Downs, Invincible, Resista, & Dynaclic are all the same LVT. Carpet One stores sell it as Invincible, Pro-Source sells it as Resista. When you order the product, the boxes have all 4 brand names printed. We have used it in a few custom boat house & customers love it!

Kitchen/Laundry/Bathroom Rooms--can the appliances go on top of the Downs flooring? Refrigerator? Washer/Dryer? Stove? What are the specs or weight load? Anyone? (Thank you in advance)....

I did talk with a tech rep concerning my installation in a hall bath. He recommended that I do not put the single vanity on top of the floor. Pedistal sinks and sinks with legs are fine. The problem is not with the planks moving but it is with the structure moving. I put the vanity on top of it anyway about a month ago and have not had any problems yet. I would not recommend putting a frig or anything real heavy on it. I love the floor.

My refrigerator is on the floor, as are all of my appliances. I haven't experienced any problems with this.

That makes me feel better about putting my vanity on it.

My wife and I love the look of our new Downs LVT and hope it wears as described. As far as installation goes, I have installed a variety of flooring products, and this was by far the most difficult for a number of reasons. It did not score and snap as expected. I gave up on the utility knife with new, heavy duty blades, and used a "chop saw" for the cross cuts, a table saw for the long cuts, and a multi-tool for the short, "L" cuts. You have to be extremely careful to make sure the planks fit tightly together and stay together, without a hairline gap. Check and re-check. I did this and still ended up with one hairline separation in the middle of the floor. Several times a very small piece on the leading edge of the butt end tongue would bend up and prevent the leading edge of the joining piece to not seat fully. If that happens, take it apart and break off the small bent up piece. I did a kitchen (and hall), so with the cabinets, including an island, I had six inside corners and seven outside corners to cut around/for, plus two transitions to carpet, plus under a slide-in range, so this was extremely slow. Layout before you begin is critical so that you don't end up with a one inch strip along a wall. It would be much different in a large open space. Appliances present problems--you have to be able to set a heavy refrigerator on the floor but I do not know if the rollers will indent it or not. I wish I had an answer. Our supplier recommended a three inch glue strip at the five-foot transition to the carpet. That made sense. But as indicated elsewhere, apparently transition strips are not available (for example, from LVT to tile or vinyl). One more thing: Out of 15 boxes, at least four of the pieces had a one-half inch dull finish strip at the tongue end. I cut this off to use the rest as a starter piece, but if missed, the dull finish would show up badly. On the plus side, if you are going over an existing floor and aren't in a big hurry, you can stop at any time and do more later.

I co-own a business called Home At The Beach on the Long Beach Peninsula in Long Beach, WA. We have a Design business and carry Downs LVT and it is our biggest seller! I also have installed in my personal home. It is a fantastic product and it wears beautifully. We have our frig, dishwasher, stove and washer and dryer on top with no problem. I have attached photos.

This message is for Lisa Jovicic - I have someone installing this product in a new harley motorcyle dealership. The new tires on the new motorcycles are leaving a yellow stain on the product. Why and how to remove? thank you

@mtnviewflr...Oh no. You have just discovered one of the few things that will discolour vinyl = natural and synthetic rubber. This discolouration is a chemical reaction between the rubber tires and the floor. In essence the tires are causing chemical 'burns' on this floor. There is cure for this. There is no way to reverse the stains. Other than putting down NATURAL FIBRE matting underneath the bikes if they are standing for more than an hour or two the only cure is a new floor.

Just like rubber mats will turn sheet vinyl "yellow" so too the rubber tires have just stained the floor. Sadly this means LVT (any vinyl in this case) and linoleum are not recommended for use with natural and many synthetic rubbers. I'm sorry but this floor may have to come out if they don't like the stains.

Thank you for answering my question. I will forward this to the customer. have a great day!

I am wondering what color floors @Home at the Beach used...any info would be great!

Hi @ladyhoye our biggest seller in color is Cheyenne as displayed in the pics above. Thank you, Home At The Beach

Cancork Floor Inc - regarding the use of natural or synthetic rubbers on LVT. Does this include chair tips & casters? To help preserve LVT thought we'd use chair tips & casters, as our dining room chairs killed our last flooring.

The Downs luxury vinyl plank is a great product that is gentle on the wallet. We are a Flooring America store in CT and have installed the product in both residential and Main Street commercial settings. It holds up well. I notice in this feed that many people do not know about Versatrim who manufactures quality transitions that work well with LVP and LVT. Their LVT SlimTrim works great for transitioning to most other floors. Their VersaEdge stair nosing is, of course, your stair solution. Many color choices to blend with most every floor out there and so much better looking than the metals I see so many installers use.

We installed Downs Resista Luxury Vinyl Tile last year. We have it both our bathrooms and love it there but the hard wood look Resista tile is horrible to maintain.

We have a pool and were looking for a waterproof surface to put in the great room area which would be the high traffic area coming in and out of the house to the pool . As much as we love the waterproof aspect and the look of the Resista, it is a pain in the you know what to clean and maintain. There is no product recommendation for cleaning this flooring. With a dog and mud, it usually looks pretty crappy. I had an easier time keeping our hard wood floors looking clean than this stuff. No matter how I clean it (hands and knees or a mop), the minute you walk on it, you see foot prints and streaks. I contacted Carpet One where we purchased the product from and they had no recommendations as to what to use on the floor. They suggested trying Armstrong No Rinse for vinyl floors but it created a white coating on the floor which made it look every worse. If ANYONE knows how to clean this so it looks as good as the day it was put down, I would love to hear what you are using.

To those wondering about putting cabinets and heavy appliances on the Downs Flooring, we put bathroom cabinets, kitchen cabinets and kitchen appliances as well as a stackable washer and dryer on the flooring and have had no problems at all!

I am reading all the comments about rubber staining. What about the Anti--Fatigue Mats? The one I have is a polyurethane foam. But it looks and feels like rubber. Would this also discolor it, or it is just the chemistry of the vinyl flooring and "rubber"? I'm not sure what "Synthetic rubber" would be

Rubber = from the rubber tree. Synthetic Rubber = man made (like polyurethane, polyethylene, urethane, etc). The mats you are looking for will state: Safe for Use with Hardwood and Vinyl...

The "plasticizers" in the rubber/latex/synthetic materials are what cause the upset. These plasticizers make plastic/rubber "soft" and "maliable". They might be dangers to vinyl (low end) or they might be safe for use with vinyl (quite expensive).

If in doubt, get something else....or take an off-cut plank and lay the mat over the off-cut for 1-2 months. Make sure it sits in sunlight or is somehow exposed to 'heat'. If the mat is goind to discolour the vinyl, it will do it faster with a bit of help from sunlight.

Contact the maker of the mat and see if there is a statement from them that says "Guaranteed Safe" for use with vinyl. Some companies will back up their statements with guarantees to help repair the floor if it gets damaged.

We had Downs LVT installed in our home in 2013. We love the product but now 3 years later it is beginning to shift and now we have gaps in several places. The gaps are in all of the rooms that it was installed in. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? It makes me sick to see this happening.

Is it a click together floor? Is it "loose lay"? Is it glue down? Are there transitions used between rooms? Like thresholds used in doorways? Is this in a basement?

Heating/cooling or humidity swings? Vinyl is more dynamic than anyone thought. That means vinyl floors "move" more than anyone thought possible. Many companies are changing install policies to include expansion gaps at walls and through doorways.

If you want some GREAT advice and fast responses:

www.thefloorpro.com

Get some photos because diagnosis of the problem will hange on the "look in the photos". The single largest reason for vinyl to 'unzip' = wavy subfloor. Vinyl REALLY needs FLAT...FLAT...FLAT. If underpad was used, that would be THE OTHER reason for gaps. Vinyl doesn't like "under pad". It is different to laminate = it doesn't accept under pad very happily.

It is the click, and we used no under pad. It went down over plywood if I remember correctly. I will take some pictures. No moisture issues, no transitions, it is in kitchen, laundry and bathroom. No glue used.

For anyone who hasn't figure out who actually makes this product, it's US Floors. The product is actually called COREtec Plus and the manufacturer private labels it for many companies. Many of these private label products have specific color lines not available elsewhere. Otherwise the product is identical. There is also a lesser product called COREtec One that has a thinner surface and no cork back. This is often private labelled as well. There are a number of other brands too that make their own version of this product now and license the technology from US Floors.

http://www.usfloorsllc.com/display-category/coretec-plus/

When I was out shopping for COREtec Plus floors at Flooring America, the owner showed me the Downs LVT because (he claimed) the embossed texture on the plank synched up nicely with the knotholes and grain variation on the vinyl yielding a more realistic wood-look.

@kmsstrong: "no transitions, it is in a kitchen, laundry and bathroom". I'm going to guess that this floor needed transitions through the doorways. This is one of the things the manufacturers of vinyl planks are discovering: they are still floating floors which means they should probably have transitions in doorways.

At the time, the installation instructions did not mention transitions through doorways. Some of these instructions have changed (some CoreTec stuff has changed...they are now recommending somethings that they left out before).

Again: photos of the gaps...pay close attention to where the gaps are occurring. Are they somewhere AROUND a doorway? How about somewhere in the neighborhood of a heavy object sitting on it....like a washer/fridge/toilette.

The last place to look at why this floor is upset: the flatness of the subfloor. This is the other piece of the puzzle when it comes to vinyl planks that are "unzipping" at the seams.

I was thinking about using this flooring in the bottom floor of my home, in my bedroom I have a king size waterbed. With it being free floating is it ok to install the bed on top of it?

We are installing this flooring in our house . My question is about the floor contracting and expanding. Since we are installing it in the summer can we expect any noticeable contacting of the floor this winter? We are concerned it will gap by the baseboard . We are installing with the recommended gap around the edges of the room.

I am considering installing this,product in a basement which was recently flooded due to a sump pump failure. The basement hall and family room have sheet vinyl installed over concrete. Do I need to take up the sheet vinyl first? Do I need any sort of underlayment or vapor barrier? Lastly in the basement bathroom we will be taking up the sheet vinyl because it was severely damaged in the flood from the sump pump but I want to know if we should take the toilet up and put the flooring under the toilet and then reinstall the toilet or try to install around the toilet base?

Hi Kathy I co-own a design business called Home At The Beach in Long Beach, WA. and we carry Downs LVT. It is a fabulous product. I personally have it in my own home. We have put down this product in kitchens and bathrooms. We would suggest you take up your toilet then reinstall for a more finished look. You do not need any sort of underlayment or vapor barrier. The LVT has a rubber back.

Good luck on your project!

With warm regards,

Home At The Beach

I am looking at installing this throughout my home. are transition pieces now available, and do they have narrow and wide planks so I can mix it up for a nice look.

We are considering installing Downs LVT in a home we purchased in Colorado. We want to use it through out the entire living space. It does get cold in the winter however it is in the Buena Vista area so it does have a more moderate climate. We are hoping to find someone in that area who is experienced in installing this product. We like this product because it is fairly easy on the wallet and we plan on doing some renovations later where we might remove some walls so it will be more forgiving than installing hardwoods or porcelain tile throughout. Anyone in a colder climate have this product?

I have an instal happening now of the Downs Vinyl Flooring. The box says COREtec technology.Distributed by USFloors in Dalton, GA. Made in China. US Patent# 9,156,233. Waterproof; ECO friendly; Pet friendly. These are planks I ordered. Color is Capital Peak.

I am trying to scratch it myself and it is difficult. I have a 25 lb dog and he can't scratch it either. I dremel my dog's nails myself; btw.

I chose not to have this in any room that has water such as kitchen, laundry, and bath. This has a cork underside and I chose to have it glued down. You don't have to glue it down. I am having installers put it in.

Just a note for you. This product is completely waterproof throughout and that includes the cork. We use a ton of this in wet areas for this exact reason. Don't fear to use it in those areas you mentioned due to fears about water resistance. It is fully warranted.

I understand that the Downs vinyl floor planks are waterproof. I chose not to have it in my bath, laundry, and kitchen because I liked the tiles in those rooms.

We are considering installing the Downs flooring on the 2nd floor of our home. Most of the posts indicate use in a kitchen, laundry room or basement, so I'm wondering if there might be issues on an upper floor. We have some fairly substantial bedroom furniture, so would also appreciate comments on concerns their weight might cause.

We install Coretech and similar products throughout entire houses pretty frequently. We also install it in commercial applications with heavy rolling traffic. We've never had any issues with it. The thing about large heavy furniture is the concern that it will pin the floor in place so it can't move with changes in the house. If you leave a good sized expansion joint around the perimeter and use transitions in your doorways this should not cause any issues. In some extreme situations such as a slate pool table and gun safe sitting on the floor, we've undercut the baseboard and installed quarter round to finish the floor. This gives it 3/4"-1" of expansion under the trim. It's highly unlikely the house framing will have nearly enough expansion/contraction to cause any issues with that much room to move.

The original Downs Plank available at the beginning of this thread was from IVC and was a solid vinyl click edge product, one of the thinner solid vinyl planks without the core or attached cork of Coretec. Downs H20 plank which is much newer is private labelled Coretec from US Floors (purchased by Shaw last spring).

The original click solid vinyl flooring had recipe issues due to partial recycled content coming from overseas. Due to a flood of field failures the recipe was quickly changed (this was ALL the click lvt, not just the Downs or IVC products) to only recycling from in their own plant. Those problems manifested in the material expanding, warping, "bubbling" in areas of high light/heat like near warm windows, heat vents, under skylights.

The sliding issue I have seen mentioned in a couple of posts is usually shorter pieces around cabinetry "sliding" along the click into expansion gaps or under cabinets. This is an easy fix remove baseboards, unclick product, move back into place and add a small amount of vinyl glue to the click when you reset the product. I have had this come up on two jobs, both times in a kitchen where small pieces moved under cabinetry. Like I said, this is an easy fix.

Question for those who have used Downs in the bathroom. How did you install the floating floor along the bathtub or shower. Did you use caulk or grout in the gap along the bathtub? Is that the recommended solution? Thanks.

Has anyone recently installed the Downs H20 by click and lock? How much of a expansion joint are you supposed to do?

Don't buy it! We purchased a house with it so warranty doesn't apply. Product is cupping and separating although the advertising states this will never happen. Definitely mislead about this "wonderful product".

madison3378, this is highly unlikely to be a product issue. If it's truly "cupping", i.e. each plank is actually curving up off the floor, then that would be a product defect. If it's "peaking" at the seams that is a different issue and likely caused by improper installation. If the installer did not honor the required expansion joint, especially around the perimeter of the room, then when your house moves with seasonal changes it will contract around the floor and squeeze it causing it to peak at the seams. Enough of that will also break the joint between the boards. When it relaxes again at the next temperature change those broken seams can gap open as there is nothing holding them together once broken. It's unfortunate you are having this issue, but I doubt product warranty would have covered it regardless. This same issue can occur with any floating floor such as laminate or engineered. Sadly, the vast majority of product claims I've seen stem from installation errors instead of product defects. This is especially true with homeowners doing their own installation without doing proper research or without being properly informed of the installation process by the supplier of the flooring. It's also far too common with "professional" installers who also don't familiarize themselves with the proper installation methods or just flat out cut corners to save time. The product always gets blamed though and this is often unfair.

Well, I did the research and made a call. Down's H20 is one of the Shaw Flooring products. If you give Shaw corporate offices a call you can find out what other names their products are sold. This is sold at Flooring America Stores.

Yes Shaw bought US Floors a couple years ago. I'm not sure if Downs is all Coretec or if they've expanded the line now. Flooring America is known for constructing their own displays with a mixture of products from different manufacturers. There are a lot of these types of floors on the market now for them to choose from. Shaw's equivalent product will be US Floors Coretec lines or Shaw's own line labelled as Floorte. There are several different levels of product withing these lines. Not all patterns will carry over though. Some Flooring America designs are made specifically for them.

I just had Downs H2O installed professionally. It is really beautiful. No problems thus far but it's only been 2 weeks.

I Appreciate all the comments on this thread, I am about to order 4rooms worth of Downs H20 for my new home. The home is open concept, so I wonder if the larger expanse of the kitchen, dining, living rooms could cause problems...the only possible transition Strip area would be where the living room feeds into the 4th rm (master bedroom) where this flooring will also be installed.

Has anybody installed Callatin Mount Vista by Downs H2O? I’m looking for some photos.

Does Downs H20 flooring have any certifications when it comes to Low VOC and phthalate free materials used? I have been looking all over internet nd nothing to be found regarding health and safety.

Why can't I find what the wear layer is on Downs H2O Mount Vista Premiere LVP flooring specs?

Is the downs h2o rigid core? (I'm looking at the 5 star velda village) is it wpc or spc? Also is the 5mm including the pad? I cant find good specs on it anywhere. Thanks for any

Where is Downs Lvp manufactured? Taking 5+ months to get here..I'd just as soon pick it up myself

can this product be installed over radiant hydronic heating