Luxury vinyl floor (tile or plank) is rapidly becoming a number one flooring type for many homeowners due to it’s durability, easy installation and maintenance.
When most people buy any type of the flooring material, luxury vinyl tile (lvt) included, they want to get the exact amount. Which is totally understandable. No one wants to spend money on something that they are not going to use.
However, it can lead to some problems with this flooring type and the rule of thumb is to buy extra. Just in case.
How much is extra of plank flooring exactly? For most projects to install luxury vinyl plank, allowing 5% to 10% for waste material is sufficient.
But it is not always as straight forward: the first question you need to answer is it straight or diagonal installation?
The most common waste allowance for straight installations is 10%, and 15% for diagonal installations. If you anticipate making a lot of cuts, or you are new to cutting LVT flooring, a waste allowance of 15% or even 20% is reasonable. This will give you some extra material in case you make some mistakes, or if your measurements are off by a few inches.
It also means you won’t have to put a partially completed project on hold because you ran out of materials. And if you have a few extra planks, they might come in handy in the future if you need to replace a damaged plank. 