Random length LVT.

[Steve079]

I was at our showroom when our Medallion Rep came by to show some new product. I had installed some similar to it, where the product had 3 lengths of plank. This product, which is Aquarius had 2 I think. Sales asked me what I thought. I think the different lengths make the floor more tedious to install. Harder to layout because its basically a couple fixed lengths with little variation to work with, the floor looks busier and its way to easy to get endjoints to close together in successive rows.
The Rep said it was like solid hardwood, where they also random lengths, but its not, not even close. For example, the shorts in the boxes could run from around 11" to 18", and if you needed a slightly different length, you could find one. Same with the other lengths.
I think its will up the percentage of waste needed on those jobs, but that's just my opinion. One of our installers just did one, he said he just saved the short pieces for closets and halls, but he did run a couple boxes short. Seems like a bad idea, but maybe a good marketing idea to sell more floor.
On a positive note, its using the a drop lock on the endjoints, which has to be an upgrade. That Aquarius line is our best seller, but endjoint separation is a big problem, but thats another story.

 

[JPfloor]

Yea, sounds a little silly. If the goal is to closer replicate a real hardwood floor they would need more than just two different lengths.

 

[Incognito]

I'm grappling with the MATH on the difference for waste with the 3 different sized boards compared to the standard single width out of the carton. With an expensive material on a small job I think there's got to have to be a bump up.

Getting towards a larger square footage areas and less expensive materials (availability + minimum delivery/purchase) I don't think the EXTRA waste would be a big factor.

 

[JPfloor]

Hmmm… I wouldn’t think there would be much if any difference in waste? Maybe less waste as you have the option of using a different length board for your cuts creating more likelihood of the fall off to start your next row…

I can definitely see how it would take more time for little reward.

 

[highup]

Many years ago I did a hand scraped wood floor made by Anderson's and it had random lengths. It was a truly hand scraped floor and it was done floating. One of the hardest things I found was where to put the shorter planks. When you added a short and a medium plank somewhere in a row, you could easily get two planks, two rows apart, with the joints close to lining up. I tried to use the shortest ones as a starter and randomly put in the medium length ones. It's different when you have three different size planks that are exactly the same. When they're truly random I found it to be a real headache.

 

[Steve079]

I'm just thinking that when material that is a consistent length, what cuts off, starts the next row, with few exceptions. I found working with products that come with 3 fairly consistent lengths, its too easy to wind up with H joints or something close to it. I wound up racking the jobs to avoid it, sometimes its hard (for me anyway) an issue if I'm sitting right on top of it installing.

 

[highup]

On the job that I mentioned I tried racking at least three rows sometimes four. If you do it one row at a time you're bound to end up with trouble somewhere

 

[Tile Tom]

The easiest way to deal with it that I found is to use the same size plank your whole way up the pyramid and keep switching between the 3 sizes.

Keeps waste to a minimum and gets shit done.

 

[highup]

No, I'm talking about true random planks where you can have a 22 inch piece a 22 and a half inch piece a 23 1/16 inch piece 24-inch piece, a 26 1/4 inch piece. The next size up will be the same way but it will be 30 to 34 inches.
25 or more years ago I did an Anderson scraped hardwood floor product that was like that and I tried to rack four rows at a time and it was miserable. The main room was like 26 by 20 and continued another 20 ft down a 4 ft wide hallway. Say you had four rows installed with a good stagger.
When you drop down planks for the next two or three rows, one of the shorter planks wanted to line up close to the plank next to it so you switch it for a longer plank and that too would line up with another plank just further down. It turned out to be beautiful but what a pain.
I think my labor on that big job turned out to be double with the shop estimated which made both the shop and the homeowner mad and I only got a quarter of the additional that I tacked on. Oh damn I just relived a bad memory.

 

[Tile Tom]

Never seen a true random length Lvp. I would do it the same as I said before though. Keep the smalls, medium & large all the way up my pyramid.
I actually think it would be better with the minor rendomness.