So the manufacturers warranty their floors for exactly that scenario, being installed inside a home that has standard temperature control year round. 3. A surprising number of our customers have taken this gamble, and haven't called back telling us, "That was a bad idea!"
Is this product easy to remove? I'm looking to put floor over the terrible rental floor. To keep from going against my leasing agreement, I would like to be able to remove when I move.
Hi, +NapturallyBrown13 , yes, it's easy. This type of floor is almost defined by "easy to remove". Check out this part of our installation video. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yiO84zh9gUI.htmlm45s One of the best things about this ease is with basement floors that have recurrent puddles. You can pull these up, dry the floor, and then lay them right back down. - David
It's minimal, definitely better than a ceramic or stone floor, but these won't be as much warmer as a laminate or hardwood would make them, in part because padding cannot go under these floors. - David
Hi, +john cook, It will not 'wick' the pee down because of the way the planks are constructed. There's no capillary action. I put a link in the description above to an article which shows how the edges meet (the 'cat pee' article) if you want to see that. The way they push together is probably the best way to prevent seepage, but if not cleaned up in a decent amount of time, it still could eventually seep down between planks. Then your subfloor is on its own, as it really always is. These planks will never be hurt by pee or water, even by a flood, which will destroy most floors. But they do not waterproof the house, which is an easy thing to think when hearing the phrase "100% Waterproof Flooring!" It *is* that, and it also does a very good job of keeping spills on top, better than most plank floors, but the only thing perfect enough to never allow passage to the subfloor is a big sheet stretching from wall to wall (though then it could get around the walls if there was a proper flood). Take a look at that article though. If the cat is going to pee outside a box regardless, and it therefore may make it through to the subfloor now and then, this really is the best flooring to use, because it gives you quick and easy access to the area of your subfloor you need to clean or dry without having to pull up every plank from the wall edge to the needed area. You pull them up in the area you need to work, take care of your subfloor, wash and dry the planks themselves and then put them right back where they were. I hope that answers your questions, but if not, definitely ask more! David
What is a 'decent amount time' ?A cat pee's on the floor at 10;00pm and I don't get home till 5;00pm the next day is it going to stop the piss from going thru and soaking the sub floor with urine ?And now I have to tear up the your floor to clean up the mess ?I'm not worried about your product, I'm worried about MY floor.I know a solid sheet of vinyl [Linoleum] Is Waterproof.Can you guarantee me that?
The nature of any seamed floor - regardless of its material - is such that any standing liquid (be it cat urine, orange juice, rooibos tea, what have you) that isn’t cleaned up will eventually get into the seams. Seams are not impermeable. If you’re uncomfortable with the concept of even the smallest amount of moisture having the potential to reach your subfloor, then you have a couple of options: you'll either need a moisture barrier under your floating floor, or you'll want to look at sheet vinyl, which as its name suggests, is one big sheet of vinyl. This is where one of Loose Lay vinyl’s big advantages comes into play: even if liquid gets into the seams and makes its way to the subfloor, the Loose Lay planks will not have to be replaced, dismantled, or torn up. Loose Lay planks can be pulled right up for cleaning without disrupting the subfloor or the planks around them. In addition, if your cat has litter box problems, you may want to look at pee pads and other tools designed to help deal with pet incontinence. While we love our furry friends, they can take a toll on even the best-protected home. - Meredith
I am looking to install flooring in my basement that sometimes gets wet when it rains very heavily. Would this work for me? ( I realize that I would have to pull them up and dry the floor when flooding does occur). Also does the concrete floor have to be prepped in any way?
I think it would work for exactly the reason you've given. A floor that occasionally gets wet is a floor that will always need some maintenance, and there is not other flooring that is as easy to pull up and put back down, in addition to being made of 100% waterproof material. A concrete subfloor needs to have a Relative Humidity under 82%. The prep for the subfloor is to make sure that any cracks or joints are filled in, have it level to 1/8" across any 10 foot span, and before installation to make sure it is clean, dry, dust-free, smooth, solid and sound. That's me quoting the documentation, which you can see right here: www.floorstoyourhome.com/media/catalog/product/f/i/file_5_26_1_1_1_1_1_2.pdf David
Able? Possibly. Will it void the warranty? Certainly. But we've sold many floors to people who intended to knowingly use them in ways that void the warranty.
No, we haven't had calls on that. The products come with care & maintenance documentation, which our customers must be following. We post the specific sheets with each specific product (I'll link to one below) so people can look into how things will need to be done before they buy anything we sell. www.floorstoyourhome.com/media/catalog/product/f/i/file_3_2_1_1_3_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_3_1_1_1_1_1_1_1.pdf
I don't know how deep you mean. Since we're not the manufacturer, I can't talk about the molecular structure of the vinyl, which is probably _not_ what you mean, but also probably where the answer lies. Unlike most vinyl floors, this formulation does not expand or contract in normal household conditions, as almost every other floor does - vinyl, wood, laminate - which is why those need a gap between floor and wall. This not only doesn't need it, it's required to *not* have those gaps. The floor lies flush against the walls, planks against each other, plus they're heavy, engineered to connect smoothly at their surfaces, and now usually have some gripping grooves on the bottom, so they just stay, and hold each other, in place. Have I come near to answering your question?
First, absolutely not over the carpet. This floor must be laid atop a hard, flat, smooth surface, preferably the subfloor itself. As for vinyl, it _could_ so long as the existing vinyl was glued down to the subfloor, and the surface of that vinyl met the requirements the installation documents require of the surface onto which it will be installed: generally smooth, flat and clean, with product specific tolerances for temperatures and divergences in flatness and smoothness.
HI there, can you say if this can go outdoors and if cars be parked on it? I want to make an outdoor concrete floor badmington which doubles as parking. There is no shed so it will be in the sun and air
Tony, it shouldn't. You would want to use the same protections you'd use with any floor - good, working rollers, pull or move the furniture slowly to reduce force and tug, and use those little, plastic furniture moving caps for the feet of furniture that you can get at hardware stores, not the felt protectors, but the plastic movers, designed to make the feet slide better. In addition to protecting the surface, which again, you'd do with any flooring, they'll keep the planks from buckling. The owner here has Loose Lay down in an exercise room in his basement, and he frequently moves the equipment around. Some of it is heavy, and takes two people, and the rollers tend to be the really little ones, and he's never had this problem.
Heya, +Kevin Zazvorka. Yes, comments are screened. I do this for two reasons. 1. While I'm researching and composing a reply, the comment in my inbox sits as a good reminder. That was true in your case, where a weekend passed and I didn't want to leave this undone for too long. I like to approve comments and replies close together rather than leave a question hanging while I work out the issue. 2. We get, I'm sorry to say, we get a lot of really bone-headded comments. I'm not talking about disagreements and challenges, we post those, but just ... well, dopeyness. There's some abuse, of course - it *is* the internet - but also silly things like... well, like fingernails. Who gets a manicure before demonstrating a floor installation? No one, is the answer, and yet we get silly jabs about our demonstrators' fingernails when they're installing flooring on video. It's a time waster, and I just want readers to be able to see what's relevant here when they poke around for questions and answers. 3. Also, when Google mixed RU-vid with Google+ for comments, things got pretty screwed up (they're in the process of re-separating the two, I believe). Many of my replies wouldn't connect to the original comments, some comments disappeared altogether, and some replies have too, as you noted in your other message. That particular one actually still offers to show us two replies, but when I click it, there they aren't. Unfortunately, I don't save them anywhere else, so I don't know what I said then. I know we haven't had that issue, different thicknesses of vinyl plank, with any of our sales to date, going back to 2012. So yeah, they're screened. I suppose I don't have to, but the unmoderated internet is almost always ugly, so I do. - David
Nothing specific to this particular flooring, atl69girl. If you need to treat your concrete, that would likely be more your concrete specific than floor covering specific, but this flooring doesn't bring unusual prep needs for concrete.
No, the plank is not made of the color material, the way a VCT would be. It's more like the construction of sheet or plank vinyl flooring, where the structural material is the same, and the color is a top layer. That's especially essential with Loose Lay, because of its unusual dimensional stability of the structural material. Installed as directed, it does not expand or contract. Most - not just vinyls, but materials - do expand and contract in normal home environments, so the main material needs to be the same stuff. It shouldn't chip, unless abused, for that matter, abused pretty specifically. Loose Lay is pretty resilient (maybe "bendy" is a more colloquial term). It's not brittle, which I think is a needed state for things to chip.
Looselay is cool but be aware of the fact that although the plank itself is "waterproof" your walls, subfloor, heat vents, baseboards, etc etc etc are not. If your room gets enough water this floor will not protect you. Too many think waterproof is protection, it is only protection if you spill something or an animal does something and you clean it up.
+John Johnston That's right, John. It's waterproof flooring in the same way that most laminates are water resistant - it describes the planks. There is no flooring which will actually seal up a floor. Even sheet vinyl is not going to protect us from indoor flooding. If there's flooding, or standing water, no matter what we have down, we've got a mess. The difference its that here, you don't lose the flooring. After dealing with the water, this floor goes right back down. You don't buy a new one. And these are particularly good in a situation where you want flooring over cement, but there are places where moisture occasionally rises up. They lift out of place, allowing you to dry the spot, then they plop right back down. This also works out if a pet has an unfortunate, hidden, favorite spot to piddle. - David
+Floors To Your Home (.com) Isn't it inaccurate to compare this type of flooring with sheet vinyl by saying they are both "waterproof?" If your dog pees in the middle of the room when you come home late from work, sheet vinyl will just leave it there as a puddle forever... the liquid will not get to the subfloor. With these lay-down strips, I doubt a standing puddle of water would be diverted from your subfloor for more than a minute at best! It's not protecting your subfloor from spills in a kitchen or bathroom like sheet vinyl, or even click-together vinyl planks that form a seal. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this "new technology" sounds too good to be true.
+Aria Elf (Ariaelf) No, I don't think it is inaccurate. My comparison was about the weaknesses of both, not the strengths, pointing out that neither will protect your subfloor from flooding. We're very clear about that (example: www.floorstoyourhome.com/blog/four-waterproof-flooring-terms-that-you-need-to-know/ ). The flooring is waterproof, your home isn't, nor can it be via any floor. If a pipe busts and you get a half inch of standing water, your subfloor is going to get wet whether you have hardwood, ceramic, loose lay or even sheet vinyl. But this floor won't have to be replaced, as most others would. If someone has pets that can't control themselves, the sheet is better for you for just the reason you state, though these will hold spills for longer than a few minutes. The way they're constructed to meet at the tops (www.floorstoyourhome.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/IMG_0344.JPG), Installed properly, you should have an hour or so. That's enough time to get to a spill, unless it happens when you're away, in which case going with sheet vinyl is that person's better option. That doesn't mean these aren't still pretty good with puddles, especially over a cement subfloor. I wrote about that for a customer here: www.floorstoyourhome.com/blog/waterproof-vinyl-flooring-vs-cat-pee/ - David
+Floors To Your Home (.com) Also... I'm hesitant to say this, but I will. With the click together vinyls, we cannot say that they form a water tight seal. We can't say that. It's not promised by the manufacturer, not part of the warranty - we can't say it. But I will say that we have not been able to get water to pass through those seams though. We've tried, and we can't do it. Is it impossible? I can't say that. But we can't get it to happen. Again, this is no protection from a huge dishwasher mishap, but click vinyl may be better for the situation where pets have the run of the place while one is at work. And those planks are waterproof too, so they also can go back down after a flood. - David
+Floors To Your Home (.com) I didn't bring up flooding, I gave the example of a standing puddle which is far more likely. Say you're on vacation, and a puddle happens in the middle of the room ... it does not spread to the edges of the room or the walls. My hypothesis is that if you have sheet vinyl installed it could sit there for months until it evaporates, so long as it doesn't get to the baseboards/walls. But with click together vinyl it might get through, with press-n-stick vinyl it might wear down the glue, and with loose lay it will most definitely seep through those seams... also you can't install sheet vinyl "wrong" so that the middle of the room is not impervious to water. But you can screw up your loose lay vinyl pretty easily to leave a gap for water, or it can shift after being installed if everything isn't perfectly tight against all four walls, etc. It's an interesting technology, I'm just saying it's not exactly dummy-proof-waterproof the way an unbroken piece of plastic is. It has other advantages, but I certainly wouldn't be putting it in a rental property or a bathroom...
Hi, +Stephanie Smith. It's in the other video you looked at, but about halfway through. I've put a link to just that spot in that video up above in the description for this one (we still can't put them right here in the comments - sorry about that). I hope that's helpful! - David
Grant, I wanted to illustrate the answer with some pictures (and I needed more than 250 characters) so we did a blog piece about this, and I've linked to it in the description above. I hope it's helpful! - David
Floors To Your Home (.com) Hi, Thanks for such an amazing reply. I definitely think I'm going to tackle it! Thanks for the response. When I get done, I'll post some pictures. Grant
Hi! Sorry to both of you that my original reply to Denis is now gone (!?!). The answer is that this floor is installed with no gap around its perimeter, which is otherwise needed with almost all floating floors. This is installed snug up against the walls, and each piece snug against each others. In addition to a grip designed into the bottom surface of the planks, this snugness is what holds everything in place. We did an installation video too (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yiO84zh9gUI.html) which shows this, and as of the date of this comment, since the video premiered when we first got these in, we have not yet had one complaint about the product itself. People seem to *really* like it. - David
If you mean using a vacuum cleaner with a beater bar, those are not recommended with these floors. I don't know if lifting is the issue, or the sole issue, as many click-together floors also don't recommend those.
It's not *made* for that use, Evone, so doing so would void the warranty. That doesn't mean it _wouldn't_ work there, just things to know about going that way.
Yes! There will be temperature limits, all listed in the documentation. We post those documents on every product, so you can see them in advance. - David (A year later, my original reply having vanished, or become disconnected from the question)
It can be installed over any floor which is adhered to the subfloor (so, this would exclude any floating floor), and which is smooth and flat. You would need to level any grout lines with a cement based patching or levelling compound, and make the floor sound. Also, you would need to check that the moisture reading of the floor is less than 82% RH.
I have *no* idea. Flooring is a pretty landlocked business because of the weights involved in shipping. We're an American company; we ship within America, so we know about the American business realities, but not, say, the UK, or China, anywhere we don't really reach. Flooring can also be slow. Laminate was invented around 1980 in Europe, and first hit the US in the mid-90's. This Loose Lay stuff is just over five years old, so it might not be. I would Google "loose lay vinyl plank." Google already localizes searches, but if nothing helpful turns up, add a city name to your search. That's your best way to find the answer online.
Tom, I wish I could be more helpful for you than to just say, "Go look for yourself," but that may actually be the most effective thing. For one thing, Canada seems _really_ big, but mainly it's because Google localizes searches now - _all_ of them. So when I, in Indiana, put *"loose* *lay* *flooring"* *Canada* into it, I see a few Canadian places pop up (which could be thousands of miles from you) and otherwise very general results. When *you* put that into Google, well... it knows where you live, you see, so it will find places very close to you, if they exist, and places that can get floors to you, if they ship. Until the machines rise up to conquer us and become our overlords, that little feature can be quite handy, but it also disables me from being very helpful to you from my location.
+Karen Szatkowski Yes, absolutely. Click this link to our installation video, where we demonstrate how easily you could do that. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yiO84zh9gUI.htmlm56s (if it doesn't jump to the proper spot, zip ahead to 4:56). If you expect to need to do this, make sure you order extra material when you buy your floor. We do run out of things sometimes. - David
Donald, we're not given the chemical make up of the products. You might think it would be listed, like the ingredients list on food items, but it isn't. If you're concerned with human health, which usually motivates this sort of question, then what we can say is that we sell products made from virgin vinyl to ensure that they are phthalate free, which is much harder to do with recycled vinyl products. Our one exception is a product that comes from FreeFit, which only isn't *marked* "Phthalate free" or "Virgin Vinyl", but it does come with a product test sheet: www.floorstoyourhome.com/media/catalog/product/f/r/freeformtechnical_specs.pdf The most relevant test listed there is probably the ASTM F963 - 08 "Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety" for lead and heavy metal content, which the product passes. - David
Mary Jane, generally not, at this point. They did, and some may still do, but this is one of those concerns that started hitting businesses' pocketbooks, and when that happens, they respond, so the trend has moved to safer floors over the past five years. The most recent hot topic chemicals were phthalates, which none of our floors contain, nor have those of even many big retailers for a couple of years. It's still good to ask, though, especially once you've selected a product. I wrote about the issue pre-phthalates, and the piece might give you some language to use when talking with your flooring person: www.floorstoyourhome.com/blog/vinyl-vs-linoleum-and-health-concerns/ And personally, I check in with Consumer Reports for a bit of neutrality. This is their summary from 2015, when the trend was already moving toward safety. Of course, to see their individual product charts, you have to subscribe, but the available information could give you a fair summary of where we are, or were in 2015, and are likely better than now, as an industry: www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/08/can-your-floor-make-you-sick/index.htm
We did not! Generally you won't need to, yet you always can. We show the basic installation here (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yiO84zh9gUI.html) and about mid-way in we show the adhesive process for times when it might be needed, such as not having a vertical surface to butt up against during installation. - David
having just had this heavy 5mm planking laid on my floor by "professionals" without much adhesive, I have made them come back. Even though it is tight against the wall edges my vacuum cleaning just sucks it off the floor! So as a consumer I totally would recommend using adhesive!
