On Monday, February 11, 2013 1:17:06 PM UTC-5, Ralph Mowery wrote:
wrote in message ... Why does the new vinyl have to have the 1/4" wood addition? Can someone help me understand what the correct process is here? Don't beat up on the sales guy as I could have repeated some of what he said incorrectly. I am not sure how thick it is, but thinking more like 1/8 of an inch. Anyway the floor under the vinyal has to be smooth or anything under it will show up as lumps and bumps. They usually lay down the large sheets and fill in the cracks between them with something so the floor will be smooth all over. Doing it with the large sheets of wood may be the fastest way to do this.

Lowes sells these cheap installs but then gets the money back with various conditions. Their cheap carpet install requires you to buy new pad too and does not remove or dispose of the old carpet or pad. If your subfloor is in good condition then you don't need the 1/4" luan board. But you might not be able to get it installed without it. At least not from lowes.

However almost all newer homes will have 1/4" luan boards under vinyl flooring. But they generally do a sloppy job when doing the subflooring and it's usally osb, not ply or tongue and groove. You can cover a lousy subfloor with pad and carpet and it'll be fine. Not so with vinyl.

I think the luan is about $10 a sheet if you want to do it yourself.