Thanks, great video. I m glad you pointed out that the corner to corner method was wrong. When I first started watching I was wondering "hmmm, maybe i should go corner to corner".:) Btw, it isn't a mistake for this (having to do a room in reverse) to happen, it happens often when you want a continuous floor from room to room and you have rooms on both sides of a hallway. The only way to avoid it is to have transition strips at the doorways, but the continuous way looks nicer. Also, you usually start in the hallway anyways to ensure that the lines are parallel to the walls. Because hallways are narrow, any skewedness in the planking is very obvious, whilest in a larger room it is harde to detect. If you start at the far side of a bedroom and work your way to the hallway, it is likely by the time you reach the hallway you will have some skewedness. Thus you start in the hallway and work into the bedrooms.
Thank you so much for this video! An actual non-construction person laying lvp in a real house is just what I needed to see! I’m starting this morning, and am so glad to have seen this video.
thanks for video...I also had need to go reverse in a spare room and found it easier that I expected, just lay that first row all the way to end and then work across the room...just a little more work to get tongue into prior rows grove but not that hard
Thank you for the explanation at the end. I was worried how doing that whole corner first would've worked. Now that I know it didn't work, I won't repeat lol. But it is good to know how to do this in reverse because this was one of my big worries about seamlessly installing the flooring through doorways. Now that I know it's not as difficult as I imagined, I feel more confident. I sure wish my husband could comprehend this kind of work so I could get his help, but this just isn't his thing. I'll have to trust myself.
Glad this helped you gain some confidence! I thought it would have been really misleading if I didn't explain that mistake thoroughly. Ideally I would have remade the video, but it was the last thing on my mind after realizing I had to redo all of that work lol. I also ended up in this position because I wanted seamless transitions between rooms. I could not live with transition strips at the foot of my doorways. It will take a little more time and some patience, but you can definitely get it done! Thanks for the comment.
I am doing my entire first floor with this brand. I'm half way there! But of course, I picked the biggest room first and it did end up being in the "left top" corner like the instructions say (when looking at the planks horizontally that is). I just made it to our hallway. I have one bedroom on the left, one on the right, and also a bathroom straight ahead. At some point, I will have to go in reverse for a little bit. This video definitely relieved some of my over-thinking on the issue (I'm trying to start with the bathroom before the bedrooms). So far, I've gone around 9ish obstacles with our layout and I picked a good starting point. It definitely takes time to try to be efficient with the pieces you have (limit wasted cut pieces) as well as cutting around obstacles and planning your pieces accordingly (not starting with a piece that will result in an awkward scenario for the last piece or the piece to go around something). Definitely doable though to go throughout an entire floor plan!
Yes, definitely doable! Sounds like you are off to a great start. I'm glad this video put your mind at ease for the backwards portion. Good luck with the rest of your install and thanks for the comment!
You are completely right about that. I tried my best to explain this at the end of the video, but that is exactly what I ended up having to do to make the floor work.
Good on you for teaching how to reverse install because odds are when installing multiple areas with click flooring you eventually will run into the situation,But I can't help wondering why you might have started in that room in the first place? Granted I don't know the entire floor plan but starting in the area where you are ending, and installing left to right with male side out? You may have avoided the situation possibly ,Also I think finishing each row as you go will help you not getting into such of a large area of a frustrating situation. Just my thoughts.. everyone is a critic , right? 😁,, But great video and Thankyou for making a positive video 👍
Honestly, when I first started there was not much thought put into where the best place to start was. The bigger concern at the time was getting all of the furniture out of the way. I think I could have avoided the situation if I had started in the hallway and worked my way into the rooms. Definitely something I would think about more if I was to do a project like this again. You are definitely right about finishing off each row first. Building out to that corner did not work at all and I ultimately had to take it all apart back to the hallway and start over. I did my best to explain that at the end of the video, but that was another lesson learned. I had to learn a lot of things the hard way on this install, but hopefully anyone who watches won't make the same mistakes lol. Thank you for the constructive comments!
He's not talking about right to left. What are you talking about? He's installing them in reverse order working backwards towards the wall. Has nothing to do with right and left, complete opposite axis
Thanks for the vid and that last tip now. We're using the same floors. Running into this scenario now since we're not using room transitions. How are all the joints holding up after being installed for a bit now?
The joints are holding up well. The floor in general is holding up great and has been a great upgrade over carpet. There is one area in another room not shown in the video that has a bad joint. This was my own fault because I did not properly level the floor in that area before laying it down. So far it is pretty minimal and has not gotten worse, but Its something I will have to live with. No fault of the product, but it shows that it is important that you are installing on a flat level surface. Thanks for the comment!
It is Lifeproof Fresh Oak. www.homedepot.com/p/Lifeproof-Fresh-Oak-8-7-in-W-x-47-6-in-L-Click-Lock-Luxury-Vinyl-Plank-Flooring-20-06-sq-ft-case-I96711L/300461638
See the problem is everyone that makes the how to videos they never do videos like this for the homeowners who attempt to install their own floor. They always make videos of square easy rooms and do not show these parts that you really need to know
I agree and that is one of the reasons I made this video. The worst ones are the product install videos on the home depot website. They never show any of the hard parts and make the install seem like a walk in the park. Thanks for the comment!
Vapor barriers are usually only used in exterior wall assemblies and slabs to keep water out. There would be no reason to put one underneath the vinyl on the interior. If you meant to say "underlayment" it comes pre-attached to the vinyl planks.
Hitting that shirt butt seam way to hard. You also should use a different mallet like the ones that have a yellow and red end. The yellow is made to tap in the king the red is for the short butt seams
I'm pretty sure nothing was damaged hitting it like that, so why is it too hard? It may have been a bit excessive, but I wanted to make sure everything was locked in tight. I'm not a pro and this was a one time install, so I didn't think a specialized tool was necessary for this install. If your doing this on a daily basis or a much larger job, that tool would probably be a good investment, but I was mostly trying to make do with what I had. Thanks for the suggestions.
@@StephenLaGrange what it does is weakens the locking system. You may not see any damage at the time but if you may have cracked the grove part slightly over time from traffic it may eventually break. But you wouldn’t know this if someone didn’t tell you. But you know what good for you that you attempted and completed your house for a first timer. It looks great for someone who is learning on the fly. 👍👍
@@3rdGenFireChicken That actually makes a lot of sense and I will definitely keep that in mind if I ever have to install this kind of floor again. Thanks again!
You bring up a good point. Technically this is a "Click Lock" install method. I believe this (or something very similar) is what you will find on most floating floor style products. I may have been a little loose with some of the terms and may update that in the description, thanks.
The way you should have done this would be to run the first piece from the hallway into the second bedroom. Once you have a full piece in that room. Just lay out pieces to get you piece that would be the last full piece width wise. Do your cuts on the top wall and then begin to run the floor from the top wall, building down towards the door. You made this much harder on yourself by not running a layout in this room.
Yeah, there were a lot of things I could have done differently to make this job easier lol. I'm not exactly sure what you are describing here, but I did mention that if I had started in a different location I could have avoided this problem completely. Also, at the end I mention that laying the plank from the door/hall to the corner of the room was a mistake and that I ended up having to lay the planks straight off the hallway and all the way into the room first to make it work. I'm not a professional and unfortunately for me some mistakes were made, but I was able to come up with some solutions to get the job done. The main point of the video is to help out anyone that finds themselves in a similar situation and to simply show that installing the planks in reverse is possible, thanks for your comment.
@@StephenLaGrange yeah it’s a little hard to describe. Basically if you started the same way you did once you came down the hall into the second bedroom you just simply let 1 full plank fall into the room. From there you do a “lay out”. The idea here is to find the width of the piece that would start at the top since this piece will no be full width. Once you cut that row run it out full and start working back yo the full piece that you laid into the room. It should meet up with no issues.
@@YaBoyDC I believe I understand what you are describing now. I actually thought about doing it this way when I was first strategizing. I was mainly worried that once I built back to that first full piece that the planks would not line up perfectly and I would be back to square one. Once I realized that installing the planks in reverse was possible and not very difficult it seemed like the right decision for my project even if it took a bit more time. Not saying that your suggestion would not work, but you have to be very precise to execute that correctly. I did not have confidence in being that precise especially since I would be coming off of a super uneven brick masonry wall. There is always more than one way to skin a cat, so thanks for your comment and clarification.
Thanks for making this video, it really helped a lot. Installing backwards was not nearly as difficult as I thought it was going to be.
You're welcome! Yeah, its really not too bad.
Thanks, great video. I m glad you pointed out that the corner to corner method was wrong. When I first started watching I was wondering "hmmm, maybe i should go corner to corner".:) Btw, it isn't a mistake for this (having to do a room in reverse) to happen, it happens often when you want a continuous floor from room to room and you have rooms on both sides of a hallway. The only way to avoid it is to have transition strips at the doorways, but the continuous way looks nicer. Also, you usually start in the hallway anyways to ensure that the lines are parallel to the walls. Because hallways are narrow, any skewedness in the planking is very obvious, whilest in a larger room it is harde to detect. If you start at the far side of a bedroom and work your way to the hallway, it is likely by the time you reach the hallway you will have some skewedness. Thus you start in the hallway and work into the bedrooms.
Yep, starting in the hallway is the best practice. Thanks for the comment!
Thank you so much for this video! An actual non-construction person laying lvp in a real house is just what I needed to see! I’m starting this morning, and am so glad to have seen this video.
Glad this helped you out! Good luck with your install.
thanks for video...I also had need to go reverse in a spare room and found it easier that I expected, just lay that first row all the way to end and then work across the room...just a little more work to get tongue into prior rows grove but not that hard
Exactly right!
Thank you for the explanation at the end. I was worried how doing that whole corner first would've worked. Now that I know it didn't work, I won't repeat lol. But it is good to know how to do this in reverse because this was one of my big worries about seamlessly installing the flooring through doorways. Now that I know it's not as difficult as I imagined, I feel more confident. I sure wish my husband could comprehend this kind of work so I could get his help, but this just isn't his thing. I'll have to trust myself.
Glad this helped you gain some confidence! I thought it would have been really misleading if I didn't explain that mistake thoroughly. Ideally I would have remade the video, but it was the last thing on my mind after realizing I had to redo all of that work lol.
I also ended up in this position because I wanted seamless transitions between rooms. I could not live with transition strips at the foot of my doorways. It will take a little more time and some patience, but you can definitely get it done! Thanks for the comment.
Throw that husband away and get a new one
Thanks a lot I appreciate it. I’m doing the same thing in my house currently and wasn’t sure how I was gonna reverse these into another room.
Very welcome!
This was just the type of situation I needed answers for! Great video!! 😄
Awesome! Thank you!
Great video and update! I have the same issue - was going to do the same thing, so thanks for confirming this will work with Lifeproof Vinyl Planks
Thanks for the comment! I found very little information on the subject, so that is exactly why I made the video. Glad it helped you out!
Appreciate you’re tips. Back to installing in reverse now lol
Glad to help!
Same here!
I am doing my entire first floor with this brand. I'm half way there! But of course, I picked the biggest room first and it did end up being in the "left top" corner like the instructions say (when looking at the planks horizontally that is).
I just made it to our hallway. I have one bedroom on the left, one on the right, and also a bathroom straight ahead. At some point, I will have to go in reverse for a little bit. This video definitely relieved some of my over-thinking on the issue (I'm trying to start with the bathroom before the bedrooms).
So far, I've gone around 9ish obstacles with our layout and I picked a good starting point. It definitely takes time to try to be efficient with the pieces you have (limit wasted cut pieces) as well as cutting around obstacles and planning your pieces accordingly (not starting with a piece that will result in an awkward scenario for the last piece or the piece to go around something).
Definitely doable though to go throughout an entire floor plan!
Yes, definitely doable! Sounds like you are off to a great start. I'm glad this video put your mind at ease for the backwards portion. Good luck with the rest of your install and thanks for the comment!
Great tips, thank you!
You bet!
Cordless blower is great for getting the dirt out of the grooves
That is a great idea! thanks for sharing.
What you should have done is that first piece that you got through the door jamb you take that row all the way to the wall then work off of that row
You are completely right about that. I tried my best to explain this at the end of the video, but that is exactly what I ended up having to do to make the floor work.
Good on you for teaching how to reverse install because odds are when installing multiple areas with click flooring you eventually will run into the situation,But I can't help wondering why you might have started in that room in the first place? Granted I don't know the entire floor plan but starting in the area where you are ending, and installing left to right with male side out? You may have avoided the situation possibly ,Also I think finishing each row as you go will help you not getting into such of a large area of a frustrating situation. Just my thoughts.. everyone is a critic , right? 😁,, But great video and Thankyou for making a positive video 👍
Honestly, when I first started there was not much thought put into where the best place to start was. The bigger concern at the time was getting all of the furniture out of the way. I think I could have avoided the situation if I had started in the hallway and worked my way into the rooms. Definitely something I would think about more if I was to do a project like this again.
You are definitely right about finishing off each row first. Building out to that corner did not work at all and I ultimately had to take it all apart back to the hallway and start over. I did my best to explain that at the end of the video, but that was another lesson learned.
I had to learn a lot of things the hard way on this install, but hopefully anyone who watches won't make the same mistakes lol. Thank you for the constructive comments!
Thank you. 👍👍👍👍
No problem 👍
Thank you. So, the moral of the story is to complete the row and install completely in reverse?
You hit the nail on the head!
👍🏾well done sir!
🤙
Video starts at 3:12
The way you are showing to do this IS the correct direction. These planks are designed to go right to left.
Not exactly sure what you mean? This is showing the opposite of what instructions say.
He's not talking about right to left. What are you talking about? He's installing them in reverse order working backwards towards the wall. Has nothing to do with right and left, complete opposite axis
Thanks for posting this
No problem!
Very helpful. Thank you
You're welcome!
Thanks for the vid and that last tip now. We're using the same floors. Running into this scenario now since we're not using room transitions. How are all the joints holding up after being installed for a bit now?
The joints are holding up well. The floor in general is holding up great and has been a great upgrade over carpet.
There is one area in another room not shown in the video that has a bad joint. This was my own fault because I did not properly level the floor in that area before laying it down. So far it is pretty minimal and has not gotten worse, but Its something I will have to live with. No fault of the product, but it shows that it is important that you are installing on a flat level surface. Thanks for the comment!
@@StephenLaGrange awesome thank you. They're a little finicky but they're going in great so far. Thanks for the update.
Good video man! Thank you 👍
Thanks for watching!
Excellent, thank you very much
You are welcome!
What if you have to install backwards in both directions? E.g.the plank has to angle up for the long end and yet under the short end.
That is going to be super difficult. Not saying its impossible, but I would try to avoid that situation if possible.
Hi what color/finish is this?
It is Lifeproof Fresh Oak.
www.homedepot.com/p/Lifeproof-Fresh-Oak-8-7-in-W-x-47-6-in-L-Click-Lock-Luxury-Vinyl-Plank-Flooring-20-06-sq-ft-case-I96711L/300461638
That’s not backwards lol I need help reinstalling it completely backwards🤦🏻♀️
See the problem is everyone that makes the how to videos they never do videos like this for the homeowners who attempt to install their own floor. They always make videos of square easy rooms and do not show these parts that you really need to know
I agree and that is one of the reasons I made this video. The worst ones are the product install videos on the home depot website. They never show any of the hard parts and make the install seem like a walk in the park. Thanks for the comment!
Why didn't you use a vapor barrier?
Vapor barriers are usually only used in exterior wall assemblies and slabs to keep water out. There would be no reason to put one underneath the vinyl on the interior. If you meant to say "underlayment" it comes pre-attached to the vinyl planks.
Life proof doesn’t require a barrier. It comes with it.
@@StephenLaGrangethe LifeProof ones do come with it on them but just fyi you do need a vapor barrier if you're installing in basements otherwise.
Hitting that shirt butt seam way to hard. You also should use a different mallet like the ones that have a yellow and red end. The yellow is made to tap in the king the red is for the short butt seams
I'm pretty sure nothing was damaged hitting it like that, so why is it too hard? It may have been a bit excessive, but I wanted to make sure everything was locked in tight.
I'm not a pro and this was a one time install, so I didn't think a specialized tool was necessary for this install. If your doing this on a daily basis or a much larger job, that tool would probably be a good investment, but I was mostly trying to make do with what I had. Thanks for the suggestions.
@@StephenLaGrange what it does is weakens the locking system. You may not see any damage at the time but if you may have cracked the grove part slightly over time from traffic it may eventually break. But you wouldn’t know this if someone didn’t tell you. But you know what good for you that you attempted and completed your house for a first timer. It looks great for someone who is learning on the fly. 👍👍
@@3rdGenFireChicken That actually makes a lot of sense and I will definitely keep that in mind if I ever have to install this kind of floor again. Thanks again!
Be careful, this will only work for uniclic style. It won’t work for tongue-and-groove style interlocking
You bring up a good point. Technically this is a "Click Lock" install method. I believe this (or something very similar) is what you will find on most floating floor style products. I may have been a little loose with some of the terms and may update that in the description, thanks.
Not sure what you mean by "uniclic style"? Lifeproof is a tongue-and-groove system and as this video shows, it worked in reverse too.
1:17 poof a dog 😅
My little helper lol.
The way you should have done this would be to run the first piece from the hallway into the second bedroom. Once you have a full piece in that room. Just lay out pieces to get you piece that would be the last full piece width wise. Do your cuts on the top wall and then begin to run the floor from the top wall, building down towards the door. You made this much harder on yourself by not running a layout in this room.
Yeah, there were a lot of things I could have done differently to make this job easier lol. I'm not exactly sure what you are describing here, but I did mention that if I had started in a different location I could have avoided this problem completely. Also, at the end I mention that laying the plank from the door/hall to the corner of the room was a mistake and that I ended up having to lay the planks straight off the hallway and all the way into the room first to make it work. I'm not a professional and unfortunately for me some mistakes were made, but I was able to come up with some solutions to get the job done. The main point of the video is to help out anyone that finds themselves in a similar situation and to simply show that installing the planks in reverse is possible, thanks for your comment.
@@StephenLaGrange yeah it’s a little hard to describe. Basically if you started the same way you did once you came down the hall into the second bedroom you just simply let 1 full plank fall into the room. From there you do a “lay out”. The idea here is to find the width of the piece that would start at the top since this piece will no be full width. Once you cut that row run it out full and start working back yo the full piece that you laid into the room. It should meet up with no issues.
@@YaBoyDC I believe I understand what you are describing now. I actually thought about doing it this way when I was first strategizing. I was mainly worried that once I built back to that first full piece that the planks would not line up perfectly and I would be back to square one. Once I realized that installing the planks in reverse was possible and not very difficult it seemed like the right decision for my project even if it took a bit more time. Not saying that your suggestion would not work, but you have to be very precise to execute that correctly. I did not have confidence in being that precise especially since I would be coming off of a super uneven brick masonry wall. There is always more than one way to skin a cat, so thanks for your comment and clarification.
@@StephenLaGrange you’re welcome. Glad it worked out for you.
@@YaBoyDC there's no way it would meet up perfectly like you say. I'd like to see you do it.
That’s not backwards lol I need help reinstalling it completely backwards🤦🏻♀️
It's installed in reverse. I'm not sure how else you would do it?