How To Lay A Vinyl Plank Floor

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We’ve barely unpacked our moving boxes and most of our new home is still in a complete state of disarray but that’s not stopped us from working on our first room makeover. 

And, for the first time ever, we’ve installed a new luxury vinyl plank floor! 

Isn’t it gorgeous?

I totally admit that I was a bit daunted about laying a whole floor myself. Whilst we’ve tackled hundreds of DIY projects over the years, laying a floor is something I’d never done before and I was a bit apprehensive, to say the least. 

It turns out that I really shouldn’t have worried as laying a vinyl plank floor is so much easier and quicker than I’d expected. I honestly think that it’s something even the most novice DIYer could easily accomplish and you don’t even need power tools!

There are obviously still lots of things that need sorting in this room. The window needs restoring, the yellow door will need to be stripped and repainted and the radiator still needs to be installed, too. We’re so excited about the progress so far though, especially if you know that the same room looked like this not long ago!

Laying a vinyl plank floor is easy but there are a few things to consider before you install one in your home and we’re sharing the exact process of how to install a vinyl plank floor along with our tips for getting a professional finish.

How To Plan A Luxury Vinyl Plank Floor

When starting any home improvement project, it’s always important to plan everything in as much detail as possible so that you don’t run into any unexpected problems further down the line and when it comes to planning a luxury vinyl plank floor it’s no different.

When laying a new floor, the first thing you’ll have to work out is how much flooring you’ll need for your room.

Calculate the floor area of your room and add about 10% extra for offcuts. If you have a rectangular-shaped room the calculation is really easy and you just have to multiply the length by the width of the room.

As usual, we made things a bit more complicated and decided to lay our new luxury vinyl plank floor in a rather odd-shaped room, which meant that we had a couple more calculations to do. 

Once you’ve worked out how large your floor area is, it’s time for the fun part – choosing your luxury vinyl plank flooring. 

LVT flooring (which stands for luxury vinyl tile) is becoming more and more popular and it’s easy to see why. Not only are there a huge amount of different floor finishes to choose from, but it’s also extremely durable, has a low installation height so is perfect for renovations and it’s water-resistant and suitable for bathrooms and kitchens, too.

We ordered our new floor at Bricoflor who deliver across most of Europe and the UK. They specialise in flooring, carpets and even wallpaper so are definitely worth checking out if you have a home renovation project coming up. They have an enormous choice of flooring and I’m really not exaggerating when I say that deciding on a floor finish is the most difficult part of this whole project.  

Luckily Bricoflor has a free sample service so that you can order up to 8 samples to be sure that you’re choosing the perfect floor for your home. 

After much deliberation, we opted for Granorte Solid-Trend rigid vinyl flooring in Sea Sand. It has a lovely soft grey colour that feels both classic and modern at the same time. This vinyl flooring also has an integrated cork layer making it more sustainable as well as soundproofing benefits without having to lay any additional underlay.

When laying the floor, you should almost always start laying the planks along the length of the longest wall of your room. Take the position of your windows and the direction of the light into account, too. Ideally, the light will fall along the long length of the boards so that the joins between the boards become less visible. 

Lastly, take a look at the direction of any other flooring adjoining the room. Ideally, you’ll want the boards to run in the same direction as any other flooring to give everything a seamless look. 

The direction you lay your flooring will impact how wide or narrow a room feels, so take your time and work out the best solution for your room before you start laying the planks.

Once you’ve decided on the direction you’re going to lay the boards in, you can do a couple of simple calculations to make sure that boards are spaced equally across the room and that you don’t end up with a thin strip at one end of the room. 

A 5 cm strip at the end of the room is perfectly acceptable but if your calculations mean that you’ll end up with a super narrow strip at one end of the room, cut the first row of boards in half so that you end up with two roughly the same sized boards at each end of the room.

Don’t forget to check this for the boards running lengthways, too. If we’d started by laying a full plank, we would have been left with a tiny piece at the other end of the room.

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One of the great things about vinyl plank flooring is that you don’t need any fancy tools to lay it.

Optional (if you want to use power tools):

Prepare Your Subfloor For Your New Vinyl Plank Flooring

Now that all of the planning is out of the way you can finally start to lay your floor. Well, kind of. Depending on the condition of your subfloor you may have to do a bit of prep work first.

The only thing that’s really important when installing a luxury vinyl plank floor is to make sure that your subfloor is as level and even as possible. Any imperfection will impact the quality of your finished floor and, even worse, will reduce how long the floor looks great as it can cause the click-system to loosen over time. 

If your floor is uneven, you will have to level it first. 

Our subfloor was fairly even but the floorboards had warped slightly making the surface very wavy. We tried to level out the floorboards as much as possible and opted to cover the whole floor with some 3mm thick HDF boards before laying the luxury vinyl plank floor on top.

Then cut away some of the vinyl plank so that you can slot it under the doorframe. We cut out all of the detailed areas with a jigsaw but you could easily cut it with a Stanley knife, too.

Whether or not you need underlay will depend on the type of flooring you are using, so be sure to check the manufacturer’s guidelines before you start your project.

How To Lay A Vinyl Plank Floor

As weird as it sounds, you’ve already done most of the work! Because of all of the planning you’ve done, laying the floor will be really straightforward. 

Don’t forget to leave space around the edge of the room. This is so that the floor can expand when it gets warm. The best way to leave an equal gap is to use little spacers that you just place against the wall. They will help you keep a perfectly even expansion gap. 

Score a line where you made the mark with a Stanley knife and speed square. Don’t forget to cut it a tiny bit shorter so that you leave a 4-5mm gap around the perimeter of the room. 

Then you can just snap the board in half along the line. That’s all there is to it – it really couldn’t be any easier!

One of the best things about this type of flooring is how easy it is to lay and cut. 

You don’t need any fancy tools or equipment. All you need is a Stanley knife!

Obviously, you could use a circular saw or a jigsaw to make the cuts but a Stanley knife works really well and is much less messy than using a mitre saw. If you’re making lots of cuts along the length of the boards you may want to use a power tool, but you definitely don’t have to. 

Make sure to wiggle the pieces together so that they are firmly connected.

Depending on the type of click connection of your flooring, you may need to have a rubber mallet handy to be able to carefully hammer the short connection sides together. This very much depends on the type of flooring you’re using though, so check the instructions first.

We didn’t have a rubber hammer, so used a block of wood (to protect the floor) and a normal hammer instead.

Slot the piece of flooring planks into the gap (don’t forget to leave a gap for the floor to be able to expand). Hook the pull bar behind the last piece of floor and give it a tap to make sure the vinyl planks slot firmly together. 

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Fitting vinyl plank flooring around radiator pipes

Fitting the vinyl planks around radiator pipes is surprisingly easy.

Start your row with a small piece of flooring and mark the position of the centre of the pipes. Then take this piece of floor and slot it together with the next plank and drill holes where the two boards meet.

Position them on your floor and slot the pieces together like you would with all other pieces of flooring.

The Finishing Touches

Now that you’ve finished your floor, it’s time to add the finishing touches. The very last thing to do is reattach the skirting boards (or half-moulding strips if that’s what you are using).

Remove the distance holders and nail (or glue) the skirting back to the wall. Because the floor floats, it’s important not to nail or glue the skirting to the floor. 

Where the floor transitions from one room to the next, you’ll also have to install a threshold. You can get these to match your flooring but as we’ve not yet sorted the hallways flooring it’s something that’s still on our to-do list.

We’ve gone into a lot of detail about how to plan and install a luxury vinyl plank floor and have probably made it sound much more complicated than it actually is. Just make sure to plan your layout beforehand and follow some basic layout rules and you really can’t go wrong.

7 Important Rules To Follow When You Lay A Vinyl Plank Floor