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?

Transition strips are required for ALL floating flooring....not just LVP with cork backing. All floating floors need to have the ability to 'move'. A hardwood floating floor needs them. A cork floating floor needs them. A laminate floating floor needs them. A linoleum floating floor needs them and a vinyl floating floor needs them. The question becomes HOW OFTEN do you need them. I have a massive problem with the Floor & Decor website with the installation suggestions. They state that you can install up to 6400sf without transitions. I have to call BS on this one. The reason: cork. Cork is EXTREMELY dynamic. It REALLY LIKES to stretch its legs. In fact a cork floating floor can expand as much as 1" over 25 linear feet. That is HUGE! MASSIVE! Almost unheard of. So...are the transition strips "really necessary"? With cork, yes. With vinyl, no. With cork+vinyl, yes. Floor & Decor has used the "click edge" documents (the fastening system) without taking into consideration the dynamic nature of cork. The 6400sf of continuous install is fine with an SPC core and the edge system. But the technical data becomes useless as soon as you add in vinyl and cork together. I would pop off a baseboard (somewhere) and look to see if your expansion gap has been maintained (I want to see 5/8" or more). If the floor has pushed itself up to the drywall, then you know you have a problem that can be fixed with transition strips. The easiest fix *might be to cut the floor at all door jams and drop in a low-profile t-moulding. As annoying as this is, it could the be the simplest fix. But first the moisture source needs to be addressed. I still think the Bostik has been overwhelmed and I think the cork has grabbed the moisture and pushed everything to the absolute limits (ie. the walls).

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?

@toycar77 Shaw Floorte Elite Prodigy HDR MXL Plus Golden Age was the one we were waiting on for over 6 months and then when that got pulled from market while we were waiting (bullet dodged apparently) we were waiting on one of their tile styles and the Shaw rep from our flooring retailer said those were being pulled too because of installation issues (I think the joints were cracking during install). They both are part of their new “mineral core” planks/tiles so might have something to do with the mineral core? They are “updating” them now but all we could find out was that it might be the end of the year (with no real known date at this time). I don’t know if the smaller planks are affected though (the Prodigy ones that aren’t MXL plus) because there was just the one color and size that we were interested in that tested well in our fabric test (at least the three samples we had at the time). They clearly released the product before it was actually ready so I’m not sure if I’d trust the “update” until it’s tested in the real world! Plus, at this point, it’s hard to have any faith that the new updated version will have a non-destructive finish. I would say fingers crossed on that one but I’d rather hope for finding something better sooner!