How to Install Vinyl Plank Flooring in 7 Steps

Move appliances out and let the planks acclimate in the room for 48 to 72 hours. While the room is empty, paint anything you'd regret missing later. Then slide a trim puller behind the shoe molding (the small quarter-round at the base of the baseboard) and walk it along until each piece pops off. Watch at 0:43. Number the back of each piece with a pencil so you can reinstall it in the same spot at the end.

Leave the baseboards themselves on the wall if they're tall or attached to wainscoting. The new quarter round will cover the expansion gap just fine.

Measure the room and divide by the plank width. If your last row works out under two inches wide, the floor will look amateur. Either narrow the first row to push width into the last row, or shift your starting line so both ends end up roughly equal. Sketch it on graph paper or model the room in any free 3D software - SketchUp or even a quick paper layout is faster than ripping a bunch of bad first rows. Watch at 1:40.

Plan your stagger pattern too. End seams in adjacent rows should be at least six inches apart, and you want the pattern to look random, not bricklike. Pull planks from three or four different boxes so the wood-grain repeats don't bunch up.

Lay a sample plank flat on the subfloor next to each door jamb. Run a flush-cut jamb saw across the top of the plank, using it as a height guide, and trim the bottom of the jamb. The new flooring will slide under the trim for a clean look.

At doorways where the new floor meets carpet or a different floor, screw down a metal transition channel sized to the opening. Cut it to length with a hacksaw if the snap-marks won't break clean. Watch at 3:15. Position the channel so the finished transition strip will land in the middle of the door stop, then screw it to the subfloor.

Lay a full-width plank along the starting wall. Measure the gap at both ends - walls are never perfectly straight - and transfer those two marks onto the plank. Connect the marks with a chalk line or a long straightedge. Score the line with a utility knife for short cuts under a foot.

For a full long edge, score-and-snap will fight you. Take the plank to a workbench, lay it on a sacrificial board, and rip it with a circular saw using a fine-tooth blade. Watch at 4:08. A jigsaw works for curved cuts around bump-outs. Cut on the back face if you're worried about chip-out on the surface.

Vinyl plank floats, so it needs a quarter-inch expansion gap on every wall and around every fixed object. Tape a wedge spacer to the wall every two feet along your starting row. Drop the first plank into the corner with the tongue side facing the wall. Slide the next plank's long-edge tongue into the previous plank's groove at a slight angle, then lower it flat. Watch at 5:45.

Slide a tapping block against the end seam and rap it with a non-marring mallet to seat the planks tight. For the last plank in each row, hook a pull bar over the far end and tap it with the mallet to pull the plank into place against the wall spacers.

Start row two with a shorter plank - around 18 inches - so the end seams don't line up with row one. Continue rotating starter lengths to keep the seam pattern random. Use offcuts from one end of the room to start or finish the other end and avoid waste.

When a plank hits a door jamb, dry-lay it next to the jamb, transfer the cut marks onto the plank with a carpenter square, and cut the notch with a jigsaw. Watch at 6:55. Err on the side of taking off too little - you can always shave more, but you can't add it back. Slide the notched plank under the trim and click it into the previous row.

Measure the gap between the previous row and the wall at several points - rip the last row to that width minus a quarter inch for the expansion gap. For drains, outlets, or pipes coming up through the floor, drill the hole with a Forstner bit slightly larger than the obstacle. Drop the plank around it and you'll never see the gap once the trim is back on.

Snap the vinyl transition piece into the metal channel at each doorway and tap it home with the mallet. Reinstall the quarter round along every baseboard with 1.5-inch finish nails. Watch at 9:30. Nail into the baseboard, not the floor - the planks need to keep floating. Set the nails with a punch and dab a little caulk in the holes if you want a finished look.