Lay vinyl plank flooring

Waterproof, clicks together, and floats over the old floor. A weekend for most rooms.

How big is the floor?

square feet

This fits in a car

About 522 lb of materials. Comfortably inside what a car carries (200 lb), so any shopper can take it.

Before you start

The boxes run about 45 lb each, so lift with your legs and take help up stairs. Wear eye protection on the miter saw.

What to buy — untick anything you have

Flooring

11 cartons of vinyl plank flooringBuy every carton from the same lot or dye number, and check the square feet on the carton; this list assumes about 20. Eleven cartons is a pickup load.
2 rolls of underlayment, 100 sq ftSkip this if the planks have a pad already attached. Two pads under a click floor makes it flex.
7 Quarter round or shoe molding, 8 ftPrefinished to match the floor, or paintable white to match the baseboard.
1 Floor transition strip

Hardware

Tools — already ticked off, since most people have them

Tools

It lands in the shopping form, where you can edit anything and say what you think each thing costs. Nothing is ordered until you send it.

How it goes · about a weekend · some experience

Open the boxes in the room two days ahead so the planks settle to its temperature.
Pull the old shoe molding, clean the floor, and knock down any high spots.
Roll out the underlayment if the planks need it, and start the first row along the longest straight wall with spacers.
Click each row in, staggering the end joints at least six inches from the row before.
Leave the expansion gap at every wall, then cover it with the molding nailed to the baseboard, not the floor.