Oakland Duplex Engineered Flooring, 2016

The owner had just bought this Oakland duplex when he found a water leak under the slab foundation. Tracking it down and repairing it came at great expense, and by the time the remodel started, a lot of money had already gone into the building. Every remaining decision had to keep costs down without cutting corners on the finish.

The right floor for a slab that’s had a leak

The answer was a flexible, interlocking vinyl plank floor on both sides of the duplex, about 1,200 square feet per unit. Vinyl plank is a floating floor: the planks lock to each other rather than being glued or nailed down, and the whole floor sits on a thin cushioned underlayment over the concrete. On a slab, that underlayment does two jobs. It acts as a moisture barrier between the concrete and the floor, and it dampens sound, which matters in a duplex with neighbors on the other side of the wall. And because vinyl itself isn’t harmed by water, it’s a sensible choice in a building with a history of moisture.

A floating floor is only as good as what’s under it. The slab has to be flat, since vinyl will telegraph dips and humps, and dry. After a leak, making sure the repair has fully dried out before anything goes down is the difference between a floor that lasts and one that traps moisture.

One continuous floor

The vinyl runs through every room and across every doorway without a single threshold strip. Only the kitchen was left out, and there the vinyl meets the kitchen tile directly, again with no threshold. A continuous floor makes each unit feel larger and reads as one finished space rather than a patchwork of rooms. It also means there’s no strip to trip on or catch dirt.

The install itself was fairly straightforward. The work was in the details: cutting around door frames, trim, and every feature in the room so the planks tuck in cleanly. Door jambs get undercut so the flooring slides beneath them rather than being scribed around. Floating floors expand and contract with the seasons, so a small gap is left at the walls, hidden by the baseboard.

Why it worked

After an expensive repair, the owner needed a floor that was durable, quiet, moisture-tolerant, and affordable, and that could go in quickly so both units could be lived in again. Vinyl plank over a proper underlayment checked every box. The best look isn’t always the expensive one.

Thinking about new floors? See what we install, or send photos for an estimate.