Luxery Vinyl Tile - trimming the master bedroom doorways

I've got the entry into the master bedroom, entry to master bath and entry to lanai to do some sort of final trim out.

 I'll start with the master batch entry since that is looking the most tedious (and was).  I'd hate to estimate how long it took to do the 3 pieces of LVT and add some additional porcelain tile in the bathroom doorway.  

I'm going to leave a 1/4" gap and try to caulk it nicely as a first attempt (but not last caulking attempt).

Here is the additional 2 rows dry fitted in the doorway.

 

I still had some pre-mixed mortar which surprissingly turned out still usable.

 

And I had a mostly full bag of dry grout left was well from the bathroom install.

 

Here I have it mortared in.

 

And now it's grouted.

 

And the last 3 pieces of LVT cut to size and trimmed to have an even edge along the porcelin tile.

 

I bought a tube of Keracaulk.U - Biscuit which on the tube looked like a good match but when used it was WAY to light.  Now I'm trying to figure out what color/type caulk to use in this last seam.  I know some folks recommend grouting it instead but I'm not sure how much expansion I might see with the LVT even though it is glued down. I can always go back and put in a T-moulding if this turns out to be a poor choice.

[edit 2021/5/20] I had ended up finding some gray caulk which matched. Looks better but wish I had filled it a bit higher.

The final result for the bedroom/bathroom transition.

For the entry into the master bedroom, I'm taking the original molding and just adapting it a bit to work better with the LVT.  Originally, the carpet side of it was a vertical of ~ 3/4" which is way too tall - someone would be tripping over it. Here is the before picture.

 

Here is an after picture of running it through the router table with a 45 degree bit. I'm hoping this will reduce the chance of catching a toe on it.  I sanded it up and just need to find some new stain of a similar color.

 

 

I had to experiment with stains a bit but I think it came out ok.

 

 

[2021/05/21] And the final doorway - to the lanai.  Still thinking on it.

 I laid some of the LVT under it for now but I'm still working out a final plan.

 

I'll probably end up getting a low threshold and maybe something to trim out the outside edge a bit.

Luxery Vinyl plank continued - The master bedroom

I finally broke down and started the flooring project in the master bedroom over spring break. It was overdue but I dreaded it a bit. The glue down flooring might work better long term but I can't say that I enjoy working with the glue.  

Here is the post where I replaced the front room flooring.

 

This is the bedroom entry way when I started to pull up the base moldings.

 

Here is after I got the first bit done.  I still needed to do another row or 2 before I could move the bed over.  The flooring is CoreLUXE Engineered Vinyl Plank from Lumber Liquidators (LL Flooring).  This specific flooring is Jove Travertine 8mm.  One box covers 12.01 sq-ft. It is a heavy flooring.

 

Here I moved the bed a bit more to the left and put down a couple more rows.

 

Once I moved the bed and shuffled some other furniture I was able to rip out most of the remaining carpet and prep the floor.    

 

 

Here I started to lay 3 rows at a time which actually worked well as long as I maintained the stair step pattern instead of completing a single row before starting the next.

 

 

This is the glue I am using from the flooring shop.

Here I have most of main floor done. You can see that I have an angle into the bathroom and it transitions to porcelain tile.  I'm still deciding how to finish off that transition.

 

The main area except the transition is done here - I still had 2 closets to do as well though.

 

This is a view from the other end of the room toward the bathroom. The doorway frame on the right is one of the 2 closets.

Here is one of the closets. This is the only place I ended up with a small strip of tile - about 3/4" on the back wall.  I might have been able to prevent that with enough adjustments but it just wasn't worth the effort.

 

Here is the bathroom transition area.  I got some spare trim tile just laying in the doorway and I put a piece of the bedroom tile up to it for comparison.  The hights are very close. Other than for expansion of the bedroom tile, I might be able to do a "grouted caulk" between the 2 tile types. I'm still looking for what I like best.

For me, this was about a weeks worth of effort.  Ripping out carpet, scrapping drips from the drywall install and getting all the dirt/sand/nails/carpet fuzz up took some time as well.  Making sure each tile was tightly butted up was an effort as well - I needed some extra lighting and flashlight to see well enough.  A few blocks of wood and a rubber mallet helped with adjustments a good part of the time.

Now to get the mouldings in.  I just undercut the door frames with a jambsaw. I'll be replacing the door frames but didn't want more gapping holes than needed for now.  I'm still working out the threshold for the door that goes out to the lanai too. 

Thanks for looking!

Scott

Replace carpet with Luxury Vinyl Plank

We really love the general layout of our house but there are still a number of rooms with carpet.  As with our previous house, I'm slowly replacing carpet with some type of solid flooring.  The ease of cleaning and lower dust retention are big pluses for me.

Here is my first attempt at replacing carpet with Luxury Vinyl planks though.  I've done some tile in this house previously.  I did 3/4" solid hardwood in our previous house along with a bit of vinyl sheet flooring in the bathrooms and laundry room.

Initially, I was going to just do a floating floor but after a few conversations I was convinced to go ahead and do glue down.  The main reason was that some have experienced gaps over time when there are heavy items on the flooring. Since we have some heavy book cases, desk, etc - I'd rather put the extra effort in now and hope it prevents the problem rather than not try and then wish I had.

I will say that one challenge is that we tend to do things out of order.  In this case, I had purposely not painted most of the rooms when we bought the house because I knew I wanted to redo a number of things and figured I plan them together.  That would work nicer if I had painted before putting the new flooring in.  This was a bit due to getting my wife a "surprise" desk that she has been waiting on for some time to replace the cobbled together solution previously in place.

We ended up just partially assembling the desk (which is U shape when complete) so that we can move it around while working on the flooring and painting.  

Here you can see the 99.99% completed flooring along with many of the items I had to juggle during the process.  I know the general recommendation is to run the flooring with the planks length in the same direction as the rooms largest length - I didn't do that here.  It was really a matter of practicality than anything else.  I don't think it really is noticeable with this particular flooring.

I do recommend doing just 1 or 2 rows on the initial start because getting those done just right will make a big difference in how well the rest of the floor goes.  Once the first 2 rows dry well, you can be sure that they won't move on your even if you have to pry or tap on things.  Also, the unopened boxes made great weights to sit on the finished floor to make sure it was in glue well.

In general, we really like the flooring. Gluing down was extra work and much more time consuming though.  I'm hoping that improved looks/longevity and better wear characteristics will make it worth it.  

We used the recommended Bostic glue which works fine.  It is a bit messy as expected.  We usually did a chalk line for 2 rows at a time.  So generally we were able to do about 6 rows in a full day.  It took up to about 30 minutes time for the glue to set before the planks could be installed. With the right tools, strong helpers and patience you could do more and quicker.  

I generally used a miter saw to cut the planks which are 12"x24" x 8mm thick.  A box of these planks is pretty heavy compared to other stuff I've worked with.  These particular planks are a solid vinyl which adds weight.  

I'd highly recommend safety googles when cutting with power saws in this case.  It is very message.  I've seen some videos where people simply score and snap planks - I haven't tried it with these yet but I am using these in the master bedroom too so I'll have a chance.

I did use my table saw for a few full length cuts but even with a 10" sliding compound miter saw you can probably cut to max length and flip to finish as I did on a few.  For irregular cuts as near our columns - I used a jigsaw which works ok.  I had a pretty coarse tooth blade on it.

One thing that I still experienced with these  planks was a bit of gaping while installing.  These are click-lock as well but also have glue down instructions.  I have a rubber mallet mostly used for camping that also turns out useful at times like these.  If the tongue/groove didn't come together perfect, often I could take a block of wood carefully placed on the edge but on top of the bottom tongue and tap it as lightly as possible to get it aligned.  I also tapped on all the seams and face of plank to get it set in the glue well.  

I've got a couple pieces to go around the columns yet and have to get some new floor moldings.  We are going with white moldings.

The wall color is still being determined.  That has been probably the hardest part of the project - agreeing on paint colors. At some point we'll replace the drape/shades as well.

Here is the post where I replaced the master bedroom flooring.

Thanks for reading. 

Jeremiah 30:17

17 But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the LORD, ‘because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.’