Vinyl Plank Flooring for Brewery?

erock2112 · Joined: 22 Mar 2018 Posts: 18

Hey all, I'm new here but have been drooling over this site for ages. I'm finally starting the process of converting a bedroom in my finished basement to a brewery! I'm thinking about flooring. I'd just assumed tile as the default, but I recently heard of vinyl plank flooring, of which there are apparently "waterproof" varieties. My understanding is that the plank itself is waterproof, but it's unclear to me whether liquid could seep between planks and hang around underneath, causing problems with mold. Does anyone here have experience with this type of flooring? The benefit would be that we could use it for the whole basement and not need to change the flooring in this room if we decided to move.

**kal** · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2018 9:53 pm Post subject:

Welcome to the forum!

I don't have any experience with that sort of flooring but hopefully someone can chime in. There may be different types and/or grades so probably best you talk to an installer. If it's planks, I agree that water seeping in will always be an issue. Even grout (technically) used on a tile floor isn't 100% waterproof. For example, if you tile a shower, you need something *behind* that tile the provide that waterproofing. Often that would be something like Schulter Kerdi membrane: https://www.schluter.com/schluter-us/en_US/Shower-System/Waterproofing/c/SS-W

Now it really depends too on how much you intend to spill on the floor on purpose / how you intend to use your brewery. If you want washdown conditions to be possible (take a hose to the floor with a floor drain) you need to build as if your brewery is like a shower.

Myself I don't do that. I build as if it's a kitchen. So I used tile with grout, directly on plywood only. There may be an occasional spill (like a kitchen) but I'm not leaving gallons of water on there to soak in or hosing things down.

Some people even have hardwood in their kitchen because, again, it's ok for how they want to use their kitchen: Only occasional (accidental) spills.

I would talk to whomever you'll be buying the flooring from and explain your intent. They'll be able to tell you how to properly install and whether it's meant for your intended purpose.

Good luck!

Kal

erock2112 · Joined: 22 Mar 2018 Posts: 18

Thanks for the response! I guess the big question is whether it's much worse than tile. I'm not planning to soak the room, but there's always a chance of a major spill, and I just don't want to end up with a moldy mess. I plan to keep a wet/dry vac on hand.

**kal** · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2018 10:07 pm Post subject:

I've never used vinyl plank flooring so I'm not sure. I would imagine it depends on the manufacturer/quality/how it's installed. There may be different types (just like tile).

I suggest talking to whomever you want to buy the flooring from, or talk to whomever you will use to do the installation. They should be able to help and steer you in the right direction.

Cheers!

Kal

Kazumichan · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2018 10:40 pm Post subject:

A coworker of mine has put this flooring in all through his house. I am not sure as to which brand it is, but he told me that it is water proof, even at the seams, and it is nearly indestructible.

JMD887 · Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2018 1:35 pm Post subject:

I've used it in two of my bathrooms and have not had an issue. It came highly recommended from several family members who have used it instead of title and neither of us have had any issue. I'll see if I cant dig out the specks on the brand I used.

erock2112 · Joined: 22 Mar 2018 Posts: 18

Thanks guys! I went to a flooring store yesterday and got a similar response from the salesman there. He said that most spills can easily be mopped up without an issue. In the case of a huge spill that was left to soak in, you just pull up the affected planks, dry everything out, and pop them back in. I'm pretty much sold at this point, and I'll be talking to my contractor about it soon. Still, if you have any specific recommendations or personal experience I'd love to hear about it.

**kal** · Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2018 3:18 pm Post subject:

erock2112 · Joined: 22 Mar 2018 Posts: 18

**kal** · Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2018 4:29 pm Post subject:

I would think so, but I'm not really sure... I doubt you'd ever have to do that however. Moral of the story: Be careful of sales guys ... some will tell you anything to get you to buy something. Wink

Kal

erock2112 · Joined: 22 Mar 2018 Posts: 18

Yeah, I'm hoping not, but just want to plan for the possibility. We were up front about not being ready to take home any flooring, so I'd like to think that they'd be more honest with a lack of sales pressure, but you never know.

RichmonS · Joined: 25 Mar 2018 Posts: 2

For what it's worth my basement is underway and in my brewery I plan on using epoxy garage coating. My issue is spills and non slip.

Kazumichan · Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2018 9:24 pm Post subject:

I think that the epoxy floors look nice when they are first done, but they don't wear very well. I have it in two of the rooms that I have at work and it is coming up where the floors get wet occasionally. Several people that I know have it in their garages, and they say the same thing is happening, especially if it gets a tiny scratch in it. That scratch will allow moisture under the epoxy and then it will come up.

Ozarks Mountain Brew · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2018 2:22 am Post subject:

if the whole room is the brewery and it’s in the basement I would put a floor drain in it and just use concrete, it will polish and is easier to clean

rcrabb22 · Joined: 23 Dec 2010 Posts: 462 Location: Illinois

I went with sheet vinyl flooring. Since it is glued and one complete sheet spills are not a concern of mine. There a ton of pattern options so finding one you like should not be an issue. One caveat is the flooring reveals all floor contours (imperfections). If I were to do it over again I would have sighted the floor in the dark with a flashlight at floor level and used floor leveler to fix the few "hills and valleys" I have in the floor. You can't really see them but I sure feel them when I walk over them. Funny, I didn't feel them when the floor was uncovered.

Mr Walleye · Joined: 23 Dec 2013 Posts: 71 Location: Ossining, NY

I have installed both styles of vinyl plank flooring in my house.

The "click" style that Kal shared the link on is as stated - there is no way in hell you can easily change one piece or lift pieces out of the middle. I also don't believe it fits so tightly that it is really waterproof.
So while I agree with the floor guy, a bit of water on occasion probably isn't a problem, but if you had some type of flooding event you'd need a way to ventilate under the floor to dry out leakage.

There is another style ( I used Armstrong FastTak ) that I put in my laundry room/utility room that actually uses a type of adhesive glue on the tabs. The tabs are completely flat and do not employ any type of "click" interlock.
I believe that floor is most likely 100% waterproof based on the way the adhesive is sealing the entire tab area.
However, the way the tabs interlock, I'm not sure replacing one single plank would be a fun task.
I do believe it would be much more probable to replace one of these planks versus the "click" style, but can't imagine that you'd retain any type of waterproofing on the replaced plank.

All that said - and if I could - OMB has the best suggestion.
If I ever build another brew area - there will be at least one floor drain right in the middle of a bare concrete floor.

GrumpyWally · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2018 5:47 pm Post subject:

pinbrew · Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 8:52 pm Post subject:

I installed the Armstrong Luxe plank flooring with their "Rigid Core" snap-tech, and I'm mostly happy with the results given where I was putting my brewery. I converted an out-building, which was previously a woodworking shop I'd never use. It's wood construction with wood floors, and pouring any kind of cement wasn't really an option.

The important thing to note about these floors is that when they say they're waterproof, what they mean is that the planks themselves won't be affected by moisture. If you have a subfloor underneath and you have a flood, you're likely going to be pulling everything up to the let the subfloor dry. For brewing day-to-day and wet/dry-mopping, it's not an issue provided that your floor slopes to the middle (or, at least, not to an outside edge). Where you can run into problems is places like the 1/2" exposure on the edges and the wall and, as with any floor, it's really important to make sure you mitigate pooling and draining away from where you typically collect runoff (whether by a floor drain or mopping).

The Luxe product was a bit of a PITA to install, but it's snap-together edges do provide a good seal for spills and mopping. I'm happy with the product, and the price point for it was pretty great. That said, if I was in a basement it'd be the bare concrete or a nice tile if I was putting in a thermal break.

If your brewery is on a wood subfloor (e.g. not in the basement or any other place with a slab), the plank stuff is decent, but you need to make sure you slope it, ideally have a floor drain, and mop as you go to keep it as dry as possible after spills.

Victim · Joined: 09 Mar 2011 Posts: 43

I am familiar with the luxury vinyl tile. I have it in my basement and my wife works for a very large flooring company.

A perquisite of my wife working for that company is that we got free flooring installed in a bunch of rooms in exchange for allowing the company to film installation instruction videos.

Here's one of the videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfgYK3AZPd8&feature=plcp

Those are "actors" in the video, not me or my wife.

The LVT has been fine. I've had some major spills on it with no issue. Of course it is in the basement, over slab, and I have a dehumidifier that runs constantly. My only regret is that I wish I had enough time to self-;level the floor before installation. the LVT can separate at seams a tiny bit over time if on non-level surface.

Yeah, it's impossible to replace tiles without working backward from the room edges.