Depreciating new flooring before available for rent

[Zachary Paynter]

I've been looking across the forum and am finding bits and pieces of info helpful to my situation, but I don't think I have the complete picture yet.  Here is my situation and associated questions.  Any help is GREATLY appreciated!

We bought a townhome back in 2016.  Later, we moved and put the townhome up for rent in 2023.  During that transition, I installed about 800 sq ft of flooring in the 2,000 sq ft property (previously vinyl sheet in the areas replaced).  The total replacement cost was about $3,700.  The work was completed before the property was available for rent, but after we had moved out.  Here are my questions:

- Since the work was completed before made available for rent, and is over $2,500, do I have to capitalize and depreciate the cost?

- I'm seeing in the forum that LVP flooring has a depreciation period of 27.5 year!!??  Is that true?  That seems crazy on such a 'small' project.

- If I deduct the depreciation for tax purposes, I can't add the flooring cost as an improvement to the cost basis when I sell the property down the road correct?