Problems with Vinyl Plank Floors

Here’s each problem, what usually causes it, and how it’s avoided. If you’re still choosing a floor, start with the types of vinyl flooring or laminate vs vinyl plank.

• The problems at a glance
• Why vinyl planks separate and leave gaps
• Peaking and buckling: when the floor has nowhere to go
• Hollow spots and a bouncy floor
• Dents and scratches
• Fading, movement and stains
• Water under the floor
• Can a damaged vinyl plank be fixed?
• Click or glue-down?
• What we check before laying vinyl
• Frequently asked questions

Vinyl moves with temperature. It grows a little in heat and shrinks in the cold, and a click floor that floats over the subfloor moves as one sheet. In a room that swings a lot, like a sunroom, an unheated addition or a floor in strong sun, that movement can open the joints.

The other cause is underneath. Click joints are made to lock on a flat surface. Over a dip, every step flexes the joint a little, and over months it can work loose or crack the locking edge.

Planks that were stored somewhere cold and laid straight away can shrink once the room warms up, which is why manufacturers ask for the boxes to settle in the room first.

Peaking is the opposite of gapping. Two planks push up into a ridge because the floor has expanded and something is stopping it. The usual culprits:

• No expansion gap. A floating floor needs a small gap at every wall, hidden under the baseboard or quarter round. Butt it tight to the wall and it has nowhere to grow.
• A kitchen island or heavy cabinets on top of it. A floating floor pinned under a heavy island can’t move, so the stress shows up somewhere else. This is why glue-down vinyl is the steadier choice in a kitchen with a big island, as our vinyl types guide explains.
• Trim nailed through the floor. Baseboard and quarter round are fixed to the wall, not down through the planks.

The fix is to free the floor and restore the gap. Planks that have been damaged by the pressure are replaced.

A spot that sounds hollow or gives underfoot means the floor isn’t fully supported there. It’s almost always a low spot in the subfloor that wasn’t filled before the vinyl went down. A small bump is usually debris left under the floor, like a screw or a stone.

A little hollowness is normal on any floating floor. A soft, moving spot isn’t, because that flexing is what eventually breaks the click joints. That’s why the subfloor is checked before anything is laid, and any levelling it needs is on your written quote.

Vinyl plank dents under a dropped pan or a heavy chair leg, the softer WPC planks most of all. Rigid core SPC resists dents better and stays flat over a slightly uneven floor. Scratches are about the wear layer, the clear top coat measured in mils:

The vinyl on our shelves runs from 12 to 30 mil. Vinyl can’t be sanded or refinished like wood, so the wear layer you buy is the one you keep. Felt pads on chair and table legs are the cheapest protection a vinyl floor can get. For one of the lines we carry, see our Woden flooring review.

Cheaper vinyl can fade and move in strong, direct sun, which is worth knowing in a room with big south-facing windows or a glass-walled condo. A better rigid core plank and blinds in the brightest rooms are the answer.

The other surprise is a yellow stain under a doormat. Rubber or latex backing can react with vinyl and discolour it, so use mats the floor’s manufacturer approves. In a condo, the building’s sound rules matter as much as the floor; see condo flooring in Toronto.

The planks are waterproof. The floor as a whole isn’t sealed. Water that runs in at the edges and seams still has to be dried out, so a leak is still a problem, just not one that ruins the planks.

That’s why vinyl is the usual pick for basements, kitchens and entryways, and also why a basement slab should be checked for moisture before any floor goes down. After a real flood, the floor is lifted and the slab dried, or mould can follow.

Usually, one plank at a time. A deep gouge can’t be sanded out, so the plank is replaced. On a click floor that means unclicking the rows from the nearest wall, or cutting the damaged plank out and fitting a new one. On a glue-down floor, the plank is cut out and a new one glued in.

Keep a box of spare planks from your order. Colours change between production runs, and the same floor bought two years later may not match.

Click vinyl floats over the subfloor and is quicker to fit, which suits most homes. Glue-down is the steadier choice over large open areas and in commercial spaces, doesn’t shift under an island or a fridge, and needs a flatter subfloor. With us, click vinyl is $3.20 per square foot installed and glue-down is $5.50 including the glue, with your old floor taken up in both prices. The full comparison is in click vs glue-down vinyl, and every vinyl rate is on our vinyl installation cost page.

Four things at the free measure, because they decide most of what you’ve just read:

1. How flat the subfloor is, and what levelling it needs. That goes on the written quote.
2. Where heavy things sit: islands, cabinets and fridges, which decide click or glue-down.
3. How much sun the room gets, and how warm or cold it runs.
4. How hard the room is used, so the wear layer and core suit it.

Then you get a fixed price in writing. If you’re replacing a vinyl floor that has already failed, taking it up is included. See how we lay it on our vinyl installation page.

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