Hi, we just built and moved into our house this past Decemeber (6 months ago). We decided we would save money and have LVP installed on our own after we moved in. While we did buy relatively cheap ($2.50PSF) material from a menards, we were told by installer (also referred via Menards) that it would be fine. Less than a couple months after installation, we have noticed a few areas where the planks are bowing at the ends (as if they were installed too tight). However, we had installer back, who removed the trim and ensured there is space for expansion, etc. My wife has been through hell and back trying to get answers and/or help via menards and the installer...no one is taking responsibility for the issue. The area that it is occurring is in front of a sliding glass door so sunlight could have something to do with it, however, there are a few spots very close that receive the same sunlight and have not been affected. Regardless, I have posted a picture. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

None of this crap is worth your money, people. Shady business with Shady business practices. There's an ironic lesson in this... save yourself some money and get real hardwood floors.

The answer to every single what can be done question on here is you should have never bought this crap. Hardwood. Floors. Real ones, not the ones they sell at the stores.

I have the same problem. How was it finally resolved?

it hasn't been .on going fight.

I have a raised foundation home that we recently installed LVP and we are having major issues. The flooring is cupping and raising in different places of the home. When my contractor pulled a piece up, the plywood underneath is molding and soft. The flooring has only been in place for about 6 months. This really concerns me as now we will have to replace the plywood and the flooring of the home, not to say that it won't do the same thing in another 6 months. Any recommendations? Everyone seems to throw it back to the installation, but I am assured that it was correctly installed.

so sorry, I think it is a bad product and it is Shaw Corp. who should make things right for all who has had problems. mine looks like the person who is HU on this conversation. and mine has been doing this 1 year after it was installed. what shaw only would look at ; is their cost in the replacement . they would not ever consider the bigger picture of the inconvience of moving all our furniture out and not being able to be in our home while they did the work.

I think it is pretty BAD, on their part of not honoring their warrentee. which they advertise on their website. just completely frustrated with that company.

I was of the impression that final should never be installed over a wood sub floor because it creates a vapor barrier and does not allow moisture in the crawl space to dry towards the envelope side of the house. Therefore, anything under the vapor barrier ( inyl floor) has the potential to rot out.

It was installed on concrete / a new build home!

Its a disaster period, every excuse is used for turndown claims but to admit , these products peak from hydrostatic pressure.

I

Has there been any luck with this issue? Mines doing the same thing and is less than a year old. Lifeproof sent their installer who concluded that my slab had too much moisture so the warranty is void. We had laminate before and didn't have any issues so this is very frustrating.

not ever resolved, they made up an excuse when they sent their inspector out as well. and they would not give the results of the report.4 years now and nothing was ever done. i became too frustrated to continue down that path and fight with them. sorry!

I understand your frustrations. We filled out a claim within the first 8 months and have had 2 sets of inspectors look at it. The first seemed to agree that it needed to be replaced but his report wasn't good enough for LifeProof so they sent a second "independent" inspector who concluded that it was a moisture issue with our cement slab. Now there's no warranty unless I get another inspector of my own, whose report MAY be taken into consideration. They also can't tell me if pulling up the floor to inspect the slab will void the warranty if they were to reinstate one. Exceptionally irritating and my floor looks terrible and the edges are creating tripping hazards.

so sorry, Shaw company should be ashamed of allowing that to happen to the consumer, but they could care less about the customer.

New question : will LVP hold up to office chair casters? When I look around for LVP I was assured the castors would not be a problem. My flooring is 3 years old and the laminate on the top of the planks is lifting. My planks are amber acacia and have a lifetime warranty that the company is now not honoring saying office chairs with casters are a problem. Any insight?

we had ours in our home for over 3 years and no issues with either castors on office chairs or even regular chairs sliding back and forth. but ours was higher end floors with a high wear layer.

I have the same problem and would never use this product (Flooring is Mannington Adura) again!

My experience in passive solar design gives me the knowledge to understand this products massive failures. Yes ... I have the same color and brand ... and that is not a coincidence. The dark color is very susceptible to any sunlight. The manufacture defines any sunlight as direct sunlight, even through a low e double pain window with a 50% screen/shade blind. This product has all the problems of vinyl decking ... but much worse since it is so thin and no wood content. What happens is that any radiant energy ... like sunlight heats the product to make it more flexible as well as expand it. Having a dark color ... and more insulating layers amplifies the problem. The manufacture recommends no padding or extra layers due to this issue. The ambient heat (room temp) is not the only temp here. It is more about the temp of the vinyl and how much different from the room temp. The angle of the winter sun will actually cause more energy to go passed a window, even though the sun energy in the winter is lower. This is all about the angle of incidence/refraction and can have the same effect on a glazed PV solar panel.

A skylight would have more summer solar radiation and less winter solar radiation.... assuming a low pitched roof in a mildly northern latitude.

I will have to remove floor and replace with a wood product. Dark colors of trex decking have issues of sagging and being to hot to walk on. It takes so much extra wood framing to support this plastic that you do not end up even reducing the amount of wood in a deck... but instead end up consuming more toxic treated woods. These products are just another way to consume more oil in a wasteful process that costs more than traditional products due to short life and continual replacement.

This flooring works great in my 4x4 closet with no window! A small dimension means less overall linear expansion!

Koi Solar

We are having a major issue with our LVF. It wasn't down 3 months when it started to unlock and cup on the long edges. I was told by the company rep that the baseboard was placed to "tight" to the floor. This was determined by sticking his business card under it in 2 spots. The floor is now breaking on edges and corners. We need to walk on it...it is a FLOOR...over 2,000 sq ft of it! Any suggestions?

Whose the company? Who installed it? i have Coretec floors in which the inspector (they farm it out) try to say the same. It was defective and rhe entire floor was replaced. Also, the sideboards can be removed and the edges cut back.

The company is MSI Everlife LV. It was installed by a family friend that does flooring as a side job. He has installed a lot fo flooring and has NEVER seen what is happening to mine happen anywhere.

Then, it must be defective. You could pull up the baseboard and take a picture showing the space. I would call the manufacturer up agian with the information. However, i would read the manufacturer’s warranty and care instructions. In my case, I was first told it was an installation issue. When a plank was actually sent back, there was acknowledgement that it was a manufacturing defect.

Quick question if anyone is still reading this. I purchased a new to me (old) house in July. It had been remodeled and NuCore vinly plank flooring was used. Some of the pieces are popping up and seperating in a couple of places. I can feel a high spot underneath the flooring pushing it up. Can I just get someone to come in and glue this down to keep in from coming up all together? I live in Central Texas and the temp's change thru the year. Maybe this has something to do with it. It is an older Pier and Beam home but everything was inspected and the foundation and house is level, not sinking or moving. Any suggestions?

I got United Weavers Saratoga Blonde Oak from Menard’s and it was buckling/coming apart at edges like a month after install. Menards themselves were horrible, but UW has gone out of their way to make it right. The 3rd party inspector found it was an installation issue. They are giving me new flooring-a MUCH a higher quality material at no cost to me.

But I am not happy with my installer. They are also going to rip out and put back in at no charge. Idk who is at fault-the manufacturer or installers.

John, I would ask a flooring contractor to take a look and give you feedback, if you can get one that is not involved with this installation to come out. It sounds like it could be that your flooring was not given the proper amount of room to float and expand, and the floor has nowhere to go, so it's being compressed in on itself. You don't want to glue it down unless it's approved for that. It could void your warranty and you might have a valid claim with either the installer or manufacturer.

Like-I had a 3rd party inspect mine. That is what they said. Planks were pushed too forcefully and have no room to move with temp changes. No clue why an installer would not know this???

Kristen, it's usually not the planks being installed too forcefully, because they are supposed to be installed with mallet to lock in the connection. If they were hit too hard together, it would crack the plank (sign of being hit too forcefully in one spot). 

The compression on the entire flooring system comes from not giving the manufacturer recommended expansion gap around the perimeter of the flooring (usually 1/2" minimum) for it to expand/contract, or placing heavy, immovable objects like cabinets on top of the flooring, rather than installing the flooring afterwards with the proper expansion gap.

Expansion gap? How would one know if this is the problem?

Kristen, if the flooring was installed before baseboards, the expansion gap is under there. If they installed it up to your baseboards and installed quarter round, it's under there. 

It would look something like this if you pulled off the baseboard. The spacers in this photo is what they use during installation to maintain the gap. It takes just one board being cut incorrectly or removing the spacers before they are finished to cause the issue.

This is during install. The first pic. The rest are what it looks like now.

All over the floor-living room, kitchen hall.

It's too hard for somebody to diagnose your situation over Houzz, and you really need an independent person to look at it once that quarter round is removed, but judging from that one photograph during installation, it looks really tight in a couple of spots on the circled wall, and no spacers on that wall either.

Yes, an independent person did inspect. They said it was an installation issue. So the spacers need to go around the whole perimeter I would imagine.

Stop buying flooring made in China that may help, cupping warping oh that's installation every time.
Just because a floorhas expanded doesn't mean it was cut flush in the first place.
They admit sunlight causes issues? Think about this, sunlight.  through a window harms

Any one remember Chinese drywall?
It cost home owners billions

my lifeproof floos are doing the same. the they are blaming moisture, but most of my floors are over ceramic.

Mt floors are doing the same

did you have Home Depot install your floors? did you make a complaint and could you give me more details? Maybe we could exchange infoformation .

No why would I have home depot do it?? I didn't get it at home depot. My unlicensed contractor put it in. He took the money and ran.still trying to get his dad for the window he broke

For installation, it's important to hire a contractor that is licensed, bonded, and has workers compensation insurance on every employee. Depending on your state, it should show how many employees are covered by the policy. This will always cost more - likely much more - than your unlicensed installer guy. It is way more expensive to have these things in place for your own protection.

This sight took all my reviews down,the unlicensed contractor, why would they take down my post when he's the one that's stealing money from all his people?? The only review is from his girlfriend.

Sequoia does not have a license nor are they bonded or insurance

They keep changing their name,lol they still are not licensed or bonded or have insurance

Going by a few names but they still come up with their

I have recently moved to Central Texas (Austin) and was planning to install Luxury Vinyl Plank floors. However, after reading many of the bad reviews on this and other sites (eg, buckling, scratching, shows/retains dirt, hard to clean, mold/mildew underneath the slabs, etc) I am really worried if I am making the right decision. It will cover about 1500 sq ft of my house so it will be a big investment. So I have a few questions:

1) How common are these problems with LVP (ie, rare occurrence or quite frequent)?

2) Any recommendations for types/brands of LVP which are not prone to these problems? I have seen a number of customer complaints for Coretec, which the flooring stores have been telling me is top of the line!

3) The LVP will be installed on the first floor - so on the concrete slab. I have never had a concrete slab foundation before so have no idea of what issues these may have. Is moisture a concern with these and if so, what can be done to address this? Any other concerns with installation of LVP on concrete slab?

4) I have pets (cats) - is it likely to get scratched up significantly?

5) How can I go about making sure that it is installed correctly? Is getting a well-rated flooring store to take care of it the best way to ensure this?

Thank you in advance!

Hi Hu,

1) How common are these problems with LVP (ie, rare occurrence or quite frequent)?

Keep in mind that this is a complaint thread, so it will look way worse. Vinyl plank floors can serve a good purpose - like where you otherwise might have installed laminate - but can also be installed by knuckleheads without much knowledge about building science.

2) Any recommendations for types/brands of LVP which are not prone to these problems? I have seen a number of customer complaints for Coretec, which the flooring stores have been telling me is top of the line!

Coretec is the market leader and owned by US Floors. You'll see more complaints about them because they're installed a lot. It's a quality product for LVP.

3) The LVP will be installed on the first floor - so on the concrete slab. I have never had a concrete slab foundation before so have no idea of what issues these may have. Is moisture a concern with these and if so, what can be done to address this? Any other concerns with installation of LVP on concrete slab?

They are approved but you will want to ensure you have the proper preparation or underlayment in place per the manufacturer recommendation and local building codes.

4) I have pets (cats) - is it likely to get scratched up significantly?

It's less prone to scratching than laminate or wood, but is not scratch proof.

5) How can I go about making sure that it is installed correctly? Is getting a well-rated flooring store to take care of it the best way to ensure this?

Hire a quality flooring contractor that has good reviews, and make sure to ask them specific questions like you are doing here. Interview 3 of them and ask how they will address change of room direction, baseboards, door jams, and connections to other flooring. Get details and do not hire the cheap guy!

Thank you in advance!

Thank you very much for the useful feedback, Luke.

My flooring is doing the same thing after 3 years. It was installed over clean concrete with plenty of room around the perimeter for movement. I keep my house at 78. I'm at a loss for what to do about it? Any help with this issue. The brand is Blue Lake

LVP is NOT water proof and a damp slab in direct contact will destroy them! Now the manufactures recomend a vapor barrier but they didnt used too, wonder why??? Also, the floor better be perfectly flat or the locks will fail the break !!! High density laminates are a safer bet and dont have the water issued the cheap ones do!!