The missus liked LVT with a pattern. The pattern is 16" square and there are 3 per plank, so the planks are 16"x48". The Mannington installation video says to stagger the planks by at least 8" (for the model of plank, most of which does not have a pattern). I figured I should stagger them by a pattern. My assumption is that the stagger helps to hold the joints at the ends of the boards, so it seem pretty important. The problem is that when I stagger them, the alignment changes a little at every joint.
These are the joints going down the same row, the gradually get more and more off.
first tiles, pattern matched up, mostly on the right edge
needed to get the seam tighter, and the alignment is starting to drift.
Alignment is more off.
hard to see the alignment issues, but it's the worst here which is furthest from where I started
I laid this out a few weeks back, but was in a hurry with no extra time, so didn't get to mess with them much. I fiddled with a few and figured out how to get the seams tight every time.
I also measured the gap between the points at the corners of 2 patterns. For the gaps in the middle of a pattern, they are 10mm apart. When I measure a couple of the tiles that I just laid down, one is 7.6mm and another is 6.4mm. Craps never going to line up like that. I've got a ticket open with the vendor (for about 2 weeks now, but I'm assuming the lack of contact is due to the holidays). I suppose if they were laid not staggered, they should be OK, although they'll probably never exactly line up.
THen, when I look at the reference photo of this tile from the manufacturer, they don't seem to have staggered the tiles.
reference photo from manufacturer's website where they don't seem to have staggered these tiles.
I think this is Mannington's top of the link LVP. It's their Adura Apex Max (or is that Max Apex).