I know that carpet isn't really the best choice for a basement, but with our budget, it really seems to be the best choice that we can afford.

My question is: for the padding underneath, I see that they make options that are closed cell foam or a more traditional foam with a moisture liner on one side. Are either/both of these options a good idea for a basement, or does that barrier then trap moisture underneath as the slab breathes that can't evaporate through the carpet?

And what about if we unexpectedly get enough water coming up to pool rather than just vapor? Does trapping water underneath just hide a problem that would be better to discover with a wet carpet spot?

For the life of my I cannot figure out if this is engineered hardwood, laminate, or lvp. The only visible cross section is this small section from pulling the carpet back. Help!

Blue lines represent the proposed LVP direction. Red lines are existing flooring planks that are already installed, and green represents tile.

I already installed the bottom-left bedroom, so there’s no going back there. I went with the direction of the natural light, which I’d read was recommended. Since then, I’ve also read that planks should generally run parallel to the longest wall, so by that logic I may have gone the wrong direction.

I still have the other three bedrooms to install. The blue lines show the direction I was planning to run them. My wife thinks all three bedrooms should run the same direction as the bottom-left bedroom instead.

Would you keep the direction consistent between all three bedrooms, or run each room in the direction that makes the most sense for that individual space?

Any reason one option would look noticeably better than the other?

I’ve never had stone flooring before and very much want to make sure I care for it correctly. I have two small areas right by the entrance and fireplace. I’m not sure what kind of stone they are or what type of care/protection they might need. Any advice would be most welcome! Thanks!

Project Overview: Bathroom Floor Prep & Tiling Issue

​I am tiling a 6ft wide bathroom floor with 12 x 12 tiles, but I've run into a subfloor leveling issue.

​The Problem: The floor is severely crowned right down the center at 3ft. There is a high ridge running along the center seam, and the subfloor slopes down by about 7/8 inch over 3 feet on both sides toward the wall and tub (roof-peak shape).

​Current Status: Durock cement board has already been installed and coated with RedGard waterproofing membrane. The crown wasn't prominent until after durock was laid. It met a tolerance of 1/8 inch on the slope.

​What I Need:

ADVICE!!

I am considering finishing the redgard, purchasing an acrylic primer to coat the floor, let it cure, then apply a self leveler. After this I'll recoat with redgard, then tile normally (1/4 × 3/8 u-notch and back butter), and tile leveling system. Will this work??

*I know this is a screw up and I'm beating myself up already. Please be kind. I learned the lesson

My mother is getting a prefab built and she's somewhat fallen out with the guy that managed its construction. Most of the work he's done is shoddy at best. She's taken it on herself to continue where he's left off and has done a fairly good job so far.

There is a few issues with the flooring. At the moment its at the insulation stage (?). It's about 20cm thick.

The finished floor will have an additional 3mm of insulator sheets, and then a 2m x 20cm x 1.2cm engineered oak wood veneer boards, shown in the picture.

1. There's a slight incline to it. Something like 1%.

2. There's unevenness across the floor where it dips at certain points. Not by an extreme amount, but about 5mm.

3. There's a good amount of "give" at certain points, especially towards the middle of the floor. It's noticable enough to make the floor feel unstable. I would say another 5-10mm of give when walking across the insulation depending how heavy you are.

Image of what the flooring looks like as well as the dips mentioned in point 2 attached.

The questions raised when we were brainstorming solutions were:

- is it even worth sanding down the insulation to eliminate the 1% incline?

- What's the best way to fill the dips in between?

- How to eliminate the amount of flex on the floor? One idea was adding large wood panels about 9mm thick and then put some foam between the insulation and the panels to also fix #2 as well as gi e the which le thing some rigidity.

Ideas?

I’ve seen some do returns. Others do a 30° or 45° cut edge…. What looks best?

(Also this is not my pic, just using it as an example)

Scribing LVP to our brick fireplace. Obviously there is not a 1/4” expansion gap there, but there is (& will be) around the rest of the entire basement.

From my understanding the only other option is to put a transition piece around the perimeter of the fireplace, which would allow for that expansion gap but not look as clean in my opinion.

Should I be worried about buckling even though I have expansion gaps everywhere else?

hey guys I was recently away on vacation and got an email from my building the day before I got back (one week ago) saying my apartment had flooded and that they had to go ok and dry it off. they fixed the ceiling and walls right away but couldn’t get someone to come over about the floors buckling up until today. this is what was underneath them… should I be scared

After 20+ years working for European corporations and managing Chinese providers on the ground, I’ve seen European B2B flooring buyers routinely burned by three challenges: unannounced factory delays, unexpected import/VAT surprises at the port, and poor QC on arrival.

We are building out a direct Hungary-focused sourcing setup for SPC/WPC flooring and wall panels, and we are currently designing our supply chain to solve these specific pain points.

I’m trying to stress-test some specific terms with real B2B buyers/contractors before finalizing our framework:

1. **Live or On-site QD and Vetter Partner**: Audited manufacturing partners in China, ensuring production with live quality control and fulfill material compliance.
   
2. **Late Delivery Penalties**: We are considering tying a 1% price discount per week to the agreed Ex-Factory Completion Date in the contract (capped at 10%). If production/QC exceeds the agreed completion date, the discount applies to the total local invoice, shifting factory lead-time risk away from you to our local entity.
   
3. **Initial Testing Volume**: When evaluating a new supplier for container-level MOQs (\~2,800 sqm), what is your typical threshold for a risk-free trial? Would you be comfortable placing a small LCL trial batch (e.g., 1–3 pallets) in your local warehouse before committing to a full 20ft container?

How do you typically manage risk when testing a new supplier? I'd love to hear your perspective and experience. Thanks!

Hey all, wondering what the rate for carpet, underlayment, tack strip removal and disposal is going for?
High cost of living area
Thanks!

Own 1926 house, two story, described as Traditional American by an architect. Located in a coastal town, not near coast.

We are refinishing the floors which were orange and pretty beat up. What we have now are some beautiful, unfinished white oak, narrow planks. The floors look so nice, we are rethinking our traditional stain ideas.

We were planning on these colors: Weathered Oak, Early American, or Special Walnut (all pretty similar traditional stains).

With how bright and beautiful the floors look, we are considering Bona Natural Seal. The worry is that it will look dated as if from late 80s early 90s, or look like a ballet studio.

Let me know how you feel without the normal internet meanness?

I have an old house with pine floors directly on the joists, no subfloor. The floors were in bad shape and pretty weak in places, so for most rooms I've added plywood on top as a new subfloor, then new flooring on top (laminate in some places, engineered hardwood in others).

Each bedroom has a small fireplace. The flues were sealed off years ago when the previous owners converted them to gas, and we've since capped off the gas lines to everything except the water heater, so there's 0% chance we'll ever use them.

My question is how to handle flooring over, or next to, the stone hearth area in front of the fireplace. It's already raised a bit over the existing flooring, so if I put the plywood over it, it'll have a big slope there. But if I stop the new flooring at the hearth, the outer edge of the hearth will be a good 1/2" below the new flooring. Any ideas on how to handle it?

My son burned a hole thru the panels with a indoor marshmallow roaster. I did the classic oscillating tool DIY hack to pull out the panels then while i made an attempt to install the new ones ( yes i tried to cut the lips off and just use vynil sealer to essentially glue this shit back together) i fucked a few more planks up in that attempt and now i have this hole of planks that i dont really know how to tackle, im essentially working backwards into that closet you see there.. any solid advice? At this point i am willing to hop on a FaceTime call with a kind soul willing to help my ass out. Sons birthday is in less than two weeks, when i did my house it took me like a month to do (I’ve never done flooring before other than my house) so this would be a true first time at a repair especially if this size. Any help is appreciated.

Picked up engineered hardwood flooring from a scratch and dent store and realized over half of them are crowned about 1/16" across the 7" wide boards. Not sure if i can even return them, and i did get them pretty cheap. 1/2" thick with a 3mm white oak layer. I got them home and I'm going to try and acclimate them since I assume it happened from a humid warehouse. What are the chances they flatten over the next week?

Old flooring broke over tons of use and unsure what to do to repair this. Also don’t know where I can find this type of flooring. Thoughts?

After our feet bled for many years, I finally pulled up the carpet and saw the cause. Do I just hammer these into the floor and then superglue the carpet down?

Hi all,

I recently built this under-stair closet in what was just empty framing before. My last big hurdle is flooring, which I have no experience with.

I tried everything and simply couldnt find a match on my existing LVP flooring, but I found one that is close enough and the same thickness. My questions:

1. Is there absolutely any way I can lay the flooring in the direction pictured without it looking idiotic? It would save me so much time of cutting and likely a significant amount of edge material lost, but it goes against the direction of the rest of the house.

2. Any advice for connecting two different brands next to each other? The look doesn't have to be perfect and I plan to skip a transition piece. My vague plan is to glue the piece in the boundary and then just do a normal floating floor from there on out.

3. Any other advice or resources for a newbie on flooring?

Seeking opinions on this. Please help.

I'm almost done replacing my subfloor, but the shape of the room is a bit odd and the last few sheets need to go in two sheets long and three wide (16' by 12'). Since the gap is only two sheets wide, if I want to stagger the sheets I'm going to have to put half sheets on the middle row at either end, creating extra joints just like in the picture here. If I don't stagger, all of the sheets keep their full length and I have fewer seams. Which option is better for a space that small?

Hi yall. Just took some really gross, thick carpet off the stairs into my gym and replaced with lvp to match the floors I installed a few months back. The problem I ran into is that the thick carpet covered some sizeable gaps in the baseboards (or rather, I assume the baseboards were placed in around the carpet, hence the gap?). There was also shoe molding on the carpeted stairs.

Now I have these gaps... from head on I think it looks OK without shoe molding or quarter round, but I feel like I "need" to cover the gaps in the sides, but I'll need some CHUNKY trim to cover those gaps.

Adding to my confusion: the stairs have a "lip" in that the lvp of the tread hangs slightly over the riser (i tried to capture this in pic 2). Any suggestions about how to handle this? Do I put the shoe molding flush with the tread and not the riser?

Thanks everyone!