Installation Inspiration

13 Feb Installation Inspiration

Patience, planning and a precision flooring product make the new kitchen difference

Because the pattern choices are almost endless, weeks passed before Ron Hicks found the perfect look in a rigid core, waterproof luxury vinyl tile floor for his kitchen.

It had to complement his new cabinets, countertops and existing Teak floor in the adjacent family room. It also had to be thick and strong enough to float over existing floors – vinyl in the kitchen and hardwood with beveled edges in the front hallway and foyer – without concern of telegraphing.

The winning choice was Mannington Adura Max in color: Graffiti Patina. These rectangular panels click together, are made without phthalates and have FloorScore Indoor Air Quality Certification.

“As the saying goes, you get what you pay for,” Hicks says. “Adura Max was a quality product right out of the box.”

Choosing the correct product was only step one. Hicks, an architect in Cincinnati, Ohio, also is a skilled installer and builder, who does most of his own home repair work. He agreed to share the rest of his kitchen floor installation experience here:

Step two: Prep the floor

In the part of the kitchen where old cabinets were torn out, the subfloor needed to be brought flush with the old vinyl.

With a quick floor leveler patch, we were ready to go.

Step three: Get the layout

Before you begin installing flooring, it is critical to get a fully vetted layout of your floor, Hicks says.

Make sure you understand how the pattern will lay in the room, against all walls, corners, door openings, heating floor grilles, etc. This is important because you start in one corner and work against your first wall.

Once the pattern is started, everything is locked in. So, if you come to a condition where you have a joint just barely off of a wall, you are stuck with it. Take the time to fully layout the pattern.

Step four: Start your rows correctly

The next critical step, Hicks says, is to start accurately. Precision is important again because you work across the room. Inaccuracies will magnify the further you go. When I did my first row, I actually screwed the planks down to the floor, so they would not move. This was a huge benefit so I could tap adjoining planks against them, and not have them move. When I was done, I backed the screws out, and the holes were covered with the baseboard and toe mold.

Step five: Enjoy an awesome floor

Adura Max is an extremely precise product, Hicks says. When placing the planks, the precision of how they locked together was amazing. If they are not fully engaged, the planks will not lay on the floor correctly.

The precision of the material was helpful in elevating my exactness in the installation. I was fearful that imprecision would start to appear as I moved across the floor, and magnify along the way. That never happened.

I covered a fairly large area, and the last planks were just as exact as the first row.

“Amazing!” ©

–Ron Hicks helped his brother build a log cabin back in 2016. Read about it here.