Installation in a round house, many questions

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ragtop69gs

Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2022
Messages
5
Location
upstate SC
This install will be in my 15 sided round house 38 foot diameter over ceramic tile. the floor is AquaGuard Salerno waterproof 12mm laminate and will be in every room in the house except the bathroom. 1045 SQ/FT. I've put down many other click lock vinyl floors in the past but all were in your normal square rooms.
First question would be, do you see any potential issues going over the tile? I picked a 12mm thick floor to hopefully eliminate any telegraphing of the tile. Would an underlayment be necessary or beneficial? Where to start would be my next question, very little in this house is at 90 degree angles! I'm attaching some pictures to help you visualize this project.

Thank you for any advise or suggestions.
 

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I would find the longest shot through the house and start there. You already have ceramic tile down to follow as a reference line.
Glue down some scab boards that you can bump against and start your installation from there. When you finish one side of the house you remove the scab boards and work the other direction.
 
That floor's pretty textured. It should be rendered flat prior to installing the laminate. Often times with ceramic/porcelain/stone, you can have a few "proud" tiles that might put you outside of the flatness requirements for the floor. Overall, leveling the grout joints and any other irregularities will make for a better installation. While this product has an attached cushion, the number one point of failure for any floating floor is failing to render the floor flat enough. It should be within 1/8" in 6' or 3/16" in 10" span. If you don't have a 6' or bigger metal straight edge, then use a piece of string and some tape and you can check it that way.

It's kind of hard to tell from your pictures, but I think it's worth mentioning since it looks like there could be a fairly decent run through the diameter of the house. There are limits to the amount of flooring that can be connected in any given direction. The rule of thumb is 50 ft in length or width. You won't find this written in the instructions anywhere but generally if you go over that maximum you need to add an 1/8" of expansion space to the normal recommended expansion for every 10' you're over around the entire perimeter. So, if your over 50' but up to 60' then you'd add an 1/8" to the expansion space. If you're 61-70' then you'd add 1/4" to the expansion space, and so on.

@C.J. is on it with how to get started. About the only way you could do it with a shape like that and stay straight.

That's a pretty cool house you've got there! Hope all goes smoothly for you and wish you the best with your project.

Edit: Sorry, I just went and looked at the installation instructions for that specific product and the manufacturer is calling for 1/2" expansion. 80 ft. max in any direction. Most laminate floors don't usually require that big of a gap but this one does. I would definitely take that as the product being susceptible to seasonal expansion and contraction and plan accordingly.
 
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I would find the longest shot through the house and start there. You already have ceramic tile down to follow as a reference line.
Glue down some scab boards that you can bump against and start your installation from there. When you finish one side of the house you remove the scab boards and work the other direction.
Thanks CJ, on every other floor I've done I always worked from left to right laying the floor, what challenges will I encounter going in the opposite direction?
 
That floor's pretty textured. It should be rendered flat prior to installing the laminate. Often times with ceramic/porcelain/stone, you can have a few "proud" tiles that might put you outside of the flatness requirements for the floor. Overall, leveling the grout joints and any other irregularities will make for a better installation. While this product has an attached cushion, the number one point of failure for any floating floor is failing to render the floor flat enough. It should be within 1/8" in 6' or 3/16" in 10" span. If you don't have a 6' or bigger metal straight edge, then use a piece of string and some tape and you can check it that way.

It's kind of hard to tell from your pictures, but I think it's worth mentioning since it looks like there could be a fairly decent run through the diameter of the house. There are limits to the amount of flooring that can be connected in any given direction. The rule of thumb is 50 ft in length or width. You won't find this written in the instructions anywhere but generally if you go over that maximum you need to add an 1/8" of expansion space to the normal recommended expansion for every 10' you're over around the entire perimeter. So, if your over 50' but up to 60' then you'd add an 1/8" to the expansion space. If you're 61-70' then you'd add 1/4" to the expansion space, and so on.

@C.J. is on it with how to get started. About the only way you could do it with a shape like that and stay straight.

That's a pretty cool house you've got there! Hope all goes smoothly for you and wish you the best with your project.

Edit: Sorry, I just went and looked at the installation instructions for that specific product and the manufacturer is calling for 1/2" expansion. 80 ft. max in any direction. Most laminate floors don't usually require that big of a gap but this one does. I would definitely take that as the product being susceptible to seasonal expansion and contraction and plan accordingly.
Thanks CFR, Believe it or not there are very few proud tiles and none loose in this 22 year old tile floor, I planned to hit those proud tiles with a grinder before laying the LVT. Would those grout lines really present a problem since the flooring is12mm in thickness and is pretty stiff?

Thanks for catching that! I missed that when I looked. The 1/2" expansion gap may be a deal killer, 1/2" 1/4 round would probably make my better half cringe and under cutting every inch of base molding throughout the house doesn't sound like something I want to do!
 
Working backwards can be a bit more time consuming if for no other reason than simply because you’re working backwards, but if you understand how to click planks together you’ll be just fine. I’ve found that some products install quite nicely in both directions and some are a PITA. Aquaguard is a pretty friendly product to install in either direction so you shouldn’t have any problems.

As far as left to right vs right to left, the planks themselves determine which direction you work from based on which end of the plank has a tongue or a groove. You generally want to lay down the groove side first and the next plank, the tongue side, will click into the groove. So even though you may be working backwards in regards to your long joints, you would ideally still be working in whatever direction the planks butt joints dictate otherwise you’re working backwards squared😳.

Be aware of where you cut your planks at because that stuff has a blue core and you’ll get blue sawdust everywhere. It’s a real fine dust and I do mean it will get everywhere. The dust will float around and you’ll track it around while you’re working. If you cut in a confined area without some sort of dust containment you’ll have blue boogers at the end of the day as well. I use a jigsaw hooked up to a HEPA vac. If you don’t have a setup like that you may want to just cut outside, but not right outside the entrance because dust will waft back in with you when you go back in.
 
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Did some Aquaguard today. Did they change up their formula? They used to have a blue core, now it’s grey. Still looks the same other than the color difference but I noticed the planks chip pretty easily this time around. Not saying I’ve never chipped a plank before but definitely noticed they chip and get damaged a lot easier while installing them today.

Figured that was worth mentioning since you’re about to pop a few bucks for a product that may have changed a bit for the worse.

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I made the same basic suggestions as CJ, but on your other post. Of course I pick the wrong one. I didn't catch the fact that you were installing over ceramic, so I'll add that a hot melt glue gun works slick for sticking the scab pieces in place. I just use the bundles of inexpensive craft stick, in my old Orcon gun.
 

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