Thickness of vinyl planking

[Jay Y.]

Hello all,

I've used laminate flooring in the past but am now considering using vinyl planking since it looks just as good plus the biggest advantage is the ability to become wet and stay wet!  I'm curious to know if everyone here recommends 2mm or 3mm?  Unfortunately 3mm seems to be nearly doubled the price for 2mm...

Thanks so much!

[JT Spangler]

So, I've now laid about half of my 500 sq ft of Allure Ultra flooring in my current rehab.

Here's what I've learned:

Floor prep is critical. I've pulled thousands of staples from some idiot 40 years ago who went crazy installing linoleum. Minor dips haven't been a big issue, although any real low spots you'll need to use some flooring leveling compound.

You can cut the boards with a razor knife using the time honored score and break method, but for any rips you're better off using a table saw. Undercut door jambs so you don't see any gaps.

BE SURE TO USE THE SPACERS WHEN STARTING A ROOM! I didn't have enough of them, and it's been a lot of extra work trying to get some of the tiny gaps to tighten up after the fact. It is critical that you have a hard corner of the room to be banging the pieces into after you click them into place (made with spacers). 

You'll also need both a pull bar and a tapping block, along with a rubber mallet. DO NOT begin installation without all of those things. After you lay each course, you'll want to use the pull bar and tapping block making sure it locks up really tight. I was using the boxes of flooring (which are heavy as sin) to add extra weight to the already installed flooring. 

There's one good youtube video made by the company on installation, and viewing is mandatory if you haven't worked with it before. 

I'm happy with the material and the look, overall, but not overly so. It's certainly not the easiest flooring in the world to install, as is claimed by the advertising materials. But it looks great, and once I figured out some of the tricks I'm moving along pretty well.

Given all of that, and adding to it the fact that a lot of the home depots locally have it up on a high shelf on clearance, I'm gonna acquire as much of it as I can and install it in my next rehab, too. Or maybe even my own home.