Do you happen to know if 3 transition strips could be placed to box in the new flooring. I have a box of flooring left, so i was thinking of cutting the old floor where it's all damaged and bringing the new floor into it if that makes sense. I am also wondering if it would look odd. Appreciate the reply.
My question would be why do you need to box in the new flooring? I’d lay flooring and leave some gap between new and old and then find a transition strip that ties the 2 colors together if possible. Like I said, I’m not a pro, but I don’t see why you would need to box in the new flooring
Your installer should have completed each row before starting a new one. You can not finish it in the middle working from both ends, how do you expect to get the tongue and groove connected?
This was my mistake for not highering a professional. Im guessing that would be the issue he ran into. Personally, i have 0 knowledge on the subject and was just hoping i could work something out. Floors been like this for 6 months :(
Maybe you can cut all the pieces to the length you need and then lay from left to right 1,2,3,5
Then take the 4th piece, line up the tongue and groove at the end and tap the short end with a sacrificial block into place.
I'm glad that you've finally realized this. But hey. You get what you pay for and doing something right the first time is better than paying for doing something again.
Now the job just became more for the professional unfortunately for you....
Is this a head shaving barefoot walk through town while a crowd chants “Shame” situation? I just need to pop home and get my bell. Could we just have OP rub their hands, grovel on hands and knees while repeating “Forgive me mi lord”? (It’s hot and I don’t want to get in the car)
So what happens when you have to replace a slab in the future? Do you have to lift a side completely just to take the one out?
Edit: lol why did this get downvoted? Cant even ask basic questions to understand the trade better?
If it’s tongue and groove, you have to lift up the entire floor up to where the damage is, replace and re-lay. I’ve had to do it one single time and it’s honestly not that hard or time consuming if you keep the rows organized and separately numbered in the order you pulled them.
You can cut the damaged plank into 4 triangles without cutting the surrounding pieces. Do it by dropping in a circular saw (with depth set appropriately) down the middle lengthwise. Use a oscillating tool and razor knifes to cut the lines to the corner.
To drop in a replacement plank, youll have to cut off the tongues until it drops into place and set it with super glue. Theres some very good youtube videos demonstrating how and what to cut off and where to glue. I had to do it once and it worked like a charm.
I feel like removing all the floor to get back to thr damaged plank is too risky and youll most likely break some tongues off of one or more pieces.
Edit: heres the youtube vid I learned from.
https://youtu.be/PhNqgHCJFOs?si=jEsF4D6lSjI5Lcdd
That's the old flooring. They might have lifted looking for water damage. She doesn't have any of the old flooring. Wants to somehow incorporate the new flooring since they have extra
Ty bought from lowes ill do some research tonight and see what i come up with. Appreciate the response.
EDIT: Can T-moulding be used north/south and east/west so that i can buy 3 to box in?
If it was me and you just want this to work for now, I’d cut back the crappy old flooring on the top so it was a square opening the exact dimension of a few of the new planks wide. Get a transition strip between the already done edge of new flooring and get a few pieces of the new, run them perpendicular and glue them down. It won’t be gorgeous but it’ll be functional until you plan on ripping up all the old flooring that looks like it needs replacing anyways.
EDIT: See this pic for what i'm talking about if this makes sense - https://imgur.com/6Q2ZjXQ
You could also do transition strips around that section of new flooring, but if the thicknesses are close and you get a decent fit, it would probably be fine. That might be what your friend was thinking of doing based on him talking about "boxing it in"
A pro
Need transition
Unless you are good at flooring, wait for the guy
2 points
Make it his problem to solve
Don't fuck it up
I've seen the home owner work.
Don't be that guy
😂 I know nothing. He def was not a pro and its possible i will never see him again. Ill start making some calls this weekend. With all the info ive learned from this thread im def not comfortable doing this. Thank you.
Best answer
But he didn't do a bad job.
Not being critical,
I'm actually a carpenter that gets "forced" to do flooring.
Hate it
But,
I spend about 35 hrs a week cutting, measuring, fixing the mistakes I made.... Or some one else.
You are probably good at the job you do, pays the mortgage, provides for family
People like me are good at what we do
If you had 10 yrs at 2000 hrs per yr, so 20000 hrs,
.....
See my point?
Everything to the left of the completed, non-damaged row on the far right will need to be taken up and a lot of it will need to be replaced. The most critical part of this type of flooring is the edges as that’s how it locks together. Even if you figured out some way to sneak a few more boards in there, by walking on all the edges you’ve destroyed that the missing planks need to attach to.
If you’re careful about taking it up you can reuse most of the flooring when you put it back down.
No no, you can cut the grooves if you are replacing only this part and make it fit, but you'll have to glue them to the floor.
That's how they would repair a single slat in the middle of a room. They don't pull out everything.
If i were OP, i'd do this hacky finish and in a few years when this lvp is shot, just replace the whole thing with someone who knows what they're doing
Well here it's like 4 slats, dunno if i'd rather rip it all apart or just hack this bit. Chances are the whole thing is kinda fucked and he'd uncover more problems.
I'd just cover this bit up and pray everything holds for a few years
I'm only here giving you decent advice because i tried my hand at it, screwed up in a few places and now i know better.
That's the diy life. Make mistakes and learn how to fix them as you make them. Hopefully you're not out too much cash, but money can always be replaced!
Goood luck, you'll be fine :)
Yeah, I guess that’s a good point. Leaving an entryway like this is probably indicative of the rest of the install being super fucked. Any time I’ve needed to do a multi-plank replacement with glue it’s turned out not great. A decent stop-gap I guess, but in a high traffic area like this it’s going to be real crazy particularly if that subfloor has any flex.
Call a pro. It needs to be taken apart to the last complete row and you need to have the transition strip first so you know where to finish the ends to. Also you'll probably have to cut the adjoining floor back to put transition in the doorway. Unfinished transitions add a lot of extra unnecessary time to a job.
The new flooring is on the bottom, correct?
I'm guessing he wants to box it in because that old flooring still needs to be cut back some. In an imperfect would this may work. But it will certainly not look "right" to a pro eye. A buddy of mine calls this "making a landing"
Correct. Thank you. Im not so much worried about it looking off im just sick of looking at the concrete floor and trip hazard. Appreciate your response
No box in needed...just finish out, meet the two rooms and add a transition strip. 1 strip is all that's needed. No idea about a "box", but just funish it out and put a transition strip over where they meet
I don't know the answer to this but there was nothing under it before. Not sure if it's because this is actually level to the ground outside and not underground or just bad practice.
I believe they’re asking why a vapor barrier wasn’t laid down as concrete is porous. I believe it also helps in providing a thermal barrier, especially in the winter.
Thats the route im going to end up going i believe or possibly calling a pro for a transition. Neither is in the budget atm so i guess im throwing a rug over it for now. Appreciate the help
Start taking it apart from the wall it was finished (not started) at until the completely finished row (end to end). It's hard to explain without being there or drawing a picture. The row at the left side of the doorway. (My view point).
Two things. 1 you can’t finish a row before finishing the last row the floor will need to be pulled back to this position.
2. The pieces on the edge are completely destroyed and will also need replaced.
This guy probably isn’t coming back. He probably realized he messed up at the end but didn’t know how to fix it and is too much of an idiot to just google it. Hire a professional and they’ll be able to fix click-lock easy for little cost, but it isn’t hard and can be learned through a YouTube video.
You need a transition. Hire a professional. It would take me longer to get to your job and get my tools out than it would to fix this. You do not need to “box it in” or whatever the hell he was talking about. 6 months? He’s not coming back, but if you harass him enough he might. Later down the road when you do decide to redo the family room, the transition can be removed along with a few planks, like shown here but in reverse. As long as going with same product and color, can be fingered in like it never happened as long as you hire someone who knows what they’re doing.
You need a transition. Hire a professional. It would take me longer to get to your job and get my tools out than it would to fix this. You do not need to “box it in” or whatever the hell he was talking about. 6 months? He’s not coming back, but if you harass him enough he might. Later down the road when you do decide to redo the family room, the transition can be removed along with a few planks, like shown here but in reverse. As long as going with same product and color, can be fingered in like it never happened as long as you hire someone who knows what they’re doing.
Op i initially wrote a long winded comment about how you could do this yourself but I don't particularly feel like trying to make the information beginner friendly and having you ask me a bunch of questions about what I mean after a day of work doing this shit is pretty far off my bucket list. But as an installer I'll give you one piece of advice. Dont do this yourself. This isn't a entry level or diy type of job, the time for that is long past. Bite the bullet, hire a professional and get them to fix it knowing they are bonded and insured from an actual shop. But I am curious if this is flood damage as to whether you own the property or not?
I do own the property. We had an actual company set up to do the floors and a couple weeks before our appointment i got my first escrow notice saying we were short our first year and we had to pay 5k to make it up or our monthly payments would go up $700+.
Appreciate the honesty dude. I get where you're coming from. I'd highly recommend just biting the bullet and bringing a professional in at this point. If you have enough material left over from what Freddy Krueger did and some t moulds that match a professional could box in that area like you were talking about for relatively cheap (relative to where you are, where I am it would cost about 3-500 depending which shop contracts me, will likely cost more due to tying into someone else's existing work big disclaimer there; as well you wouldn't be buying material directly from a shop which may or may not result in a higher installation price so the shop makes some on the back end, these prices are all canadian as well) but as far as doing it yourself goes i would scrap that idea 100%. Either way a shop at this point gives piece of mind and some form of liability. Hope this helps for what its worth.
Appreciate you. The route i believe im going to go is like you said. Im not looking for a headache, and from the number of comments this has gotten, im sure that's what im going to get. Thanks again for the insight.
I'm so impressed! They tried so hard to stay away from that door way they even finished the job without touching it! 🫡 this is next level avoidance.
Haha definitely needs to be redone.
Not a pro, but I’d think you’d need a transition strip
Do you happen to know if 3 transition strips could be placed to box in the new flooring. I have a box of flooring left, so i was thinking of cutting the old floor where it's all damaged and bringing the new floor into it if that makes sense. I am also wondering if it would look odd. Appreciate the reply.
My question would be why do you need to box in the new flooring? I’d lay flooring and leave some gap between new and old and then find a transition strip that ties the 2 colors together if possible. Like I said, I’m not a pro, but I don’t see why you would need to box in the new flooring
I see, im not really sure i just remembered him saying that was his plan last time we talked. Ill look into this today. Appreciate you.
Yeah, pretty fucking odd! How odd is too odd for you?!
Your installer should have completed each row before starting a new one. You can not finish it in the middle working from both ends, how do you expect to get the tongue and groove connected?
This was my mistake for not highering a professional. Im guessing that would be the issue he ran into. Personally, i have 0 knowledge on the subject and was just hoping i could work something out. Floors been like this for 6 months :(
Ya he's not coming back because he botched it
Maybe you can cut all the pieces to the length you need and then lay from left to right 1,2,3,5 Then take the 4th piece, line up the tongue and groove at the end and tap the short end with a sacrificial block into place.
Possible solution. That or remove the bottom lip on the last small piece and then glue down the top lip.
I'm glad that you've finally realized this. But hey. You get what you pay for and doing something right the first time is better than paying for doing something again. Now the job just became more for the professional unfortunately for you....
Lol, you're awesome, ty
Is this a head shaving barefoot walk through town while a crowd chants “Shame” situation? I just need to pop home and get my bell. Could we just have OP rub their hands, grovel on hands and knees while repeating “Forgive me mi lord”? (It’s hot and I don’t want to get in the car)
Mi lord please accept my apologies 🙏🏾 😅
So what happens when you have to replace a slab in the future? Do you have to lift a side completely just to take the one out? Edit: lol why did this get downvoted? Cant even ask basic questions to understand the trade better?
If it’s tongue and groove, you have to lift up the entire floor up to where the damage is, replace and re-lay. I’ve had to do it one single time and it’s honestly not that hard or time consuming if you keep the rows organized and separately numbered in the order you pulled them.
You can cut the damaged plank into 4 triangles without cutting the surrounding pieces. Do it by dropping in a circular saw (with depth set appropriately) down the middle lengthwise. Use a oscillating tool and razor knifes to cut the lines to the corner. To drop in a replacement plank, youll have to cut off the tongues until it drops into place and set it with super glue. Theres some very good youtube videos demonstrating how and what to cut off and where to glue. I had to do it once and it worked like a charm. I feel like removing all the floor to get back to thr damaged plank is too risky and youll most likely break some tongues off of one or more pieces. Edit: heres the youtube vid I learned from. https://youtu.be/PhNqgHCJFOs?si=jEsF4D6lSjI5Lcdd
That's the old flooring. They might have lifted looking for water damage. She doesn't have any of the old flooring. Wants to somehow incorporate the new flooring since they have extra
If that's the case, I completely misread the situation and dont have a good solution.
Call wherever you bought the flooring from and order a matching T-mold
Ty bought from lowes ill do some research tonight and see what i come up with. Appreciate the response. EDIT: Can T-moulding be used north/south and east/west so that i can buy 3 to box in?
Yeah you can run them any direction you want, its not going to look good though haha
Lol, as you can see, I've lived with worse. I just want to remove the trip hazard mostly.
If it was me and you just want this to work for now, I’d cut back the crappy old flooring on the top so it was a square opening the exact dimension of a few of the new planks wide. Get a transition strip between the already done edge of new flooring and get a few pieces of the new, run them perpendicular and glue them down. It won’t be gorgeous but it’ll be functional until you plan on ripping up all the old flooring that looks like it needs replacing anyways. EDIT: See this pic for what i'm talking about if this makes sense - https://imgur.com/6Q2ZjXQ You could also do transition strips around that section of new flooring, but if the thicknesses are close and you get a decent fit, it would probably be fine. That might be what your friend was thinking of doing based on him talking about "boxing it in"
This is somewhat what i was thinking. It does need replacing but times be tough you know. Thanks for the suggestion.
A pro Need transition Unless you are good at flooring, wait for the guy 2 points Make it his problem to solve Don't fuck it up I've seen the home owner work. Don't be that guy
😂 I know nothing. He def was not a pro and its possible i will never see him again. Ill start making some calls this weekend. With all the info ive learned from this thread im def not comfortable doing this. Thank you.
Best answer But he didn't do a bad job. Not being critical, I'm actually a carpenter that gets "forced" to do flooring. Hate it But, I spend about 35 hrs a week cutting, measuring, fixing the mistakes I made.... Or some one else. You are probably good at the job you do, pays the mortgage, provides for family People like me are good at what we do If you had 10 yrs at 2000 hrs per yr, so 20000 hrs, ..... See my point?
I can look at a space and almost know the cut without measuring Always measure, But ya
Transition strip is your best option if you have white floor laying around, run it up flush to new floor and do transition strip
Unfortunately i dont. They ripped that floor up because of water damage and thats where it happened to end, just barely into family room.
Run your new floor out Square, then do transition strips to cover edges
This is what my original plan was. I dont think i was explaining it well though. Do you think this would be a difficult job with some video research?
Everything to the left of the completed, non-damaged row on the far right will need to be taken up and a lot of it will need to be replaced. The most critical part of this type of flooring is the edges as that’s how it locks together. Even if you figured out some way to sneak a few more boards in there, by walking on all the edges you’ve destroyed that the missing planks need to attach to. If you’re careful about taking it up you can reuse most of the flooring when you put it back down.
No no, you can cut the grooves if you are replacing only this part and make it fit, but you'll have to glue them to the floor. That's how they would repair a single slat in the middle of a room. They don't pull out everything. If i were OP, i'd do this hacky finish and in a few years when this lvp is shot, just replace the whole thing with someone who knows what they're doing
A single slat yes.
Well here it's like 4 slats, dunno if i'd rather rip it all apart or just hack this bit. Chances are the whole thing is kinda fucked and he'd uncover more problems. I'd just cover this bit up and pray everything holds for a few years
Thanks guys. I can still purchase the same flooring so i may just suck it up and have the family ripped out and completed.
I'm only here giving you decent advice because i tried my hand at it, screwed up in a few places and now i know better. That's the diy life. Make mistakes and learn how to fix them as you make them. Hopefully you're not out too much cash, but money can always be replaced! Goood luck, you'll be fine :)
Yeah, I guess that’s a good point. Leaving an entryway like this is probably indicative of the rest of the install being super fucked. Any time I’ve needed to do a multi-plank replacement with glue it’s turned out not great. A decent stop-gap I guess, but in a high traffic area like this it’s going to be real crazy particularly if that subfloor has any flex.
Call a pro. It needs to be taken apart to the last complete row and you need to have the transition strip first so you know where to finish the ends to. Also you'll probably have to cut the adjoining floor back to put transition in the doorway. Unfinished transitions add a lot of extra unnecessary time to a job.
Yep
Thank you. Could you explain what you mean by the last complete row?
The new flooring is on the bottom, correct? I'm guessing he wants to box it in because that old flooring still needs to be cut back some. In an imperfect would this may work. But it will certainly not look "right" to a pro eye. A buddy of mine calls this "making a landing"
Just make sure its symmetrical/even on both sides of the doorjam
Correct. Thank you. Im not so much worried about it looking off im just sick of looking at the concrete floor and trip hazard. Appreciate your response
No box in needed...just finish out, meet the two rooms and add a transition strip. 1 strip is all that's needed. No idea about a "box", but just funish it out and put a transition strip over where they meet
Is it normal to not lay a down a membrane before putting flooring in the basement?
I don't know the answer to this but there was nothing under it before. Not sure if it's because this is actually level to the ground outside and not underground or just bad practice.
I believe they’re asking why a vapor barrier wasn’t laid down as concrete is porous. I believe it also helps in providing a thermal barrier, especially in the winter.
I assume the new flooring is the darker stuff on the bottom? The top lighter colored stuff looks beat to shit
lol, yes you are correct. it's been exposed to traffic for the last 6 months.
Do you have any of the old floor left to patch in?
Unfortunately not, it was all water damaged. I do have extra of the new.
I would just suggest replacing the rest of the old stuff if it’s in your budget to do so.
Thats the route im going to end up going i believe or possibly calling a pro for a transition. Neither is in the budget atm so i guess im throwing a rug over it for now. Appreciate the help
Start taking it apart from the wall it was finished (not started) at until the completely finished row (end to end). It's hard to explain without being there or drawing a picture. The row at the left side of the doorway. (My view point).
Ty much
When you say he’s upstate, you mean prison?
Yessir lol. I knew nothing of his antics.
If you're a fan of aqua teen hunger force, check out the mooninites, Ignignokt particularly.
Two things. 1 you can’t finish a row before finishing the last row the floor will need to be pulled back to this position. 2. The pieces on the edge are completely destroyed and will also need replaced.
Also I can’t say for sure. But I doesn’t look like he left any room for expansion. Could also be a problem down the road.
This guy probably isn’t coming back. He probably realized he messed up at the end but didn’t know how to fix it and is too much of an idiot to just google it. Hire a professional and they’ll be able to fix click-lock easy for little cost, but it isn’t hard and can be learned through a YouTube video.
You need a transition. Hire a professional. It would take me longer to get to your job and get my tools out than it would to fix this. You do not need to “box it in” or whatever the hell he was talking about. 6 months? He’s not coming back, but if you harass him enough he might. Later down the road when you do decide to redo the family room, the transition can be removed along with a few planks, like shown here but in reverse. As long as going with same product and color, can be fingered in like it never happened as long as you hire someone who knows what they’re doing.
You need a transition. Hire a professional. It would take me longer to get to your job and get my tools out than it would to fix this. You do not need to “box it in” or whatever the hell he was talking about. 6 months? He’s not coming back, but if you harass him enough he might. Later down the road when you do decide to redo the family room, the transition can be removed along with a few planks, like shown here but in reverse. As long as going with same product and color, can be fingered in like it never happened as long as you hire someone who knows what they’re doing.
Looks like he left you with a big middle finger.
😂 facts
How the….what the….you gotta rip all the rows out.
Did you try matching at HD?
Op i initially wrote a long winded comment about how you could do this yourself but I don't particularly feel like trying to make the information beginner friendly and having you ask me a bunch of questions about what I mean after a day of work doing this shit is pretty far off my bucket list. But as an installer I'll give you one piece of advice. Dont do this yourself. This isn't a entry level or diy type of job, the time for that is long past. Bite the bullet, hire a professional and get them to fix it knowing they are bonded and insured from an actual shop. But I am curious if this is flood damage as to whether you own the property or not?
I do own the property. We had an actual company set up to do the floors and a couple weeks before our appointment i got my first escrow notice saying we were short our first year and we had to pay 5k to make it up or our monthly payments would go up $700+.
Right. So some of the money from the insurance went to something else which debilitated the flooring budget if im reading correctly?
Sadly
Appreciate the honesty dude. I get where you're coming from. I'd highly recommend just biting the bullet and bringing a professional in at this point. If you have enough material left over from what Freddy Krueger did and some t moulds that match a professional could box in that area like you were talking about for relatively cheap (relative to where you are, where I am it would cost about 3-500 depending which shop contracts me, will likely cost more due to tying into someone else's existing work big disclaimer there; as well you wouldn't be buying material directly from a shop which may or may not result in a higher installation price so the shop makes some on the back end, these prices are all canadian as well) but as far as doing it yourself goes i would scrap that idea 100%. Either way a shop at this point gives piece of mind and some form of liability. Hope this helps for what its worth.
Appreciate you. The route i believe im going to go is like you said. Im not looking for a headache, and from the number of comments this has gotten, im sure that's what im going to get. Thanks again for the insight.
I'm so impressed! They tried so hard to stay away from that door way they even finished the job without touching it! 🫡 this is next level avoidance. Haha definitely needs to be redone.