Luxury vinyl plank flooring (LVP) is one of the most popular flooring choices for homes and rentals in Lexington, KY and throughout Central Kentucky because it offers durability, waterproof performance, and lower installation costs than many traditional floors.Β
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It depends on what caused the gap and how severe it is. Small gaps that developed from thermal contraction in winter often close on their own when temperatures rise and the floor expands back toward its summer position. Gaps caused by inadequate expansion gaps, excessive run length, or locking joint failure are a different situation and don't resolve without addressing the underlying cause. Attempting to force gaps closed without fixing what caused them produces a temporary result at best and risks damaging the locking profiles in the process.
Seasonal gaps that open in winter and close in summer are within normal range for a floating LVP floor and generally don't require any intervention. As temperatures drop the floor contracts slightly, and small gaps at the seams are the visible expression of that contraction. If those gaps close fully when temperatures return to normal the floor is behaving as designed. The threshold for concern is gaps that don't close with seasonal warming, gaps that are wide enough to catch a fingernail, or gaps that are accompanied by clicking or movement underfoot. Those patterns indicate something beyond normal seasonal contraction.
For gaps caused by inadequate expansion gaps at the perimeter, the fix requires pulling the baseboard and quarter round, assessing whether the floor has room to move at the walls, and in some cases tapping the floor back toward the wall to close the field gaps before re-establishing the correct expansion gap clearance. This approach works when the floor hasn't been in the gapped position long enough for the locking joints to have taken a set in the open position. A floor that has been gapped through a full winter season may not close fully even with the perimeter relief restored, because the locking profiles have been under tension in the open position long enough to lose some of their original mechanical grip.
Gaps from locking joint failure are the most difficult to address without some degree of floor disassembly. A joint that has failed mechanically, where the tongue and groove connection has lost its grip entirely, won't close and stay closed without either replacing the affected planks or using a color-matched LVP seam filler as a cosmetic solution in cases where the gap is narrow and the joint is otherwise stable. LVP seam filler is available in colors matched to common flooring tones and can make a narrow stable gap essentially invisible, but it's a cosmetic fix rather than a structural one and isn't appropriate for gaps with active movement. The structural fix for a failed joint is plank replacement, which is where having that extra box of matching flooring in the attic pays off again.
The most common mistake is trying to force gaps closed by tapping planks together from the surface without pulling the baseboard first. If the floor doesn't have adequate expansion gap clearance at the wall, tapping planks together in the field just transfers the problem to the perimeter where the floor has even less room to move. That makes the underlying expansion gap deficiency worse rather than better and sets the floor up for buckling when temperatures rise. Always check the perimeter expansion gaps before attempting to close field gaps, because the perimeter is almost always where the solution starts.Β
Gap questions come into WarehouseDirect.US most often in late winter and early spring, which tells you that seasonal contraction is the cause in most cases. The diagnostic question we ask first is always whether the gaps appeared gradually as temperatures dropped or appeared suddenly at some other point in the year. Gradual winter appearance points to seasonal contraction. Sudden appearance at any time of year points to a locking joint issue or an installation condition that needs more investigation.
The customers who resolve gap situations most successfully are the ones who resist the urge to immediately start tapping planks and pulling floor up, and instead walk through the diagnostic questions first. Where are the gaps located in the room, how wide are they, are they accompanied by any sound or movement, and what time of year did they appear. Those questions almost always identify the cause before any floor comes up, and knowing the cause determines whether the fix is as simple as waiting for summer or as involved as a partial floor disassembly. Come into WarehouseDirect.US and describe what you're seeing before you start pulling anything up. That conversation is free and almost always saves time and money on the repair.