Laminate and LVP flooring installation in Apex, NC

The subfloor decides how the floor turns out

A floating floor follows whatever is beneath it. Any dip or hump greater than about three-sixteenths of an inch over ten feet will telegraph through, and on a click-lock product an unsupported spot puts stress on the joint until it separates and starts to click underfoot. Getting the subfloor flat is the difference between a floor that stays tight and one that develops problems in the second year.

Most houses in this area are one of two constructions. Newer builds across Apex, Cary and Morrisville are generally plywood or OSB over joists, sometimes on a slab at the first floor of a townhome. Older houses, particularly in Durham, are plank or plywood over a crawlspace. Each needs a different check.

Crawlspace houses need the moisture situation understood before anything goes down. If the crawlspace has no vapor barrier or has standing water after rain — which is common in Piedmont clay, where water sits rather than drains — moisture moves up through the subfloor into the new flooring. That is a waterproofing problem, and putting a floor over it just hides it for a year.

Slabs need a moisture test and the right underlayment with a vapor retarder. Concrete releases moisture for a long time, and a slab that reads dry to the touch can still be well above the limit for a glued or floating floor.

Squeaks, and the moment to fix them

The one opportunity that gets missed is the window between the old floor coming up and the new one going down. With the subfloor exposed, squeaks are trivially fixable — the squeak is the subfloor moving against a joist or a shank nail, and screwing the panel down into the joists eliminates it in minutes. Once the new floor covers it, that same fix means pulling the new floor back up. Always worth spending the extra half hour.

Carpet out, plank in

Carpet removal is straightforward and messy: the carpet gets cut into manageable strips, the pad comes up, the tack strip and staples are pulled, and everything gets hauled away. Wake County and Durham both restrict what can go in normal collection, so it goes to a proper disposal site.

The plank layout is where the craft shows. Boards are racked out of several boxes at once so the color variation blends rather than showing as a batch stripe. End joints are staggered, and no piece under about eight inches should end up at the start or end of a row. The expansion gap around the perimeter — a quarter inch or so, hidden by the shoe molding — is not optional. A floating floor expands and contracts with the seasons, and one butted tight to the walls in a humid August has nowhere to go but up.

Door casings get undercut so the plank slides beneath them, which looks finished; notching the plank around the casing does not. Doors that now clear a thicker floor may need trimming at the bottom, and interior doors sometimes have to be re-hung slightly.

Transitions, stairs and trim

Every doorway to a room that is not getting the new floor needs a transition strip matched to the height difference. Every closet and every hearth is another edge to finish. This detailing is a real share of the labor and it is what separates a finished-looking room from an obviously DIY one.

Stairs are their own job. Each tread needs a nosing piece cut and glued, risers get faced, and nothing is square in a staircase. Anyone pricing a whole-house floor should expect stairs to be quoted separately.

New flooring is the natural moment for interior painting, since baseboards come off anyway, and for furniture assembly if new pieces are arriving with the new room.