What's the subfloor material? What is the current flooring in the trailer (can we assume mobile home or is this an RV/camper-trailer)?

It’s a mobile home and the subfloor is 3/4” particle board

folks on this board like Provenza.

First Crush. Sweet Talker are popular.

search 'provenza' and you'll get lots of hits.

I have no idea of pricing, etc. Best of luck.

Trish

What's your TOTAL budget for the job? That is the cost of EVERYTHING once you are finished.

How many square feet?

How wavy/wonky are the subfloors? Particle board has been known to sag over time.

Not too wavy/wonky. About 800 square feet. We aren't really skimping because I hate spending money on crap that breaks or sucks. I'd rather spend a little extra for quality but don't want to just get stupid. So I really watch for sales and discounts on quality materials and try to find the best "value". I think I'd be ridiculous if I went over $5 per square foot on LVP - would really rather stay around $3 but I don't want to get just junk that I'd get mad at every time I see it because it was a rip off.

Can you explain, "not too wonky"? You will need a 10ft level to start measuring the deflection of the subfloor. Most vinyls require a flatness rating of 3/16" over 10ft (or 3mm over 10m). That's PRETTY flat.

The low-mid range products are in the $2-$3/sf range. The mid-range starts (which is what you are hoping for) starts in the $4-$5/sf range. The REALLY good stuff is $6-$8/sf.

Of course subfloor and installation labour is extra.

Please measure you particle board before going any further. You might just find a REALLY NICE SHEET VINYL product in a wood-look pattern to be ideal. These sheet products are SUPER nice and for the price/sf when installed (no subfloor prep needed....sheet goes down over almost anything) it is a great option for mobile homes used as a visitor's bunky.

Sheet vinyl would give you a waterproof surface with no spaces for dog urine to leak through.

Agree with the sheet vinyl recommendation. Very practical and can look good.

I have Coretec Hayes Oak. Very durable. I would suggest you consider a light color bc I notice people with darker floors complain about paw prints

Deann, do you mind sharing where you purchased your coretec and how much?

Chiming in to ask for more feedback . . . because you pretty much posted my exact inquiry! Our daughter has made an offer (will hear back this afternoon!) on her first home. The purchase price is mostly in the 30 acres of perfection including a ridge line with views to die for and 1000 ft of trout stream frontage). The current residence itself is a "just fine" 20 year old manufactured doublewide. She isn't picky about housing and will live in that for some years until she later builds her forever home further into the property (and would then likely rent out the current residence until it's no longer worthy of maintaining or even just sell it off as it's on the edge of the property.)

As a housewarming gift, my husband and I have offered to replace the stinky carpeting (about 1000 sf of it) with LVP. We are pretty handy, and we're planning to DIY the install.

So, we need a modestly priced but durable and quality LVP product for DIY installation. Main criteria are a quality product that won't soon have gaps or cracks or other obvious serious defects and is as scratch resistant as is reasonably available. Floating installation, not glue down. And, since we're talking about a depreciating asset (not a house that rises in value), it's just silly to overspend, because this entire structure will end up in a land fill within the next couple decades. So, I'm hoping to keep the floor cost more in the $2-4/ft range.

Can anyone help guide me to specific products? Especially those available at Lowe's or Home Depot, where I can see the product in person. Our local Lowe's happens to have excellent management and is very responsive to problems/etc, so I will lean towards a product available at Lowe's all other things being equal.

Thank you!

@Sophie Silcox I went through my local floor dealer to purchase the flooring and also had it installed. I had it installed on the main level, stair treads, and in the bedrooms. I can't remember what it worked out in terms of square footage for the actual planks, but the overall charge for me was around $10 per square foot installed. They had to do new subfloors for mud room and ripped out an area upstairs by the landing. It wasn't cheap, but it was cheaper than hardwoods.

@szruns What a lovely gift! Are you guys handy? I had Coretec Hayes Oak professionally installed (floating floor). Watching them install it, I def wouldn't have attempted it on my own, but I'm not a handy person. One of my painters told me he installed the Home Depot brand in his parent's house; he loved it, thinks it's a great product.. For me, I decided to go for Coretec Hayes Oak b/c I liked the width and the length hoping it would cut down on the patterny look of LVP. I noticed with the thinner and shorter planks you get a lot of the pattern that to me gives it a more fake look. That said, since the square footage is low, you probably won't even notice. To me, my Coretec Haes Oak looks the best upstairs. I think it looks more like real wood there. I decided the reason I feel that way is b/c there's you don't have a tremendous amount of space and long runs to really notice an LVP pattern.

My planks have what they called "embossing" on the planks -- there are ridges. If there ever was a scratch on the floor, I sure can't see one. On one level, it may accentuate the fakeness b/c hardwoods you aren't getting that embossing. But it also really hides any defects.

@dj 2002, thank you for the feedback and suggestions! Yes, my husband and I are quite handy. We've installed several rooms of tile, replaced vanities and fixtures, built closets, framed doors and walls, run wiring, replaced molding, etc. OUR house is DONE, thank goodness, lol, after a massive remodel and additions in 2014-15, so we're in a good position to do a project like this. Plus, our daughter is currently living with us and doesn't have any dependents, so we'll have an empty house to work in, and she won't move in until the flooring is complete, so that simplifies things a LOT, as working around a family living there is tons harder. I'm not worried about the LVP installation. We have lots of good tools (mitre saw, etc) that will make it pretty easy, from what I can tell. I'm looking at SmartCore from Lowe's. I like that each plank is "one board" visually, so I think it'll look more natural than the printed patterns where multiple "boards" are on one plank. It's 5" wide and 48" long. How does that length compare to the one you used? It's 2.78/sf and looks nice. I'm digging around trying to find the details on the dimensions/wear layer, etc.

@szruns You guys will do great with it! The planks I have are 9x72; I went with the extra wide and long just b/c it was going to be covering large living area on the main level. And also b/c I wanted the stair treads to be solid and not pieced! Otherwise, I wouldn't have been that concerned about the width and length!

I just loked at the Smartcore video and it looks fantastic! Ironically, the ad said "feature Coretec technology." I just saw the Lanier Hickory looks amazing!

Make sure you post your before and after!