You have a LOT of issues that contraindicate using vinyl. You need to stabilize the temperature and humidity coming into the house from below, before you do anything, in fact. They should have refused to do the job unless you did that, and agreed to the old floor removal and subfloor remediation. AKA, the right, but expensive way to do the job. If you wouldn’t spend the additional to do it right, a pro would have walked out and refused the job. Right now, carpet is the only suitable floor covering until you fix all the issues.

Vintl expands and contracts MORE than any other type of floor. But ALL flooring expands and contracts with temperature and humidity fluctuations. That is normal. And it is why manufacturers specify creating a stable temperature within a narrow range of humidity as a condition of providing a warranty. You do not have those stable conditions in your home.

Therefore, the only warranty that you have is via a suspect installer who violated the manufacturer requirements when they installed. Bubkis. Except they are now stepping up to actually doing something, but not unless you agree to do all the things thst needed doing in the first place. Which need to happen anyway, for ANY floor. Take them up on it. They could have just left you hanging with no recourse from any direction.

LVT does say to acclimate before install so I think it would expand and contract depending on heat and humidity.

now is the time with no heat on so the crawl is at its coldest. when the heat goes on all the hot water running thru the boiler pipes keeps it warm. . i did wonder about the floor acclimating and where it was before it came into the house. august is hot. unsure where their storage is. but i only noticed the contraction in the past week. more than 5 weeks after install. so would it take 5 weeks to contract? i have no clue. i just really am worried if they installed today in the cold weather and the end joints will be tight now. but in july everything will expand and buckle. i just assume what contracts today expands 'tomorrow'. or should a glue down floor even move? thats another question he didnt really answer

but from what you say, their estimator was clueless about the effect of the crawlspace. so it really is their fault. personally i wouldnt mind carpet in the kitchen except for all the spaghetti sauce and kool aid stains that would be hard to get out lol . plus no one would buy the house then.

i guess the only true repair is paying 400 and praying the new screws in the old sub floor eliminate the crunch. then get a single sheet and hope i can get one that looks like the same nice wood we have now. i paid extra for the 45 degree angle to be installed. i guess i deserve some money back then if they are doing a single sheet vs all the planks? it has to be easier than cutting all those planks to size. frankly i'm surprised they didnt suggest just forgiving the 50% i owe them and walking away. it took 10 hours to install this so it will be at least 14 or so including ripping out the new floor and sub floor. also his guys HAD to know this was crunchy when they were installing it and they ignored it and i pointed this out and he said they were just focused on getting the job done quickly. he did say when the install their 1st new underlayment that it will be obvious if the new screws did their job and eliminated the crunch.

Can you insulate the crawl space?

its 2000 sq ft. (and 3 'rooms' under the house) that probably would be a fortune. i never have a problem heating the kitchen etc. since converting from oil to gas my bills went from nearly 3000 a year to maybe 1200 a year to heat so i'm happy there. also i have original hard wood floors throughout the house and those have been ok for 70 years. i guess vinyl just isnt the same as hardwood or sheet vinyl as i'm finding out.

another thing i keep thinking about is a new vinyl sheet really going to be as good as the old? the guy alluded to something about adhesives not being as good as they were 'in the good ole' days. but at this point i feel theres zero choice but to hope the extra screws get rid of the crunch noise and the floor falls in place ok. i really hate every time i walk in the kitchen it's crunching.

If you do not fix the actual structural issues that are affecting the home, then any flooring you do will be a waste of money. None of what you have meets standard flooring industry requirements. Put the money into what counts, to fix your issues.

so then it does sound from what you are saying the vinyl from 50 years ago was better than today. because i had zero issues ever with it with the current crawlspace conditions as well as the uneven floor. no crunching, never came up...nothing. i just wanted a new improved look and that was my mistake. structurally it was fine until it was disturbed with all those new staples causing the crunch. sigh

also the floating floor i installed myself 7 years ago in another area had no issues all this time. but thats probably because it floats lol.

Even a glued down LVP floor must be flat to within 1/8" in 10' typically, same for floating. Expansion and contraction will happen on floating or glue down and that is why the proper spacing at the edges is imperative as all LVT moves more than most any other material. Vinyl sheet expansion and contraction does not play a part really at all (different animal entirely), not does it require a flat floor.

i had no idea LVP expanded and contracted even if glued. is there any such thing as them installing expansion gaps at the ends of each plank? because if they laid it down today perfectly tight end to end it would expand in spring/summer for sure then. ill have to ask the guy when he gets here if they would install like that. also at one point theres a 1/2 inch dip and they knew that before they started. strangely enough i have no crunch issues there. very strange. so if they knew the floor was soooo wavy they should have only installed a sheet it sounds like.

Thr issue isn’t the material. All flooring materials requires the same conditions. The issue is that your “crunchy” subfloor is delaminated from the moisture condensing against it and being sealed into it by the sheet vinyl over the years. It needs to be replaced, not have more screws added. The root issue is because your crawlspace underneath isn’t vapor sealed and insulated. If you don’t fix all of he above, you’ll have a lot more than ”saggy” spots in your floor. You’ll end up in the crawl space at some point. Its shot and requires replacement.

not very good pics but here they are. he was expecting tile or black glue or something but it wasnt there. the wood all looked solid to me, not falling apart. he did pull out a small black nail and said thats likely an issue where the nails all broke free . the staples basically pushed up the old floor or something like that. i forget the exact thing. but what they did loosened things up and they now need to be tight. he even had the nail with him a week later when he came back to test something else out. he did 2 test sections on the floor. cut out the new floor and nailed the heck of of the floor. in the blue taped test squares i had no more crunching. so i was happy. thats why i think the nailing will get rid of the crunching..at least most of it.

"is there any such thing as them installing expansion gaps at the ends of each plank?"

Cut the flooring back carefully 1/2" at all walls is about it.

yea i figured, how would they do each board. put a credit card between each end lol. that would take forever but it does have me wonder how they install floors in the winter. surely im not the only one that has floors installed in winter.

im sure they left the gaps along the walls. under my baseboards and they had to even add some quarter round where i had nothing. also the darn reducers were 150 bucks! but looked better than that 10 dollar cheapo at home depot and i have 4 doorways to the kitchen so i needed 2 8 foot sections.

so here we are mid january. icy cold out. and voila . 88.5 percent of the crunching noise is gone. i have no idea why . with the boiler running maybe it heated up the crawlspace enough to 'do something'? but then again, wouldnt the crawl space be hotter in august? i have no clue. some spots of the floor make no noise at all! the sheet of vinyl is to be installed in the next month or 2. they will rip up their work and install new underlayment and the new sheet. in theory, IF i waited till May and the crunching noise didnt come back, then i maaaaay be able to deal with the little bit that is left. but id always wonder if it would come back. sigh. what a quandry. they are gonna nail the new floor even more than the old so i'm pretty sure the noise should be gone regardless though. we will def know before they put the vinyl on again, thats for sure.

so the day is here. half a year later. they are gonna rip out planks and install new sheet.

this is a different guy. they had said old crew was coming but i guess not. and he's working alone. not fun. so apparently the new underlayment will NOT be screwed. it will be stapled like before. but what is different is they are gonna screw down my old floor onto the joists to try to keep it from squeaking anymore. the good news is we can tell instantly if it will work before they even do the new underlayment.. i cannot wait to see a single man lay a 12 ft sheet. thought would need a few people. now i see that he's hammering in the old staples into the old floor. i guess to get smooth surface for new underlayment. between all the new staples, old staples and they new screws the floor should be tight.

Good luck. I love this site for learning about materials and their installation requirements and expectations.

new floor is ripped up and he's now screwing the old floor down. i asked how he knows where the joists are (absent crawling in the crawlspace). he said from when the other guy cut open the floor he can tell where 2 pieces of plywood joined together and that should be over a joist. i asked if he could use stud finder and he said no cause is more metal under the house. i guess it makes sense but unsure it's really the way to tell where joists are. he's doing 2 rows of screws on each joist. sadly now in winter the floor isnt squeaking as much as summer. so my plan to walk all over it before the new floor went in will not be a good test. sigh.

this guy is so much better than the other 2. he's doing the patch that should have been initially done because of the slope. maybe thats why the other 2 arent here.

I am so much happier no matter what because apparently this guy is doing what the contract called for initially and leveling the floor. I can't wait till it's dry so I can walk all over it and see how much crackling is doing if any. thing that really is sad is the other guys did NO leveling. you can see by the sheer volume of the patching that i had huge valleys that needed to be leveled.

day 2, i walked all over the patch job and entire floor. sadly i have not a single crunch . ill have to wait till summer to see if the screwing worked. i'm convinced all my heating pipes in the crawlspace have something to do with why theres no crackling in winter. he's also gonna use longer staples this time which should help hold it all together.

That is really pretty!

I agree that’s really pretty! What’s the name of the flooring?

thanks https://www.mannington.com/Residential/VinylSheet/LuxuryVinylSheet/Revive-Collection/Deco/130390

Beautiful flooring. Looks great in your room.

I can think of few flooring options as easy to care for, lovely to look at, gentle on dropped things and financially not a deal breakers as sheet flooring. And so easy to clean. You are lucky, Lucky Driver! Congrats on a great floor!