EasyRider1964's Profile

Wow!!! This Blog is amazing...The comments are all over the place...Here is FOUR years of my personal experience with this product..

I am a home remodeler for a family business with 25 plus years of construction experience. We renovate homes for the purpose of renting them out. I have personally installed dozens of ceramic tile floors, real wood floors, stone tile floors, laminate floors, and YES the Allure Traffic Master Vinyl floor...and, for our purposes the Allure is by far the best value when installed correctly...It goes down the fastest and costs much less than the other options...And, in our experience, wears very well. I say this based on 4 years of experience installing this product...I have installed the slate in two different colors and patterns, I have installed the oak planks, and I have installed most the Hickory planks...My wife and I just bought 5 acres here in Southern California that has a small manufactured home on it...We are surrounded by dirt and mud when it rains...We made the decission to put in the Hickory planks through out the house except in the bathrooms, laundry room, and kitchen areas where we will put the Slate tiles...

Personal experience dictates that you MUST:

1) Call around to your favorite hardware store to find enough flooring for your job with the same Lot # on each box so that the planks/tiles will look consistent across the floor when installed (I just bought 1,800 sq. ft. of Hickory planks with the same Lot # at one store, but I had to make several calls and drive about 45 minutes to get to it...It is worth the effort...)

2) Have the planks/tiles in the home for a few days to adjust to the temperature/humidity, etc. before installing (this is true for ALL laminate flooring)...

3) Clean PERFECTLY all of the areas where you will put down the flooring (any dust, nails, staples, etc.will cause problems...The dust will cause delamination of the glued overlaped edges or not allow them to stick at all...and any bumps or things sticking up from the flat floor will cause premature wear)...Also, keep clean each of the plank/tiles as you lay them out to install them...If they pick up any dust or grit while just laying there they will not adhere to each other correctly when you install them...I usually put down a new, small tarp to spread the plank/tiles out on as I install them being careful not to track anything onto it when I walk across it...

4) Very important...the flooring is flexible and must not be tweaked or flexed when overlapping glued seam...I have learned from experience that if I lay down a piece and force it into position I can have problems with seams popping up over the next day or so... SOLUTION...Take care to lay in each plank/tile directly into position beginning at leading end (where the last plank/tile installed ends)...With practice you will develop an effective rolling motion that begins with the corner butting up to the edge where you left off and pushing the seams together and down in one fluid motion evenly to the other end of the tile you are installing...Simply put, overlap the planks/tiles EXACTLY in place without forcing them...I will sometimes pull one up and re-press it into possition if it looks out of place so that it wont later force itself up... (I learned to be careful of how I lay them down four years ago when I started using this product...I have had no problems with popups since I began paying more attention to how each plank/tile fits together...) Practice, Practice, Practice, AS you lay down your floor...

5) Leave a gap of a 1/4 inch around your perimeter for expansioni and roll the floor with a rented 100 lb. roller to properly adhere the seams together...(on a few small jobs like a kitchen or bathroom I did not rent a roller and used a soft clean cloth instead to go over EVERY seam at the end of the install making sure to push down very firmly as I went along sometimes 2 or 3 times over each seam and I have never had a problem with popups...The glue, when kept clean, is extremely strong...)

Finally, if you follow ALL of these instructions carefully your floor will be installed CORRECTLY and will look great and last a long time...

Note: Any floor can suffer damage due to abuse (pets, children, careless adults, etc.). Be careful when moving furniture...Keep the floors free of dirt, mud, and other things that will dull the surface prematurely...

As I said before this floor is the best value for the money and ease of installation (with attention to the details mentioned above)...It is ideal for our rentals and we will install it next week throughout or newly purchased home...

For what its worth...I recently walked through the first rental home that I installed this flooring in about 4 years ago (Hickory planks)...The tenants have two dogs, live on 5 acres with dirt all around, have suffered a water pipe bursting in the home which I had to fix and clean up, and yet it still looks WONDERFUL!!!...They love the floor and get compliments on it all of the time. They told me that it is what first sold them on the rental...

I LOVE this product!!! And, I am grateful for an inexpensive way to make my home look GREAT!!! Happy Installing...