Installing the Flooring

We decided on vinyl flooring. For the whole entire house. We don’t want carpeting. I don’t like tile. And wood floors pushed the house even more out of our budget than we had already gotten. If we decide we would like to put in hardwood floors later, we can put them in right over the vinyl.

The whole house gets the same flooring, Jumpstart Southernwood Vinyl by Mannington. It is “inspired by the wood of the maple tree.” The cabinets are also “maple” in a darker stain. Should be good.

The flooring guys showed up early in the week. First they went around sanding down any high spots in the subfloor.

Then they started cutting luan and piecing it together over the whole house.

Luan is a very thin lightweight plywood. They put it down to be sure the floor is smooth. Imperfections will show through sheet vinyl.

Luan is 1/4 inch thick and it comes in 4-by-8 sheets. Made from mahogany, luan is manufactured by layering thin strips of mahogany at right angles and bonding them together under pressure to form large panels. Each luan panel has a rough side and a smooth side. The smooth side faces upward when installing luan as an underlayment.
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/installing-luan-under-vinyl-floor-24884.html

They cut the luan for every part of the floor.

Then, they stapled it down. They worked till late.

They put cement on the seams and nails.

This stuff dries really fast.

The next day we had the remnants of Hurricane Michael blow through, so we weren’t surprised when the workers didn’t show up.

Friday they got there early. They sanded the patches.

While some of the crew were still working on the floor to make sure they have a perfectly smooth surface, the other guys pre-cut the vinyl.

They brought some rolls of carpet padding with them. The rolled this out on driveway. Then the unrolled the vinyl on it. The carpet padding keeps the vinyl clean and scratch-free.

They measured, marked and cut the vinyl.

Then rolled it up.

We went home and had lunch. When we got back, they were putting down the vinyl.

They spread glue, then unrolled the vinyl over it.

The used a heavy roller to press the vinyl down to the glue.

They made sure the seams were glued down and met carefully.

They trimmed around the edges, leaving a little extra to tuck in.

They used rolled up pieces of vinyl to get the bubbles out.

Where they were finished, they taped paper down to protect the new floor.