My brother and I isntalled tile in my house as a DIY project, 3 bathrooms, a lobby and a kitchen all together about 1200 sq feet of tile. You can do it yourself if you are really careful about details, its also very strenous work, back, arms, legs, neck, wrists will all be in pain for at least a week heh. I'm really proud of the work though so it made the effort all worth it. Saved A LOT of money as well, the estimate for the kitchen alone for me was in the mid 4k's and we did the entire kitchen ourselves for about 800 and that included everything, materials and all. We had hardwood subflooring and we just put down mortar on it and screwed down hardibacker on top of it and then put more mortar on top of that stuck the tiles in and then grouted. The floor is now over two years old and still in mint condition. It can be done with some elbow grease, patience, and dedication. If you have an eye for quality then you will be more than happy with the results, we had a plumber guy show up and tell us the flooring looked professionally installed. :) Also make sure you buy the right mortar, we just bought the strongest one Lowes had, it was flexforce something thinset. You just mix it with water. Good luck.

My suggestion is this: remove the carpet - COMPLETELY. Remove ALL THE VINYL from underneath the carpet (as it *should have been done in the first place). While the vinyl is being removed, you can pull out some of the damaged planks and replace them with the salvaged planks. Fix the vinyl floor and then reinstall carpet. Voila. Done. You will have salvaged an entire room full of vinyl planks = plenty of planks to choose from. And you will have created a flat/even surface for the carpet to sit on. Excellent. Both objectives will have been achieved (carpet installed and vinyl floor repaired). Good luck. Hopefully the vinyl underneath the carpet will not have been damaged by the carpet pad/backing.

Stay with it Keli O, i had some of same issues wanting to make my living room more of what makes me happy and keeping a lot of what I love but using the furniture in a better way. These current and other willing and so very talented people helped me to the utmost, to say the least. I love what has happened to my new living room, still need to make some suggested changes to curtains and accessories, but so more than happy with the outcome. Could not have ever ever been able to make the changes myself, cannot say enough about HOUZZ helpers and patients they had with me. Yea, lol, i was moving and changing and re-arranging night and day, even stood on my head and jumped through a hoop but it was necessary and so worth it, ok I put in my 2 cents....looking good

The install needs to be glue and nail. And you are REQUIRED to have a humidifier and maintain 30-60% humidity levels in the home. Or you will have shrinking and swelling of the wood, even with engineered. Dont let them usw stair nosings with flat planks. Full treads only.