Luxury Vinyl Planks

1 Material
$500
2 Days
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Hi, I'm Liz, the author of the DIY and decorating blog SimpleDecoratingTips.com. We recently purchased a mid-century house that we're totally renovating into a more Colonial Revival style. In the basement there is an apartment and that was our first renovation project.


For the basement apartment we’re installing this new flooring product… they’re called luxury vinyl planks, and I’m super excited about them, here’s why…

If you visit my site, you'll find the post where I showed the hallway with the newly sheetrocked and painted walls with the partially finished flooring:

I’m not sure how long luxury vinyl planks have been around, but they’re new to me in just the last few months.

This is the box that shows the layers that comprise each plank:

The attached backing is a thin layer that feels like rubber. If you’ve ever installed laminate flooring, you know that to have an attached backing saves time and is nicer than having to lay down the thin foam on the floor first.

The thing that I’m so excited about with this floor is that it is 100% waterproof. I love that feature! I’ve had laminated wood floor and normal laminate floor, and as durable as they are, they clearly state you need to be very careful with water spills. That’s stressful! So nice that this vinyl floor isn’t stressful maintenance like that.

Here are the tools my carpenter used for installing… along with a saw for cutting around little corners etc.

For the major divots, he first used durabond for those area, to make the floor level. But so nice that the old tile on the floor didn’t need to come out.

Depending on each situation, the vinyl floor instructions are to either go under or next to. For example, the bathroom vanity with an open bottom needs the vinyl floor installed 1st.

The instructions also explain how to go right next to the toilet flange in the floor:

The kitchen base cabinets went in first, then the luxury vinyl planks almost butt up to the them.

The baseboard trim gets installed after the floor is in, and will cover that little gap needed for expansion:

I chose the Sterling Oak color, but this Lifeproof brand of luxury vinyl flooring does come in a few other colors too. Here’s the link for it:  Lifeproof luxury vinyl plank flooring.

I think I’m going to use this same exact product on the other basement side, (that we’re incorporating into the main house) as well as for the mudroom addition on the main level. It’s very cost effective and durable and looks great.

Check out this page to get up to speed on our new house projects:  Mid-Century Turned Colonial Revival.


Hope to see you over at my DIY and decorating blog Simple Decorating Tips where you can find all the projects we're doing on this whole house renovation!

Resources for this project:
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Liz at Simple Decorating Tips
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • Spikecatz Spikecatz on Jan 06, 2023

    I used Lux vinyl Flooring in my Bathroom a few years ago. I love it, but found I had more waste when finished than I liked.

    I saved all that leftover scrap. My question is- how can I piece it together to do another small floor area? Any ideas?

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