sullidc, Thanks for your post... I contacted Aeratis about this issue... I felt I had to because I have made recommendations to contractors and homeowners about this product and i continue to recommend it... They put me in touch with the sales rep that went to your house. His name is Roy. I spoke with Roy to find out if it was possible that A) the boards were a different width and B) if the boards were a different width, if they really just left you out in the cold. What i found out was very interesting... It seems that Aeratis like most manufactures, do not make a specific length of board. When the boards are manufactured, they are made from a constant string of product and they are cut to a length by a moving saw. The material never stops moving and it is almost impossible for multiple boards to be wider or narrower at a consistent point on any length of board. I also found out that Roy measured almost every board on your porch and he found that they were exactly 3-1/8" in the areas that you stated they were a different width. I also found out that they offered you some free boards for your porch if you had decided to take the boards up and fix the un-square boards on your porch. I went through all of this with them because I take porch restoration and my work very serious. The products I recommend have an effect on my reputation. I have to tell you here, I cannot call foul on Aeratis. They visited your jobsite, they offered a solutions and on top of this, they offered to give you FREE board. I am not one to stand up for a manufacture, but it sounds to me they went above and beyond on this one for you.. I pushed Roy on this just to make sure he was not just giving me a good story so I would continue to use and recommend the product. He sent me the report and photo's from his inspection. I removed your name to not cause an issue... Roy's email to the manufacturer STARTS HERE......I went to job last week, measured several boards, found consistent 3-1/8" widths. Porch is 10' x 32'. Traditions, painted. Tried to lay down a straight edge / level and confirmed that most of the boards have a slight bow. They were installed staring at the right side (facing house) of the porch. It was difficult to determine if the starter board was bowed but from about 3' in from the right, the bow is apparent. To best see it, you crouch down and view from a position almost level with the floor. There is a very slight raised area about 4' in from the front edge, not consistent across the entire porch. I spoke with Mr. Ssullidc who said he understands the holidays could delay a response from Aeratis but said that if, in a month or so, there is no response/ resolution, rather than go to legal methods, will publish a negative review on every web site dealing with Areratis. REPORT ENDS HERE.... sullidc, Posting negative reviews is a good way to get resolution with a stubborn manufacturer. It forces folks like me to call and question their business practice. However, when they have gone above and beyond to work with you on a mistake you made, seems to me you are not the one who should be shouting FOUL!

You should have no problems. It takes a lot of pressure to crack a PVC pipe. The "pink hard substance that looks like cement" is spray foam insulation. Pink or orange indicates that that it is Fire proof or fire blocking and it is the correct type for this application. For fire proof type insulation should or must be applied anywhere a line or pipe passes through a wall or floor.

I would like to get feedback on the Supercore Basics line. I am looking at Solitude for around 1,000 sf. I have an old wood subfloor that I am going to need to do a lot of leveling on. Where do you draw the line for telling someone that a 4.5mm floor is not for them? I know I only get a 12mil wear layer, but the fact that it is still Aluminum Oxide and has a stone composite core makes me feel it will be ok. Is there any difference in the locking system? The lock does not seem as hefty on the samples for the basics line. I get concerned that with an old pier and beam supported floor that has settled, even if I level the floor, will the less hardy locking system fail if I get slight movement with any further settling?

My wife and I retired to AZ 10 years ago. We both have bad knees and she also has a bad hip. Our house in AZ has ceramic tile floors, except in the bedrooms. The house is built on a concrete slab. Talk about a hard floor! The solution to hard floors is to wear very soft spongy soled shoes in the house all of the time. There are a few models of Skechers shoes which have extremely soft soles. With these shoes, there is no need for carpet, rugs, or cushioned floor mats to eliminate the shock on the joints. We are planning to remove the old carpet in all of the bedrooms. I’ve been researching flooring for the past 5 weeks and have decided to go with a wood-look rigid core vinyl plank that locks together to make a floating floor. (Beware, these interlocking rigid floors require a very flat subfloor. If the subfloor is not really flat, it will have to be flattened before the new rigid vinyl planks are put down. Might want to read the installation instructions before you buy the flooring.) As you know, most of these products have one of two kinds of cores, Wood Polymer Composite (WPC) or Solid Polymer Composite (SPC). SPC is also used to stand for Stone Polymer Composite. The polymer is usually PVC, in other words, vinyl. It appears to me that most of the new rigid core vinyl plank flooring products that have been introduced during the past 7 years use an SPC core or some minor variation of it. That suggests to me that SPC is better or perhaps cheaper to manufacture. I have looked at WPC & SPC products. For some applications I don’t think it makes much difference. We will probably end up with an SPC product but not because of, or in spite of, the kind of core. All of the products we’re considering have an attached underlayment/pad that absorbs a little shock. Some are cork, some EVA foam and some IXPE. Thickness varies from 0.5mm to 1.5mm. SPC is more dense. It has less air in it. It expands and contracts less due to changes in temperature. Consequently it is better than WPC if the flooring will be exposed to a lot of direct sunlight, especially in the summer. It’s also best if the ambient temperature varies considerably, such as a house that is not heated and cooled year round. Because SPC expands and contracts less than WPC, SPC is better for very large rooms or long runs, say from one end of a house to the other end. SPC requires fewer expansion strips if you’re trying to cover the entire floor of a house with the same flooring product. Floors made with SPC cores may expand and contract less from exposure to the sun, but that doesn’t make them more resistant to fading. Makers of WPC claim that SPC is colder underfoot. I think the difference is undetectable or negligible, when touched by a bare hand. It’s totally irrelevant if you wear shoes or socks all the time. Lastly, products made with SPC are more resistant to compression due to high pressure over a short period of time. I think this is a proxy for the pressure from very heavy furniture over much longer periods of time. SPC floors are also more resistant to sudden momentary impacts from heavy objects. Today I tested 4 WPC products: Home Depot Lifeproof, 7mm, 1.0mm IXPE pad, Dusk Cherry, #106204L Lowe’s SMARTCORE Ultra, 7.5mm, 1.0mm pad, Savannah Oak, #1035196 COREtec Plus Plank 5”, 8mm, 1.0mm cork pad, Weldon Oak, #00509 Provenza, Uptown Chic, 8mm, 1.5mm IXPE pad I’ve listed the color names when available but I don’t think the color affects the resistance to dents and impact. I also tested 4 SPC products: Armstrong PRYZM, 6.5mm, 1.0mm cork pad, Antiqued Oak Natural, #PC003 SUPERCore Xtreme, 6.0 mm, 1.5mm EVA pad, Wagon Wheel, #SPC023X Flooret Modin Base, 5.0mm, 1.0mm IXPE pad, Kingswood Karndean Van Gogh, 4.5mm, 0.5mm pad, Jatoba, #SCB42 Note that all of the SPC products were thinner than all of the WPC products The first test applied 205 lbs to 0.02 sq inch on the face of each sample. That's about 10,000 PSI. The pressure was applied for 1 minute. All 4 WPC samples performed about the same. All 4 SPC samples performed about the same. Every SPC sample out performed every WPC sample. The dents on the SPC samples were extremely small, barely visible under very good light. The second test involved dropping a steel rod from 2”, 3” & 5” vertically onto different spots on the face of a sample which was flat on a 4” thick concrete slab. The rod had a diameter of ¾” and weighed 3.5 lbs. It was 30” long with a 3/32” diameter point on the end. In all cases a longer drop resulted in a deeper and more visible dent. Three of the WPC samples performed essentially the same. The COREtec Plus didn’t fare quite as well. In this test the SUPERCore Xtreme slightly outperformed the other SPC samples, probably because of the thicker underlayment of SUPERCore. Again all SPC samples outperformed all of the WPC samples. The sheen, color, and texture of the surface, affect the visibility of the dents but not the depth. The thickness and kind of attached underlayment probably affects the depth of the dents slightly. SPC and WPC planks can be made with the same wear layer, protective top surface coat, surface texture, surface sheen, edge detail, and attached underlayment. All of these attributes together probably affect how the product performs and wears. And of course resistance to impact is only one of many criteria upon which to choose rigid core vinyl plank flooring. If you want a thick floor, you’ll probably want to go with WPC. If you want a quiet floor for the person walking on it with hard heels and soles, I don’t know. Probably won’t make any difference with rubber soled shoes. What do the rest of you think?