A little moreT... on a DIAMOND!

In the hopes of not forever repeating myself I would like to just take a few moments to stress on preparing your floor.  I can only relate it to preparing your walls for paint, there are few people who actually enjoy doing it but it is a necessity to make your paint last or in this case your flooring.

Hard surface needs a perfect floor (for the most part but we wont go into that right now) it contours to every bump, crack, etc. This is because there isn't a padding or a forgiveness layer to make spots that may seem small a bigger problem.  (< I may have to post something about that!)

When installing this floor, we had to spread a patch over the wood so that all the spots that were low would be filled in and the high spots would be noticed and taken care of.

Also we installed the baseboards under the LVT. 

(Usually with hard surface you install the flooring under the baseboards.  It can be done other ways but this way is how we prefer to do it.)

 We did the same to the entry way.

 After allowing the patch to dry, we started the install. The angle that the flooring is put is for the carpet that will be installed and it gives it a pleasant flow and not an abrupt stop.  

 As we installed we taped.  This was a large area and we did not want to have to worry about anything slipping while we were working.

We also used a roller to make sure that all parts of the LVT were in contact with the adhesive. 

This is the floor primarily finished.  Still needing to get back to see what the flooring looks like with the carpet.  But notice that we did not grout and we did the LVT on a diamond.

LVT + Carpet

I can only guess that every time you look at this blog you see LVT (luxury vinyl tile) this and LVP (luxury vinyl plank) that, honestly it is because we LOVE the stuff so we sell it.  The durability and the clean-ability... but we wont go into that just yet.

This job was fun because I got to help install.  When I mean help, I can help explain the process because I know those boys make it look WAY easier than it would be if say I was going to install it on my own.  

Before starting the job I got to sort 'patterns' in the flooring.  Because these are not a natural stone, There is a pattern repeat (of about 8) patterns.

The installer (who just so happened to be my father) had prepared the floor with self level to make the floor... Level.  After that dried, we went back and started setting out the pattern that we want and from there started to apply the glue.

The glue is applied with a trowel.

 Because this floor was to be grouted, we continued to lat it out with spacers and glued the LVT to the concrete.

The LVT is pretty neat because you don't need a saw to cut it.  LVT only needs to be scored with a utility blade then broken.  

The Grout used is a non-stain able polyurethane grout... it is applied here (Drying a bit before we scrub it off).

I didn't get to be there for the final reveal, but I am looking into going back to get pictures of the carpet we installed and the final reveal of the bathroom.

Cyber Death

So there was a mishap with the computer, hard drive RIP and a number of other problems that can cause you to have a cyber death.  So now that we have been revised with a new computer (that I am still learning how to use) you should be seeing more posts.
On another side note I took a few pictures of jobs that we did while suffering from cyber death so the next few posts will be of those jobs.  Some I even got to help install. I am pretty sure that makes me a master installer now ( totally joking!).