Vinyl Flooring For Cold Weather

We are redoing the living room floor in our cottage in new york s finger lakes area.

Vinyl flooring for cold weather.

Rubber flooring like that found in gyms is an outside the box approach to colder climate flooring. We are considering the vinyl tile hardwood look planks in the invincible titanium series from the local carpet one dealer. The big temperature swings will shorten the life of the vinyl of any non stone tile floor. I would expect 7 10 years out of a floating vinyl floor.

The cold winters will probably be too much for an adhesive to deal with. I know this cuz i ve cracked some pieces trying to install them in probably 20f weather so if you had a saggy baggy floor that moved when you walked on it i suppose there could be some risk of cracking. We don t heat the place in the winter and although the lake has a moderating effect on temperature it does go below freezing in the winter. Rubber doesn t grow or shrink noticeably with the temperature changes and for the most part is weather proof.

Nevertheless vinyl plank flooring might not be the best flooring for cold temperatures. Vinyl flooring naturally expands and contracts in the heat and cold. While solid hardwood is as warm as engineered hardwood it s prone to shrinking in the cold and expanding during warm weather. This will also keep your feet warm during those cold winter months.

Our three season cabin is on the north shore of lake michigan in the upper peninsula of michigan. Well vinyl flooring does get stiff and brittle in the cold. As solid hardwood changes it can become warped or develop cupping. Stop the floor between a quarter inch and a half inch shy of the wall to allow for this natural expansion.

Don t install your vinyl floor with glue. Though vinyl floors are near perfect for all kinds of weather conditions they may not be a good option for those cold winter months. This will help keep the floor warm and that may prevent it from expanding or contracting too much. The glue can separate from a poorly prepared subfloor and can react poorly to extreme cold.

That is one of the reasons why you should use insulation for this particular type of floor. Don t install an inexpensive vinyl floor. We would like to install some type of hardwood or engineered hardwood on the floors but we re concerned about having no heat in the cabin through the winter months and what that might do to the flooring. Here are eddie s do s and don ts when selecting a vinyl floor for an unheated cottage.

If your home is drafty the cool air will make your hardwood floor cold as well. We are now finishing an 18x18 foot addition that has a crawl space underneath. If the floor is installed flush with the wall there is no room for growth in the hot months and the loose lay floor can easily buckle.