Lvp plank flooring?

[Schatzi6510]

Can someone tell me where is the best place to start laying plank flooring in an airstream? find the middle on proceed to the walls or start by the longest wall and go across.

Thanks

[Ginophiles]

Depends on the flooring. Many of the vinyl plank floorings are installed in a one way pattern. That is, there is grove on one side and a tongue on the other side. Often the tongue is inserted into the grove of the plank on the floor with the next plank held at a slight angle. Then it is pushed down locking the joint.

In some of them, this makes it difficult to do the reverse and try to get the grove to engage with the tongue. There is also the end to end joint to consider. Some of them are almost impossible to install in reverse.

If your particular flooring goes together just as easy in either direction, start in the middle and work you way out to the walls.

If the flooring is like many and goes together easily in one direction and very difficult in the other, you'll need to start at the wall and work across.

Starting in the middle and working out means you should have equal pieces at each wall when you're done. Likely you need to cut the last row on either side where the flooring meets the wall, and they would ideally be the same size on each side. Or real close.

If you're starting at one side and working across because of the type of flooring, you'll need to figure the layout beforehand. If you want the pieces that land next to the walls to be the same size on both sides, you need to calculate that size first so you can cut your first row that starts next to the wall.

As a retired general contractor, I've installed various plank floors over the years. If you just want to get it done and keep the cutting to a minimum, my old tile setter buddy used the Full And Go layout. Just start with a full plank next to the wall and go across and end up with whatever you end up with at the other wall.

[Ginophiles]

Originally Posted by Ginophiles

Just start with a full plank next to the wall and go across and end up with whatever you end up with at the other wall.

Just to be clear, I'm not recommending the "full and go" layout that my buddy uses. He learned tile setting in the rapid build housing tract markets of Sacramento during the boom times. They were paid by the square foot of tile installed, so there wasn't much incentive to spend time figuring out an ascetically pleasing layout.

However, if the seams and/or the grain pattern in your flooring are not very noticeable, it might work just fine for you.