Lay the pattern side up.

Pattern-side-up?

It's imitation wood flooring; so there's no reason to be concerned abut the joists. Someone was pulling your leg.

I'm NOT a professional but I prefer the way the floors look in the second video.

I would run it so that the planks are going the same direction as the stairs, so that you don't have several short-ends dying into the stairs. It looks a bit disjointed to my eye, to have wood or wood-look flooring running perpendicular to stair treads; I don't know why, lol.

Edited to add:

Pattern-side-up?

Mr. Mark has a bit of a dry sense of humor. ;-) He's saying that it doesn't matter which way the planks are laid (lengthwise or widthwise), as long as they aren't installed upside down. :-D

Does this decision impact how your HVAC ducts will be run through the floor joists if there is a basement you plan on finishing?

Same direction as stair treads, especially if your stairs are also hardwood. You want a solid “plank” running along the stairs and the wood below it to be in the same direction.

https://twentyandoak.com/education/solutions/which-direction-do-i-install-vinyl-plank-flooring

Perpendicular to the windows because that will minimize the appearance of any irregularity in the subfloor. Of course on the stair treads, the LVT will run parallel to the tread.

Thanks, for your ideas folks. keep them coming. the reason i am torn is because the orientation of the stairs, the halls, and the rooms are all a jumble. for instance, the long entrance hall looks like it should be laid left to right. but that hall ends in stairs, and some folks are saying stairs should be parallel to the direction of the plank. that would be one weird looking hall. then their is the middle level which is the main level. the way it is designed, the fireplace is the focal point of a smallish living room. The fireplace is along the same wall as the kitchen range and fridge fyi. so the planks in that section would look better left to right. the rest of the main level would look better with planks front to back. So as you can see, the design of this place is a little weird. It's not a completely open concept. If it were, i'd just lay them front to back perpendicular to the joists. anyway, please take a look at the video and blueprint and let me know your thoughts! Thanks again folks.

We’ve already given you an answer and supported it with an article that you likely didn’t read. You’ve got your answer

i read it, ice read many articles like it. good grief. why be so rude to a new user. is that the norm around here...?

also that article was completely prosaic. didnt offer any real solutions someone who has renovated before hasnt already thought about. the worst part this whole thing was the dripping condescension with which you responded accusing me of not reading the article when i doubt you even took a look at the blue print. i mean honestly, would i go through the trouble of doing a long write up and include a bunch of links and pics if i had not researched thing thoroughly and racked my brain about this issue for a long time?

Hi Paul, I'm not a pro, but am in the process of installing LVP and had similar issues. With click LVP, one thing to consider is that you will likely have to use transition strips if you decide to run the planks in different directions. I can't stand those transitions, so I opted to run the planks in one direction throughout. I agree with others here that in your case with stairs, the planks should run in the same direction as your treads. Enjoy the new home!

would you run the planks parallel to the stairs even if it made the planks in tge long entrance hall run side to side?

Doesn't really matter with LVP. So for me, I'd first think of it room-by-room for if you want any dimension to be perceived "longer" as the direction of the "boards" tend to make that dimension appear longer. Also want to avoid bowling alley hallways etc. Really can't go wrong, it's subjective.

For my home (and I'm just another user on here, not a pro) my house is almost 100% hardwood. I have my main rooms all going the same direction (perpendicular the floor trusses) but then my transition areas 45 degrees to the trusses. I thought it gave nice variation, and my "transition" is more of a hallway so it helped make the short dimension appear wider

Go from front to back starting at entrance. Follow that pattern throughout.

#thanksflo!

U r welcome!

OK I have marked up each and every space in your home. LVT is decorative and NOT structural. If you want it to look appropriate, then you install it so it looks as if it were a wood floor with the planks running perpendicular to the windows to minimize any telegraphing from the wood subfloor

thanks beverly. this is great! but it also runs contrary to the "run the boards parallel to the tread ideology" and the "run widthwise to make the house look wide ideology" this is why im in a quandry.

How much of a flooring budget do you have?

You could do planks on the diagonal, or in a herringbone or parquet pattern, and avoid all orientation issues altogether, lol.

Or, if you'd rather add windows, there are several rooms with exterior walls that could have windows in them, where running the boards parallel to the stairs would then follow Miss Beverly's rule of running the planks perpendicular to windows. Of course, that means that you'd *also* have planks running parallel to the original windows, and if the generally-accepted architectural ideal is to have rooms with windows on at least 2 sides, I don't see how this rule is followed on a regular basis in well designed homes. :-D

I believe running the plank parallel to the tread applies only to the steps and landing.

Some suggestions are superseded by conditions. There are some rules that are hard and fast and others that are suggestions.

thank you. this is exceedingly helpful!