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We have just had LVT (partially) fitted in our utility room but the contractors have fucked up and not screeded properly - there are various lumps and dips and tile corners are lifting already. I had nothing to do with the flooring selection or contracting (present from in-laws, who are now furious at the fuckup). At the risk of sounding like an ungrateful oik, I cannot see the point of LVT (at least in the large square tiles pattern we have) @ £50/m2, over a big roll of Lino @ £5/m2. What am I missing? They’re hard, scribed edges look shite, alignment needs to be sub-mm perfect, subfloor needs to be perfect and you don’t even end up with a watertight surface... oh and it just looks like cheap Lino anyway!
Dramatic_Hammer-
Sounds like a shit situation to be in.
Lvt does need special attention paid to the subfloor before laying it. But laying a wood floor still needs the sub floor to be in a pretty good state.
It is a good product when it all goes right but I can understand why in your situation you may not see this.
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I don’t want to sound like a prick so apologise up front.
To give you some idea ours was laid over 2 weeks. That was approx 90m2. 1 week of preparing and 1 week of laying. They put a high temp screed in the kitchen over a concrete slab / screed and that was then sanded flat and filled / sanded till perfectly flat then they laid. In the rest of the house nailed ply to the floor boards then screed, again they sanded re screed and sanded re screed until totally flat again. 4 people. 90m2 preparing then laying. 12 m warranty on defects of fitting and lifetime warranty on product defects.
Bobbo
Cornish_Bike
Lvt (luxery vinyl tile) is an inert medium meaning that unlike wood it does not expand and contract (well it does but no where near as much, expansion is considered negligable) with changes in heat and humidity. This means that it can be laid in any pattern over any distance without considering expansion and mitigating it. Wood on the other hand, bar a few patterns that require very skilled labour to lay (block herringbone for example) cannot do this, modern timber floors all have a maximum span that they can be laid. You ignore this maximum span at your peril as you'll either end up with a bouncy hump in the middle of a room or, worst case scenario the pressure exerted on the walls will be enough to detach them from their standings (not just stud walls either I've seen bricks kicked out where floors have been badly fitted).
Also because the expansion is so much less you can lay the flooring right up to skirting boards and don't need to either take off skirting to lay underneath or use beading to hide the 10mm expansion gap between the flooring and skirting board.
Lvt also plays better with underfloor heating, as long as there is a thermostat in the floor to stop the glue melting.
Downside Vs wood; can't be refinished and it doesn't feel the same.