Allure DIY Floating Vinyl Planks - Harvey Norman

Bandita

Bandita

Hi all,

Has anyone heard of or used this type of flooring before - Allure floating vinyl planks - they appear to be exclusive to Harvey Norman and I believe have only been on the market a few months. They are vinyl timber floor planks (the flexible bend kind), which have a "GripSystem" where they stick to each other, and are floating (not glued to your floors).

Geoff and I came across them today - they are textured so look and feel alot like a real timber floor - and they're waterproof. We've brought several planks home to compare colours and have been scrapping them with a key and no scratches or marks so far.

They're selling for $45m2. You install them yourself - I had a go at the store sticking them all together and it was pretty easy.

I've tried searching them on the internet but finding very very little (and everything I've found is from the USA).

Has anyone used or heard of them? We've seen many vinyl planks - but they all had to be glued to the floors - this is the first DIY floating ones I've come across.

Thanks for the help!

Cheers,
Jen
 
Hi,

Considering you can get laminated floating flooring for $16-$18 a Sq metre are you sure vinyl has that many advantages over laminated?


rossv
 
Ross

I had always thought that the problem with laminated flooring was that it was not waterproof- and that there was a potential problem if there was water sitting on it. I have some in a kitchen area, so I'm concerned.
 
rossv said:
Hi,
Considering you can get laminated floating flooring for $16-$18 a Sq metre are you sure vinyl has that many advantages over laminated?
rossv
Click to expand...

Hi Ross,

I think it all depends really - that really cheap laminate flooring was in our South Melbourne IP when we purchased it, and it chips and moves. It doesn't look as "real" as the higher quality laminates I think. Adding on the underlay and installation of laminate floors you get up to about $40-$50m2 even for the cheap stuff. As you go up in price in the laminate flooring you get better quality and the textured look which makes it look like real timber.

We're particularly interested in the Vinyl because it's waterproof. We KNOW the tenants will mop the floors with too much water and spill on them, etc. With these particular Vinyl floors we found today - the DIY (without glue or underlay) is very appealing. But even more appealing was how real they looked!

Cheers,
Jen
 
Check that this flooring does not require sealing with polish as I saw something similar some time ago and thought it looked great until I spoke to the seller and he said they recommend sealing which also means stripping from time to time and re sealing. Not many tenants will maintain the floor properly if it requires polishing.

Cheers
Diane
 
JenD said:
Google shows up very little unfortunately!
Click to expand...
I know- that's why I asked.
JenD said:
I've found the link to to Harvey Norman brochure we picked up on their website http://www.harveynormanflooring.com.au/allure.html
Click to expand...
OK,Thanks Jen.

From the brochure, I can see that the grip system you mentioned is a separate adhesive strip, not a part of the vinyl itself, as I had thought.

Having installed floating wood laminate, I can seehow much easier this would be to install.
 
geoffw said:
From the brochure, I can see that the grip system you mentioned is a separate adhesive strip, not a part of the vinyl itself, as I had thought.

Having installed floating wood laminate, I can seehow much easier this would be to install.
Click to expand...


Hi Geoff,

Yes, each plank has a "layer" under it which is adhesive - the adhesive layer is lined up under the plank so it extends further out on one side and one end - which you can then lay another vinyl plank on - I believe you get about 30 seconds to get it fit right before you won't be able to remove it. I found it very easy in the store to put them together.

I'm wondering if they would move at? Is there anywhere you actually secure floating floors so they don't move?

I'm also wondering about the space between the skirting boards and the floor - there used to be carpet in all the rooms, so there's quite a gap - these viny planks are only about 3mm maybe - would you remove all the skirting boards and lower them after you install the floors (or before?) - or can you fill the gap with something else without having to remove the skirting boards?

Cheers,
Jen
 
Probably easier to replace the skirts with widers skirts. This will cover the gap as well as hide any imperfections left under where the old skirts used to be.
 
Hi,

I'd just lay the floor and then fix a (say) 20mm by 20mm bead around the room

up against the skirting. Just prepaint it the same colour as the skirting.

Floating floors are just that ..... floating, they are not fixed to anything.


rossv
 
MrsW went to HN to have a look today. It was the last day they were selling at $45psm- the price will go up $10 tomorrow.

She was not impressed- she thought it looked too plastic.

The product may need some maturing. Or, at minimum, some less critical buyers :D
 
Allure Flooring

its not as good as i first thought ,after renovating several homes i decided to try this product , it had a lifetime warranty ,and was DIY ,very easy to lay and looks good once its down.
after about twelve monthe it started to lift at the joints .so i took photos and went to our friendly Harvey Norman store to tell them what i thought .
They agreed that this was not the Norm (no Punn intended).they promised to send their expert from Head office in for an inspection he told us they only had a 1% failure rate ,after he consulted with Head office ,i was told through their store that they would like a sample to send to the U.S.Whicjh i was happy to ablige .After another month or so i contactd the store to ask what the outcome was.The response was i would be given credit .Fantastic ive kicked a goal.Wrong,because when you lay the product in a new renovated house you lay first then attach Skirting ,Architrave,Paint .,so when you need to replace something like this there are extra costs ,to cut this story short no extra to repplace their faulty product ,even with a letter to H.N,himself .Nil Nada,Zip.so im out of pocket about 2k in additional costs which is double what i initialy paid .by the way one of Harvey Normans Flooring guys said they had problems with other houses ,in Austalia,also i was also informed they need to make changes to this product to suit Austalian conditions..GOOD LUCK,HARVEY NORMAN HAS LOST ME:mad:
 
Floating floors can look great if you spend the extra coin and buy the upper part of the market stuff..but in saying this still be VERY carefull as they only come in small packs of 10 or so lenghts and if from a different batch..they are known to have a complete diffrent finish. Also one thing to check is that they are not too bowed..they are only suppsed to have a 3mm tolerance and many can come with 20mm of bow!
 
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