Flooring for common area of apartment building

[jake18v]

What type of flooring is best to use for an apartment building's common hallways and stairs. The existing flooring is going to get ripped to the subfloor. I'm looking for something easy to install. I do not want to tile it.

Does LVP make sense for this application?

The building is a 3-family, 3 story unit in Brooklyn NY. The flooring inside the apartments is 3/4" hardwood.

 

[Tile Tom]

I would do a glue down lvp if it was up to me.
You can really make that stuff look sharp and the designs are endless!

Looks like you'll need underlayment first though.

 

[JCobb]

I would do a glue down lvp if it was up to me.
You can really make that stuff look sharp and the designs are endless!

Looks like you'll need underlayment first though.

Absolutely. Re-sheet with some decent plywood flooring underpayment. And full spread it down. Don’t forget to re-sheet the stairs as well, paying attention to tread height. It being commercial, I would use metal stair nosing as opposed to the plastic matching ones. They will be more durable and easier to replace if something goes wrong.

 

[jake18v]

I pulled up a stair tread. I'm guessing it pine. Scratches easy. And the subfloor was 4" t&g pine. Building is 100 years old.

I should be able to remove all the vinyl glue on tile off the treads and sand them down smooth. I would need to shim underneath the treads to get them level. Wondering if I should bother reusing the pine treads as my base?

 

[C.J.]

A lot of times it may be easier to remove the treads and flip them over than it would be to try and clean all the adhesive residue off of them. When you have the treads off would be the perfect time to shim underneath before you reinstall them.

 

[Tile Tom]

I would still use underlayment on the stairs.
If you're an hourly guy I would go as far as sanding them/flipping them and still do the underlayment. Then you know what you're dealing with down the road if they need replacement again.

 

[jake18v]

A lot of times it may be easier to remove the treads and flip them over than it would be to try and clean all the adhesive residue off of them. When you have the treads off would be the perfect time to shim underneath before you reinstall them.

Yeah good call on flipping the treads to avoid cleaning the glue off. Some are not going to be symmetrical b/c of newel posts etc, but a decent amount can be salvaged. ~80% of 28 steps.

 

[jake18v]

Absolutely. Re-sheet with some decent plywood flooring underpayment. And full spread it down. Don’t forget to re-sheet the stairs as well, paying attention to tread height. It being commercial, I would use metal stair nosing as opposed to the plastic matching ones. They will be more durable and easier to replace if something goes wrong.

Interesting idea on using metal stair nosing. I saw some lvp complete treads and they were ~$40 a piece!!! I googled and found some nice lvp metal stair nosing profiles at HD. See 1st pic. Not cheap. Works out to $15 a step.

Another alternative is using the classic metal stair nosing. See second pic. That works out to about $5 a step.

Kind of leaning toward the nicer stair nosing.

 

[JCobb]

Interesting idea on using metal stair nosing. I saw some lvp complete treads and they were ~$40 a piece!!! I googled and found some nice lvp metal stair nosing profiles at HD. See 1st pic. Not cheap. Works out to $15 a step.

Another alternative is using the classic metal stair nosing. See second pic. That works out to about $5 a step.

Kind of leaning toward the nicer stair nosing.

The first profile looks better, but takes more work to install because of the lip needing to be flush with the top of the tread. 28 stairs would probably take me 5 or 6 hours to patch, and make pretty. 2nd pic isn’t as nice but easier to install and replace if anything goes wrong. The first profile installed great with a narrow crown stapler and a bit of construction adhesive under it.

 

[jake18v]

The first profile looks better, but takes more work to install because of the lip needing to be flush with the top of the tread. 28 stairs would probably take me 5 or 6 hours to patch, and make pretty. 2nd pic isn’t as nice but easier to install and replace if anything goes wrong. The first profile installed great with a narrow crown stapler and a bit of construction adhesive under it.

5-6 hours?? That's impressive!!! I'll find a way to take 5-6 days.

When you work on stairs like mine, do you typically remove the balusters?

 

[Tile Tom]

If it was me and we're talking a glue down lvp, I would cut around them.
Unless for some reason they were easy to remove and replace (highly unlikely).
I can't see spending the time and effort to remove them. I would offer the customer to have a carpenter remove them before I got there and replace them after I was done.

There will probably be some monkeying around after the finished flooring is installed. Probably have to cut the spindles to fit back properly? Another reason to not go down that rabbit hole.

 

[JCobb]

5-6 hours?? That's impressive!!! I'll find a way to take 5-6 days.

When you work on stairs like mine, do you typically remove the balusters?

Lol. Sorry 5 or 6 hours to make the stair nosing lip disappear only. Full day to cut and install after that per flight (13 or 14 steps) after they are fully prepped. I just noticed the balusters go to the stair, with no bottom rail. I personally leave them, because I don’t want the liability. Those are always a pain, basically double your cut and fit time.

 

[JCobb]

I have used these Schluter VINPRO profiles before instead if traditional stair nosing.Cleaner profile, but check the thickness of material for fitment first.

 

[jake18v]

I would do a glue down lvp if it was up to me.
You can really make that stuff look sharp and the designs are endless!

Looks like you'll need underlayment first though.

Tom - what thickness lvp do you recommend of common hallways and stairs? Thx

 

[Tile Tom]

All the glue down lvp that I can think of are roughly the same thickness.

Something with around a 20 mil wear layer for a heavy traffic area should be about right.

 

[rugaddict]

Common areas I would use carpet tile

 

[JPfloor]

Common areas I would use carpet tile

Absolutely! Can’t beat carpet tile for ease of installation. A lot less prep work too. More comfortable to walk on, better looking too. A much classier appearance.

 

[highup]

Absolutely! Can’t beat carpet tile for ease of installation. A lot less prep work too. More comfortable to walk on, better looking too. A much classier appearance.

As a side benefit you don't have to hire anyone to fix something. You just peel one tile out and you drop another tile in and walk away.
More expensive up front, but they're also much more durable and other products.