| CoreLuxe Urban Loft Ash Vinyl Plank flooring |
Hey you! I am not sure if you checked out my previous blog or video, the Addition Part 1, but if you missed it click here!
Before moving on I want to recognize that CoreLuxe is Phthalate free! Which means it does not have any harmful effects on the air quality in your home which is HUGE!
| YouTube Video located at end of blog |
I am so excited to share with you our flooring journey! I don’t know about you, but this decision and process gave me some serious anxiety. First of all, there are so many different types of flooring and options which alone is beyond overwhelming. Secondly, a floor is not something you put down and go “MEH, I don’t like it let’s change it.” Haha NO NO. Once the floor is down that’s it! So, this is a really big decision!
At first, I had to decide what type of vibe I wanted the room to have. Did I want a warm rustic vibe, an elegant classy vibe or a modern new age vibe? I am not a big fan of the modern look in my home and I am a farm girl at heart, so I settled on a warm rustic vibe.
We are going to be updating all of the main living areas (kitchen, dining room, living room and hallway) with the same flooring. Because of this, I decided I wanted a floor with multiple patterns to avoid that boring “everything looks the same” appearance.
Laminate VS Vinyl
I found out that vinyl is a better choice than laminate which was SO HELPFUL in narrowing down the flooring choices. I know there is a lot of good laminate options out there but why would I want to buy something I can damage with water when there is another product available that is truly waterproof? Now, Laminate sometimes is the more affordable option and there is nothing wrong with that! But since I have kids, dogs and am constantly in an out of the house, I needed the most resilient flooring I could afford.
Check out this site for a Vinyl vs Laminate comparison
When I had a good idea of what I wanted, I headed to Lumber Liquidators. I highly recommend them because not only is their staff extremely helpful and knowledgeable but you can literally see what the floor is going to look like (roughly) in your house by using their Picture it floor visualizer which blew my mind!
However, I am the type of person that NEEDED to know exactly how the floor would look in my house before I committed to buying a ton of it. So, if you are like me then do as I did. I bought one box of each flooring I liked. I narrowed it down to 2 styles and it was $50 a box. So, I spent $100 to guarantee I was making a choice I would love #WorthIt. I then staged them throughout my home and took pictures. I would lay each flooring in the same spot and take the same pictures. I then created a PowerPoint of the images so I could go through and compare them (you don’t have to use PowerPoint!). This gave me the true visual of how each would look in my home and allowed me see which one I liked best. I highly recommend doing this!
A MAN | WOMAN WHO IS A MASTER OF PATIENCE IS A MASTER OF EVERYTHING ELSE
George Savile
I put this quote in here because this type of DIY takes a lot of patience. Whether your a pro or not, this is tedious work and you need to make sure you do not to set unrealistic expectations.
First of all, make sure to purchase 10% more flooring than your floor requires because you will have waste. You have to cut these planks and mistakes are bound to happen. So, having that extra 10% is a smart move.
See below instructions on how to stagger plank flooring. I did copy paste the information from this site hunker.com as it seemed to be the best explanation (I added some simplifications since this is a method that is hard to explain! )
“Install the first row and cut the last board in the row to fit, remembering to maintain a 1/4-inch gap from the wall. Use the cutoff to begin the next row.
Then, lay the second row and cut the final plank to fit. But instead of using the cutoff to start the third row and creating a step laminate floor pattern, set it aside for later. Cut the first plank in the third row to a random length without creating an H-joint.
Use the cutoff piece from the second row (that you held aside) to begin the fourth row and the one from the third row to begin the fifth row. Then, cut a random length to start the sixth row, using the cutoff from the fourth row to start the seventh row, and so on.” It helps if you draw it out quickly so you can visually see the pattern.
For a visual on what your stagger SHOULD look like CLICK HERE . After seeing the visual you will know ⬇️
H-joint X BAD | Step Pattern X BAD| Proper stagger with NON-Repeating pattern ✅ GOOD
I feel like I covered most everything in my video, but I want to talk a little about the tools we used. You will see that we used a lot of different equipment that most homes don’t own…or maybe they do…. I don’t know! Regardless, it is said that generally you can use hand tools like a hand saw or heavy-duty razor blade to score and snap floor planks. That may be the case with thinner flooring but not with this particular brand. This CoreLuxe was 8mm thick and in no way could be safely cut and snapped with a razor. They do have much thinner planks like 4mm and 5mm so maybe those can be cut by hand 🖐. Just be safe and make smart choices we don’t want anyone getting hurt 😢!
As you will see, we have completed the flooring in our addition only. Our next move is to remove the flooring in the kitchen and the living room and install this flooring in those rooms as well.
THIS VIDEO HAS TIMESTAMPS FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE. SO, BOUNCE AROUND IF YOU WANT!
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