Basement flooring options from Costco

[Domadosolo]

I’ve been looking at the Mohawk flooring vinyl plank, 100% waterproof with padding, on sale approx $2.4/sq ft at Costco, to be installed over my fairly smooth basement concrete.

Any experience with these? Or recommendations for alternatives?
Thanks,

[steadyosmosis]

I’ve been looking at the Mohawk flooring vinyl plank, 100% waterproof with padding, on sale approx $2.4/sq ft at Costco, to be installed over my fairly smooth basement concrete.

Any experience with these? Or recommendations for alternatives?
Thanks,

I bought durable low-maintenance carpet for the concrete-floor 'finished half' of my basement.
Installed it myself about 25 years ago.
Unfinished half is still just concrete.
Carpet still in great shape, and much better on bare feet than the cold concrete.

[Sandtrap]

I’ve been looking at the Mohawk flooring vinyl plank, 100% waterproof with padding, on sale approx $2.4/sq ft at Costco, to be installed over my fairly smooth basement concrete.

Any experience with these? Or recommendations for alternatives?
Thanks,

To OP:
1
How many square feet is your basement. . to be covered with flooring?
2
What is your budget?
3
**You mention Mohawk vinyl plant as 100% waterproof. . .
Are there moisture concerns?
From the cement?
Or from how the floor is used?
4
Have you gotten on site inspections and estimates from at least 3 reputable licensed flooring contractors in your area?
5
Is your basement a wide open space without walls or does it have finished walls and hallways, and rooms and bathrooms, etc?
6
Are the basement walls finished or raw framed?
Do you plan to finish the walls before or after the flooring?

j

[bwalling]

Rigid plank (snaps together) or glue down? Both are impacted by how level your floor is. A rigid plank product will need your floor to be level, and without peaks or significant cracks. You can initially put the product down over these kinds of imperfections, but the seams will get stressed over time and will eventually pop. A glue down could go down over a floor that's peaked, because the product will bend more easily and doesn't have a locking mechanism that will get stressed. However, these products can be like the princess and the pea - small imperfections in the concrete will become visible through the vinyl over time. You'll see bumps.

Borrow a 6' level from someone and see how level your floor really is.

Both are great with water, in that the product won't be impacted, but note that water getting under the flooring and not being able to dry out can lead to mold issues. Your water problems aren't just that it might deteriorate your floor covering.

Mohawk is like most companies in flooring. They make good products, and they make products designed to hit retail price points.

If it's the rigid, snap lock product, you can definitely self install. They're pretty straightforward, and really just need a utility knife and rubber mallet. If you already have baseboards, you'll either want to remove them, install the floor, and then reinstall, or just install the flooring up to the baseboards, and add quarter round on top of the floor after.

[il0kin]

Rigid plank (snaps together) or glue down? Both are impacted by how level your floor is. A rigid plank product will need your floor to be level, and without peaks or significant cracks. You can initially put the product down over these kinds of imperfections, but the seams will get stressed over time and will eventually pop. A glue down could go down over a floor that's peaked, because the product will bend more easily and doesn't have a locking mechanism that will get stressed. However, these products can be like the princess and the pea - small imperfections in the concrete will become visible through the vinyl over time. You'll see bumps.

Borrow a 6' level from someone and see how level your floor really is.

Both are great with water, in that the product won't be impacted, but note that water getting under the flooring and not being able to dry out can lead to mold issues. Your water problems aren't just that it might deteriorate your floor covering.

Mohawk is like most companies in flooring. They make good products, and they make products designed to hit retail price points.

If it's the rigid, snap lock product, you can definitely self install. They're pretty straightforward, and really just need a utility knife and rubber mallet. If you already have baseboards, you'll either want to remove them, install the floor, and then reinstall, or just install the flooring up to the baseboards, and add quarter round on top of the floor after.

Just noting that the floor needs to be flat, but not necessarily level. The LVP can handle a small slope/grade as long as it is installed properly (don’t run the planks the “long” way across the slope, they should be installed sideways so the elevation change is minuscule over a 4-6 inch plank). I would look for smaller width planks to help with this, which is what I did - 5 inch planks.

I’m about to do the install in a few weeks in mine. The only other advice I have is to get it with the pad pre-attached.

[quantAndHold]

We have had exactly that in our basement for the past five years. It’s been great. They chose to not glue it, because our basement occasionally floods, and we need to be able to pull it up to dry things underneath. We also bought a couple of extra boxes to fix the inevitable problems that would come from pulling it up and putting it back after a flood. So far, the basement hasn’t flooded, so we haven’t tested our ability to deal with that.

[Domadosolo]

I’ve been looking at the Mohawk flooring vinyl plank, 100% waterproof with padding, on sale approx $2.4/sq ft at Costco, to be installed over my fairly smooth basement concrete.

Any experience with these? Or recommendations for alternatives?
Thanks,

To OP:
1
How many square feet is your basement. . to be covered with flooring? - 700
2
What is your budget? - not set
3
**You mention Mohawk vinyl plant as 100% waterproof. . .
Are there moisture concerns? - none evident,
From the cement? - but being in NC, where the humidity is high, I thought the confined space under the floor may cause moisture to trap between the concrete and the floor.
Or from how the floor is used? - None
4
Have you gotten on site inspections and estimates from at least 3 reputable licensed flooring contractors in your area? - No, just a budget allowance from a contractor, 2x the Costco sale price
5
Is your basement a wide open space without walls or does it have finished walls and hallways, and rooms and bathrooms, etc? -it will be finished with walls, rooms and bathroom
6
Are the basement walls finished or raw framed? - raw framing at this time
Do you plan to finish the walls before or after the flooring? - After

j

Answers inline above - Thanks

[oldmotos]

In 2018 we paid $4 SF for a Kolay brand LVP flooring that is thicker than most and just butts up and does not snap together. We installed it ourselves in a vacation cabin basement that had flooded so we removed the carpet. The pieces along the walls that are cut to length are taped down, but all the std. length pieces are not. If we get water again, we plan to leave the special cut pieces in place and take out the std. pieces until everything is dried out and then replace. We have been happy with the floor but in talking to the dealer we bought it from they said they no longer sell it. I like the idea that it does not snap together which makes it much easier to remove and replace.

[pshonore]

Costco at one time had a "home improvement" deal with Shaw flooring like their other home improvement deals - Central Air etc. Shaw makes LVP just like Mohawk and many other companies do. It goes through a local flooring company in your area and includes a 10% Costco cash card plus a 5% credit card reward if you play that game. We found the price to be comparable to most flooring retailers in our area.

[hightechburrito]

I used what I am assuming is the same flooring in a bathroom (Mowhawk LVP from Costco) and was happy with the results. The first few rows are a bit tricky to get snapped together, but after that it's pretty quick. The issue was that tapping one board together would pop another apart until there were enough rows to hold it all together.

I'd buy an LVP/laminate install kit that will have a tapping block, pull bar, and spacers to help with the install. The tapping block is to protect the edge of the LVP when you're tapping them together, the pull bar helps tap the end of a row together, and the spacers are help maintain an expansion gap around the edges.

Other tips:
1) Make sure you read the installation instructions regarding moisture levels of the substrate and whether you need a vapor barrier under the LVP. The manual says that warranty claims could be denied if a vapor barrier isn't used.

2) Make sure you understand the maximum span allowed before needing an expansion gap in the middle of the install. If your basement has a pretty consistent temperature there might not be much (or any) expansion and you may be able to go without.

3) The manual says to acclimate the planks for 48 hours where they will be installed. I've heard that LVP is much less sensitive to this than wood based flooring, but no reason to risk the floor cupping or boards separating after install.

4) Buy a several extra boxes. When you're all done keep one or two (for potential future repairs) and return the rest. When I used this flooring, I had about 1/10 planks some sort of damage, usually in the corner. I'm assuming from moving the pallet of material around in the warehouse. I set them aside and returned them as well (I had about a box worth of damaged planks). If they're on sale at Costco now, they may be gone in a week and who knows when you would be able to get more.

5) Check the lot numbers of the boxes, and try to buy from the same lot number. This helps to keep the color uniform throughout the floor.

6) As you're installing, make sure you're not putting down consecutive planks with the same pattern. If I recall correctly, there were 5 or 6 unique plank patterns, and then some had the same pattern rotated 180. So there's plenty of different looking planks, but if you randomly pull them and install you could end up with a few identical planks lined up and that doesn't look great.