Have him show you the manufacturer's technical bulletin where it requires you to keep your house at 62 degrees. What kind of floor did you have previously? This is over a basement? On slab-on-grade? Do you know the steps he used during installation, from the subfloor or slab up to the vinyl? Vinyl does tend to telegraph flaws in the underlayment. Some have some hiding ability. Sight and gradual "humps" at the luan seams can show in a raking light. But if the edges of the luan underlayment have swelled and are rising and you see a strong sharp line telegraphing through the vinyl, it's usually a moisture thing. Vapor from below. Your installer should repair lines caused from swollen seams. Mongo

You can pick out that filler depending on what they used - I tried it just to make sure in case we wanted to use something else/tile in the future as I used a lot of screws. I didn't want the kitchen higher than the living room. It would be a nightmare to do, but you can do it. The luan is what is causing the problem - that needs to be pulled up and replaced with plywood not luan. Standard practice is luan and no one we talked to was willing to use nicer plywood even at our insistance. Luan is the smooth surface - the didn't need to use something different. We made the choice to use better plywood as we choose DIY/better materials with the money we saved on labor (so, we probably aren't saving any money and its a lot of work, but we are getting some better stuff). Even if you put the vinyl under the cabinets, vinyl is easy to cut, but it also depends if they used the glue down method vs. tape. We taped ours down just in case I wanted to change my mind in the future or we ruined it redoing the hardwood floors or something else given we are redoing the rest of the house. We glued our one seam under the fridge and we probably didn't need vinyl under there but we have the ice maker and I know what's under there (I also put it under the oven but not dishwasher except where I could reach). The real questions are how did the put it down and they probably are trying to do what is easiest for them. I would want the 1/4 inch luan removed and replaced with 1/4 plywood, screw down (not nail) with deck screws so they will not rust and are solid and they need to be counter-sinked, it filled (let it set for a few days), sanded smooth, then use the tape method for the vinyl, cover with molding. (I did everything but lifting the plywood and the molding myself (husband did that), so it is an easy thing to do, so don't let them tell you how hard it is and I am not a big woman). Putting down vinyl is one of the easiest things we've done (and windows surprisingly). Debi, were you the one who they put the wrong color in? If you were, I'm not so sure given this is the second mistake, I'd want them fixing it.

The best that anyone can tell you is that it depends on what things look like when you open it up. That's a fair amount of water over a period of time that you are talking about. I would want to open things up enough that I could see if there was standing water / saturated wood anywhere. Just getting wet isn't a big deal... wood gets wet during construction all the time. But getting saturated and/or standing water in enclosed places is a problem. If the tile was installed on backer board - as it should have been-- it will survive some wetting of the subfloor. If the subfloor is really wet or there is no tile backer board, you will probably need to replace it. Again, I think the answer is to open it up and see what you have. You may be lucky and just need to open it and place a fan in there to dry it out.

thanks, doggonegardener. we're still deciding, but duro design cork requires level to 1/8" over 10 feet. i just got done reading on the johnbridge website. it sounds like it takes about 4-5 bags of SLC just to do a 10'x9' room! there was a thread where they walked someone through doing this. i'm not so sure about doing this now! doggonegardener... can you tell me about how you did your subfloor? anyone else have any suggestions?