Can luxury vinyl be installed on uneven floors?

When either homeowners or commercial enterprises are looking for flooring for their homes or premises, luxury vinyl tiling (LVT) is often at the top of the list. One reason for its immense popularity is that it is both extremely durable and also very easy to keep clean.

That makes it ideal both for a home or a business – even one with a lot of footfall. Aside from such practical considerations, luxury vinyl is also a frequent choice because of the way it looks.

It can be designed to accurately recreate the look of a stone or a wood floor, at a fraction of the cost of either of those. It is easy to see why people like it, but is it an option if your floor surfaces are uneven?

Can it be installed on an uneven floor?

When it comes to the basic question of whether luxury vinyl is suitable for uneven floors, it is really a matter of exactly how uneven they are. If any unevenness is relatively minor, then the installation should not present much of a problem.

In actual fact, the thickness and sturdiness of the tiles or sheets used for this type of floor can have the effect of concealing the problem. They will actually make the floor look and feel more level than it actually is.

On the other hand, if the floor surface is extremely uneven, luxury vinyl will not be the ideal flooring choice. It is possible to repair bumps, holes and other imperfections that create uneven floors, but if you do not have time to carry out that sort of pre-installation maintenance work, it may be better to opt for an alternative such as laminate flooring instead.

Should it be installed on uneven floors?

While it is technically possible to put luxury vinyl down on an uneven floor, is it not necessarily something that you should do. Luxury vinyl is a type of flooring that is available as both single sheets and tiles, and either can be installed pretty quickly and effectively as long as the unevenness is not too severe.

It will be very important to ensure that your subfloor is made smooth before the vinyl is laid though. There are simple steps that you can take to deal with roughness or other subfloor issues before installation.

Alternatively, if you hire an experienced flooring company to both provide the floors and install them for you, they will take care of any issues of that kind as part of the job. If you are not sure whether your floor surfaces are suitable for luxury vinyl, they can also advise you about that and suggest alternatives if necessary.

Hardwood, carpeting and linoleum are three options that can work well in concealing highly uneven floor surfaces.

How to install luxury vinyl on an uneven floor

Luxury vinyl is not one of the harder flooring materials to install, but there are a few steps that you will have to go through if your floor is not even.

1. Take care of any imperfections

If the subfloor that you are putting the vinyl on top of is made out of concrete, then any flaws in the surface need to be removed before the vinyl is laid. The best way to do that is through a combination of sanding and levelling

The former is quite hard work as it will involve sanding out any points in the subfloor that are higher than the rest by hand. Levelling is done using a cement compound that fills in imperfections like holes, and the compounds that are used for it can be bought in both real-world and online shops.

Pour it onto your subfloor and then smooth it out as necessary with a trowel. Once that has been done, you will need to leave the subfloor for roughly 24 hours before you actually put down the luxury vinyl.

This is so that the compound can be given time to dry. If it is still wet when you try to put the vinyl over it, there can be problems getting the material to stick in place properly on the subfloor.

2. Check for smoothness

You can check both the overall evenness and smoothness of the subfloor at this point by using a straight or level pipe. This will tell you if it is ready for the luxury vinyl to go down.

3. Clear away debris

Debris from the sanding and levelling process must be removed from the floor before you put down the vinyl. It can stop the vinyl from sticking to the subfloor and can also prevent tiles from joining together properly.

It is possible to put luxury vinyl on a slightly uneven floor. This can be done by professionals if you are unsure of how to go about it.