I am looking to replace some old linoleum flooring in the kitchen of my 200 year old farmhouse.
We are in northern Vermont on a farm and have two young boys and two dogs. So this is a high traffic area that gets a lot of snow and mud. Half of the floor sits over an uninsulated basement that hovers around 35 degrees most of the winter, and the rest is over a cold crawl space. The sub floor is 1/2 inch plywood and, from what I have seen, is in reasonably good shape. That sits on top of old 1″ oak (which sits on top of an older floor, I think hemlock). From one side of the kitchen to the other the floor slopes 6″, and that is not going to change. And we heat with firewood and have a large cookstove in the kitchen itself.
In short, this floor is going to see a bit of everything in terms of hard use, varying moisture conditions, etc.
I have been researching this for a bit and vinyl plank flooring, something like a Tarkett ProGen (available locally) seems like a solid choice. My wife has said no to any sheet vinyl.
But I don’t have experience with floors so I thought I would ask other folks to see if anyone has other recommendations or experiences.
Replies
I have installed similar vinyl plank. Not the tartkett but similar. It's been down for three years and here is my opinion: It does wear pretty well. It still looks good. It clicks together well on the sides but I had problems with some of the short edges staying clicked together.- a few seasons of expansion and contraction and there are some gaps.
I have a couple of issues where I ran the vinyl through one room into another and I should have used a transition piece or threshold again some gappage. If I did it again I think I would glue it down but you need to follow manufacturer's recommendations.
I've installed vinyl plank in basements and mud rooms. It does hold up well, but moves more than you might think. Make sure you follow recommendations for expansion gaps, and plan for as much coverage with your trim as you can (for example, base + shoe over the flooring, as opposed to just a shoe molding, or just a narrow baseboard.)
I had to undercut some trim in my last install, and was only able to tuck the flooring under about an 1/8" in one place. I noticed that this winter it pulled out from under the trim by a little over an eighth. There was probably a 25°f difference from when I installed it last summer. So dont do what I did :D
Have you considered exposing the oak floor? It is understood that it will probably have some damage from removing plywood, but distressed oak flooring can look good and future scratches will add to the distressed look.