Vinyl Flooring Expansion Gap Too Big

The recommended expansion gap is a minimum of inch.

Vinyl flooring expansion gap too big.

Floating floor installation is also ideal when installing new laminate engineered or luxury vinyl flooring lvf over an existing floor like ours that sits atop an older tile floor. When installing floating vinyl floors it is necessary to allow for this expansion by leaving a gap around the perimeter of the floor or anywhere it meets another floor or vertical surface. Vinyl flooring naturally expands and contracts in the heat and cold. If the floor is installed flush with the wall there is no room for growth in the hot months and the loose lay floor can easily buckle.

You just leave 1 4 inch between the wall and planks. Expert installers say that the larger the space the larger the expansion gap should be as the floor needs more space to expand and contract with temperature. Since laminate flooring is a floating floor it is not attached to the sub floor and sits on top of the underlayment. Stop the floor between a quarter inch and a half inch shy of the wall to allow for this natural expansion.

Vinyl is susceptible to temperature changes in its ambient environment which will cause the vinyl flooring to expand and contract with normal hot and cold fluctuations. Read the manufacturer s instructions but generally 1 4 5 16 of gap along the wall measured from the bottom plate if your drywall is 1 2 off the floor as it should be is ample expansion space and easily covered by the baseboard. Vinyl plank doesn t need lots of expansion gaps. Just enough to absorb the smaller amount of expansion a bonded vinyl floor moves.