Replacing residential flooring question

Really off topic for this forum but I figure there are a lot of handy folks in here.
Planning on replacing the flooring in a 1000sqft apartment with the exception of the 2 bathrooms.
2 bedrooms have carpet the rest is wood planks, not a nice hard wood or anything and it is damaged. the floor is a little uneven but there is apparently padding to remedy this and doesn’t seem like a major issue.
getting quotes of around $5.50 sqft for LVP installed/ $2.50 sqft for carpet Las Vegas area.
Wondering if this is a reasonable quote. I have most hand and power tools and am somewhat handy, also have a few handy buddies who would help for a weekend or two, but wouldn’t want to take on a job that’s better left to the professionals.
Just trying to get more info. from what I’ve seen on YouTube videos it seems pretty straightforward.

 

https://youtu.be/WqyKhSYkpRQ?si=arm_pN533E5tJHpj&t=1

 

You might ask here...

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/home-improvement-today.12120/page-1687

 

Flooring is one of the easiest projects to start on as a diyer
Do it

 

i see you’ve never done tile and grout before…

 

LVP is really easy to work with. It’s pretty forgiving, but you still need a flat even surface.

 

yeah it looks like leveling the floor would be the most difficult step. But from the videos it all looks pretty straightforward.
Definitely not trying any tile or marble but I think LVP would be doable.

 

We did this in a couple of rooms in my house ourselves. My wife is a whiz with the stuff and I barely could drive a nail back then re working on house stuffs.

 

Is $5.50 / sq ft the lvp material + padding + install? That's a hell of a deal considering I was double that for the material cost alone. I didn't get quotes to install, as we were doing everything we could to save money.

At that cost though, I am assuming it's not a premium lvp.

Leveling is the challenge, and can be costly and time consuming depending on how unlevel the sub floor is. There are many techniques out there- Self leveling concrete is a popular option. I personally went with a few different approaches in different areas of my house. On our 1st floor concrete slab, I removed the existing 12x12 tile floor and rotary hammered off as much of the remaining thinset as possible. This still left a slightly textured surface that was not suitable for lvp. I went with the float approach here as I would have had to make all kinds of crazy little dams to keep the self leveler in place. The original concrete sub floor was level within the spec of the LVP, so no additional steps were required to raise or lower parts of the sub floor. On our second story with a plywood sub floor, I used combinations of self leveling, floating concrete, and plaining/grinding high spots. For something like a small bathroom, it was easy enough to dam the room off and use self leveling. One of the rooms had two high spots- I ground the high spots a bit, and float filled the valley between them.

Onto actually installing the LVP. I hadn't laid flooring before, so getting started was the biggest hurdle. I snapped a chalk line down the length of the floor to keep the first row straight. Then used off cuts to snap into one side of those and screwed them into the sub floor. This gives you something to hammer against on the opposite side of the lvp. Then work towards a wall. Under cut doors, etc... Getting the pattern right is a thing. Not repeating the same floor pieces next to each other, making sure the seams are offset right. We choose a more organic uneven pattern over something like an H pattern.

One of these is highly recommended:


I've seen lots of install videos where they just score and break the LVP, but ours was thick, and that wasn't great.

If that all sounds like a lot, $5.50 is a good deal.

 

Thank you for the detailed response.
I am assuming the quotes I received are for a non premium LVP but did include full install. We are planning on removing the existing flooring at the minimum. As far as leveling it seems like there is only one spot in the living area that should be an issue and I would determine the best course of action for leveling once existing carpet is removed.
We are leaving the flooring in bathrooms/kitchen as is. So it's just a living area and 2 small bedrooms. Probably closer to 800sqft.
I plan on purchasing/borrowing an LVP cutter like you posted, as well as any other project specific tools, which doesn't seem like much.
Can I ask roughly how long it took you and approximately how many square feet? Did you have any assistance?

 

If you borrow a cutter- plan on at least buying a new blade for it.

Other tools:

pull bar - yes
tap block - depends on product, if you get the life proof lvp, sure the lifeproof tap block might work, otherwise no, just use cut off pieces that lock into the edge you're trying to tap on.
hammer - the home depot life proof kit, that hammer sucked, and I ended up using a 5 lb dead blow hammer. harbor freight is your friend here
spacers - ended up just ripping some wood down to 1/4". the cheap plastic ones broke too easily.

I don't know what other tools you have, but you're going to need things like an oscillating multi tool for under cutting door frames, jig saw for cutting out around the door frames, a circular saw (preferably with a track) for longer cuts (like along walls), and probably good to have some CA glue on hand...

It would be really hard for me to say how long everything took, as the entire process was spaced out throughout our remodel. Hell, I am just now finishing the lvp on our raised entry. preping the floors by far took the longest amount of time. As far as actually laying the lvp is concerned, it can go quick in a wide open space, but it's slow to get started- you really gotta plan well to ensure that you don't end up too narrow of pieces along a wall for example, and slow around walls, door openings, etc... So it really depends on the space.

I did have some assistance- my wife was the chief pattern chooser / next plank chooser. Which was great, cause I couldn't be on the hook for putting two of the same print right next to each other

 

I did our 1st floor town home in a premium LVP. I used my miter saw, table saw, and the fancy cutting tool plus the usual LVP tools. really good knee pads make a difference too. I spent way too many hours watching videos on floor prep and leveling and feel like I could have done more but its been fine. Spend the time and plan it all out.

we also removed the baseboards and put new in.

 

My only experience with flooring is removing carpet and installing laminate. Not as good as using a self leveling liquid, but I have used roofing felt to fill in low spots with good results. Just need a good 6'-8' straight edge and work it around the floor in all directions to get a sense of the low spots. I will draw a topographic map on the bare floor of where the low spots are, then use the roofing felt in layers to compliment those topo maps.