Vinyl Plank & Tile Installation
Vinyl plank and tile, leveled and installed for busy Flowood rooms.
Floating click floors for living spaces, glue-down for kitchens, baths and commercial traffic, all starting with a subfloor that is actually level.
Chapter 01
Why every dip in the subfloor ends up in the vinyl
Vinyl plank and tile flex to whatever is underneath them. A slab that is out of level by even a little, a soft spot in an older subfloor around Flowood, or a ridge of old flooring adhesive left behind will telegraph straight through a floating vinyl floor within a season. The thinner the wear layer, the faster a low spot turns into a visible dip and a raised spot turns into a hollow click every time someone walks across it.
Wear layer thickness is the other half of the problem. A budget plank sold as heavy duty at a big box store often carries a wear layer barely thick enough for a spare bedroom, let alone a kitchen with dogs and kids running through it or a storefront with foot traffic all day. Scuffs show up at the door first, then along the main walking path, and by then the finish is worn past what a cleaner can fix.
Rows of vinyl plank and tile sample boards standing in a flooring showroom
Floor prep first, then the right install for the room
Before a single plank goes down we read the subfloor for moisture and level. Low spots get patched, high spots get ground down, and anything spongy gets addressed rather than covered over. That prep work is invisible once the floor is in, but it is the difference between a vinyl floor that stays flat and one that starts telegraphing seams by the first winter.
From there the install depends on the room. A floating click floor works well in most living spaces and goes down fast. A kitchen, a bathroom, or a commercial space with rolling carts and heavier moisture usually calls for a glue-down install instead, which locks the plank to the subfloor and handles that traffic better. We size the wear layer to match: heavier for a house with kids and pets or a commercial floor, lighter is fine for a guest room that sees almost no traffic.
If you are not sure whether vinyl, hardwood or laminate is the right call for a particular room, the showroom on Lakeland Drive in Flowood keeps samples of all three standing side by side so you can compare them under the same light before deciding, for a house or for a commercial job.
Chapter 03
What keeps a vinyl floor looking new
Vinyl holds up to daily life better than most flooring, but it still has rules. Clean it with a pH neutral vinyl floor cleaner rather than an all purpose spray or a steam mop. Steam heat can work into the seams and loosen the adhesive underneath over time.
Rubber-backed rugs and mats are worth a second look too. Some rubber backings react with vinyl's finish and leave a shadow behind that will not wipe off, so a felt-backed pad is the safer choice under any mat that stays down for months at a time. Direct sun through an uncovered window can also fade a plank or open a seam over the years, so a curtain or film on a west-facing room helps more than people expect.
If something does not look right, a seam lifting or a color change nobody can explain, call the showroom at (601) 591-0902 and we will take a look before it turns into a bigger repair.
Ashley's Flooring. Call (601) 591-0902.