How to Install Vinyl Plank Flooring as a Beginner | Home Renovation - YouTube

Welcome back to Fix This Build That. Today we're installing vinyl plank flooring

I've installed ceramic tile before but this is my first time doing laminate or vinyl flooring now

I'll be installing this in this laundry room and giving you all the beginner tips that I learned along the way

I started by moving the laundry machines and everything else out of the room

and apparently elves don't really steal your socks

They just hide them under the dryer

But while the machines were gone

It was a great time to paint the rest of the wall that I didn't paint

because I didn't think anybody would ever see it

Now, I know I'm not the only one so comment down below and

tell me where your unpainted walls are hiding in your house

Next I pulled off the quarter round molding to prep for install. I would have pulled off the baseboards, too

but since I have wainscoting installed

It would make a huge undertaking and in the end you won't really be able to tell the difference anyway

In the vinyl planks that I'm using are a little under 4 feet long and just under 8 and 3/4 of an inch wide

I'll have a link below to this exact product as well as

all the tools that I use during the vinyl plank flooring installation

Which I tried to keep as basic as possible

Now before the install you need to do a little planning and for a nice-looking room

you don't want a super-short board at the beginning or end of a row

and you don't want to narrow run at the end of

your installation either on the install instructions with your flooring should help you figure this out or

You can nerd out like I did and make a 3d model of the room and lay out the planks

Exactly how you want them beforehand. Seriously though for an over analyser like me

this is the only way to go you can map out and stagger the seams

and play around with the different layouts based on the

bump outs in the room to see how it's all going to look if

you don't have any programs you can do this with just find a nerdy friend

and have them do it for you or you can

Always just use graph paper, too

And with my layout all done, I went back to the laundry room to start the install

you always want to start on the left side of the room in a corner due to the

positioning of the tongues and the grooves on this flooring

I pried up the transition piece between the current vinyl sheet floor in the carpet

Then I cut back the carpet to make room for the new transition strip, which is a metal channel

Then there was a small gap between the plywood underlayment of

the vinyl sheet and the tack strip the carpet

So I filled in the gap to give that channel a little place to be attached

I used a sample piece of the flooring as a spacer and I undercut the door jam with flush cut saw now

This will let the flooring slide underneath the trim for a clean look and on the baseboards

I'll cover those gaps with quarter-round that I took off earlier

I Cut the other side of the door too and I cut into the baseboard a bit

that I could slide the floor in cleanly under

The whole jamb so that wasn't just a mistake. I did had on purpose

Now next I measured the transition channel for the door opening it has

marks on the back where it's supposed to snap cleanly

But it just bent when I tried to do it, so I grabbed a hacksaw and not cut to size instead.

I positioned the channel so that my finished transition piece would just hit the middle door stop

then I secured it to the floor with screws and

During my layout. I decided to take two and a half inches off the width of my initial starter row

And this will give me two and a half more inches of width on the other side of

the room to avoid those narrow strips

That I mentioned earlier you'll see that in just a bit

Now my walls aren't exactly straight either and I needed to account for that in this cut

I used the vinyl sheet design as a straight reference to lay the planks

on and I measured the gaps across the wall

If you've taken up the flooring or don't have a reference line

You can always snap a chalk line and use that to reference the measurements. I

Mark, the first plank on both ends for this angled cut line vinyl plank flooring can be scored and cut with the utility knife

So I went ahead and grabbed my t-square to score the plank between my two marks

The problem I found is when trying to snap the plank along that line

since I couldn't really grab it and pull it up to snap it I put a piece of scrap wood underneath the score line and

Just beat on it with my mallet until it snapped as you can imagine. This went pretty badly

I quickly realized that scoring and snapping for the long cuts is not a great option

So instead I took it down to my shop and I laid out a new line

That was a quarter inch in from that jagged mess that I just made

Then I used a circular saw to cut the line and it turned out great now really?

I was just trying to avoid using power tools as much as possible

But using a jig saw table saw or circular saw is really the only way to go here

The final plank is a floating floor and it needs to be held off the walls a quarter-inch in all the directions

So to do this I use these wedge spacers from the flooring install kit that I link and I taped them to the wall

I laid down the first plank under the door jamb, but it was still a bit far from the metal channel

So I marked the piece along the door jamb and I used a jigsaw to quickly trim off that

corner, and then it fit in there nice and smooth and

The next piece gets dropped in and locked into that first piece

and using a tapping block across the front on the seam

Aligns the boards flush with each other and this got me to my first partial board

I measured the gap to the wall and I transferred it over to the board

Then I used a 12 inch carpenter square to score line on the plank with my utility knife.

I flipped it over and I snapped the plank by pulling up on the hand while supporting it behind that scoring line

To finish the cut. I flipped it over and cut through the backing to release the piece

when I snapped this board

It really turned out a little bit jagged

It was because when I scored the plank the second time the blade veered off that original line a little bit

So make sure if you're gonna go over it twice

that you stay on that original line or you're gonna need to clean up the edge like I'm doing here

Hey , If you like what you're seeing so far and you haven't done it already

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I cut this small piece the same width as the other first row boards

And then I installed it on the end now to pull the board tight

I used this small pull bar that hooks over the end of the board and helps you pull that into place using a mallet

now to start the second row I cut a full plank down to 18 inches long and

This time was a lot more careful scoring that line and the piece snapped nice and clean

Connecting the boards from here on out is pretty easy

you just angle the tongue on the long edge into the groove of the road before it and

then you lower the plank and tap it into place using this tapping block from that kit that I mentioned earlier a

Few taps with a non marring mallet across that short seam also is gonna lock it into place

Now working in a small room has a lot more stops and starts because I could only put down

One or two full boards in each row before needing to make another cut

At the end of this row

I had a really small cut to make off the end to make my board fit

And you can't really score it and snap it because it's just too short

So go ahead and use a circular saw for this as well

After I got the first two rows in I use some dumbbells to weight them down and keep that floating floor from moving as much

There's only so many different patterns on these planks

So I made different piles of them in the room to help keep the floor as random as I could

So when I came in to grab a board, I'd rotate through them so that the similar planks weren't close to each other

This is a great way to make sure that your floor looks as best as it can

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When I got to the other door jamb

I had to notch the piece like before I

Laid out the plank and I transferred marks where the door jamb was and how much I needed to take off

And when you're doing this

I always try to err on the side of taking off too little versus too much so that you don't get stuck with any big

Gaps, but after a few back-and-forth, I had it fitting really nicely

to install the plank

I slid it up close to the door jamb and then locked it in place with that prior row

Then I used the tapping block on the end of the board and just tapped it in place until it slid all the way into

The trim as you're working through the room

You can start using some of the offcuts from one in the room to start or finish the other end of the room

Keep that in mind to make the best use of your flooring so you don't have a bunch of scraps that you have unused at

the end

It's a little hard to see here, but I'm really staggering the seams of these planks randomly

You want to avoid having a consistent spacing between seems like a brick laid pattern because it just won't look natural to the eye

And when I got to the bump-out on the other side of the room

I measured and marked the planks for the knotch and this corner was way out of square

So I made sure to measure at the beginning and the end of each side of that notch

I made the angled cuts with my jig saw and taking that extra time

Gave me a great fit

When I got back to the sink vainly you can see why I made that first road narrower than the full-width

because if I had have started with a full width plank

Then this little sliver in front of the vanity would have been under two inches. I

Also planned the staggers that I didn't need to notch this narrow piece either

And I would just have a small notch on the next full-size plank

Planning these little details ahead of time is really gonna make your flooring install go much smoother and look a lot nicer

now if you have a board that doesn't want to lock into place make sure to check the tongues and the grooves for debris a

Little bit of flooring got stuck in this groove and it kept it from seating properly

Now another little surprise in the install was this overflow drain in the floor?

I'm gonna work around this but if you have a floor outlet or another obstacle to work around you can use these same steps. I

Measured the distance off the side of the cabinet and off of the back wall and Mark the plank

Then I used a Forstner bit a little bit larger than that pipe in the floor

The final flooring is pretty easy to drill through with normal woodworking bits. So it goes pretty quickly

And next I laid the board in place and I finished the row before putting an extension onto that drain

I just marked it and cut a one and a half inch to one of the quarter inch PVC down pipe to length and I installed

It just below the surface

I added a little bit of caulk around the edges and that gave me a

nice watertight seal and it looks way nicer than that one

Did before it and the water will have a place to go if it ever leaks out

Now from here, I could reinstall my quarter round molding in my carpet transition since this is a floating floor

Just make sure to nail into the baseboards and not into the floor when you're putting on that molding

and I cut the final transition piece to size and I see the lit in that

metal you channel that I installed earlier with my mallet

This floor really brings the laundry room together. It looks awesome in here

I think installing vinyl plank flooring is a great option for

an easy install with a big impact and you'll have some really durable flooring

Hey, if you want to see how I did that wainscotting in that room or how to tile a bathroom

I've got a playlist for you right there with home renovation projects

I've got another one for you down there as well that you might like until next time guys.

Get out there and build something awesome