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Whatever you decide to go with to upgrade your floors, there is no doubt that new floors make a significant improvement to how your home feels. This is a great way to DIY floors on a budget. Going from an outdated basic floor style to a new upgraded simple modern look is just what this space needs. A project like this is an easy weekend DIY home upgrade.
The most common flooring choices are luxury vinyl plank, hardwood, laminate and cork flooring. This post will detail how we installed luxury vinyl plank flooring as it is one of the most popular options.
Benefits of a Floating Vinyl Floor:
Durable
It is very durable to normal wear and tear, however it does not withstand impact without damage.
Tools Required:
Pry bar, hammer, rubber mallet, pliers, measuring tape, pencil, permanent marker, chalk line, drill, driver bit, utility knife c/w sharp blades, carpenters square, jig saw, work gloves, Z-bar, heat gun.
Material:
Flooring of your choice, transition moldings, underlayment, 2” wood screws
Remove the Old Floor
Regardless of what your existing flooring is, it needs to be pulled up and removed. If it is carpet, you need to start pulling it up at one corner of the room and free it up all around the perimeter of the room. Then cut it into 2-3ft wide pieces and roll up each piece to make handling it easier. Run your utility knife down the back of the carpet to make quick work of cutting it.
If your exiting flooring is ceramic, laminate or hardwood, start by prying up the quarter round trim. This is the shoe / base mold around the perimeter of the room. Be careful not to damage it because you will be reinstalling it at the end.
With ceramic tile floors, you need to chip and pry it up. With laminate or hardwood, pry it up and dispose of it. Be prepared to have to deal with getting rid of your old floor material as it piles up quickly and it will be heavy.
Some say that you can install the new floating floor over the older one with the exception of carpet. There is no way of fixing a floor that creaks with this method. It also does not guarantee a quality install as you are stuck with imperfections from the already existing floor which your new floor will not be able to hide.
For example, if your old floor has a dip in the middle of the room, your new floating floor will just conform to that same dip.
If you are doing this work yourself and are saving on paying a contractor, take the time to do it right.
Prepare the Subfloor-DIY Floors On A Budget
The next step is to prepare your subfloor which would either be concrete or wood.
Assess any imperfections in a concrete subfloor such as cracks and dips / humps with a long straight edge. There are excellent self-levelling flooring products available to mitigate such issues.
The other kind of subfloor would be wood; either diagonal planks, plywood or OSB (oriented strand board) depending on the age of your house. Make sure to remove any stray nails, staples or imperfections from the wood surface and screw down your subfloor to the joists with 2” wood screws every 6 inches to eliminate any movement.
Sweep or vacuum the prepared subfloor.
How To Install Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring
Step 1
Measure your room / space and find the centre. Plan on installing the planks length-wise parallel to the longest wall. Work out a plan so that you have approx. the same width plank at the wall where you finish as compared to where you started and the install looks even and planned out.
Step 2
There are two types of locking systems for such floating floors. One is a Tongue-and-Groove system and the other is a Drop-and-Click system. It is best to read the instructions that come with your flooring product because every manufacturer has their own nuance on their installation practices.
Step 3-DIY floors on a budget
A quality underlayment will help reduce noise transfer, but it has its limitations and will not eliminate every sound from the floors. If movement between the joists is the source of the squeaks, no amount of screwing your subfloor down will stop that. Lay down the underlayment and tape the seams so it does not move around while installing the floor planks.
Step 4
Start by assembling approximately 5 rows and then sliding the entire assembly 2-3 rows away from your starting wall. Cut some 6-8” scrap pieces of the plank to screw down and anchor your assembled 5 rows so that you are square to the room.
Step 5
Continue to install the planks row after row until you get to the opposite wall. Go back to the wall you started at and remove the 6-8” scrap pieces of plank and fill in the remaining rows.
Step 6
Make 2-3 cuts with a utility knife along a straight edge or carpenters square and snap it off over your knee. You will need to use a jig saw or table saw for cutting the plank length-wise.
A jig saw is required to make the necessary cuts around door jambs and heating vents. The vinyl planks cut easily enough with a jig saw, though have some extra blades as they dull fast.
Step 7
Reinstall your base mold trim around the perimeter of the room and fill the nail holes with wood filler and paint.
Step 8
Cut your transition pieces and install where the vinyl plank finishes and a different floor begins.
Summary
The new floors are now installed and the renovation is complete. The cost of upgrading these floors are around $650.00 before taxes. This upgrade is to change 225 sq. ft. of flooring. A contractor will do the same job for you at $1000.00 of labour, not including material before taxes. This is why this home upgrade is such a high value project at a low cost.
See you in the New Year.
December 31, 2022
