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knowledge icon Luxury Vinyl Flooring Learning Center

Discover the world of Luxury Vinyl Flooring (LVF) with our comprehensive Learning Center. Uncover the benefits of LVF, compare with other flooring options, and get answers to frequently asked questions. Elevate your flooring knowledge and make informed decisions for a luxurious and durable home environment.

Luxury Vinyl Flooring FAQs

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We do not provide installation services but have no fear as there are many high-quality contractors in your state and the majority will be eager to provide a free estimate over the phone or in the comfort of your own home.  We recommend that you check out our helpful article titled 7 Tips For Choosing A Floor Installer.

Below are a few questions you will want to consider before placing your order:

1. What type of subfloor (usually plywood or concrete) will the floor be installed over?
2. Do you already have a specific plan to float, nail, or glue down the floor, and if so, why?
3. What other types of flooring will the floor be butting up to?  Will you require transition pieces and how many?
4. How much flooring will you need to complete the job?  Have you added waste?
5. When do you plan to start, and when do you need to receive the flooring material?
6. What kind of traffic do you expect on the flooring?  Do you have kids, dogs, is it a commercial space?
7. Will you be installing the floor yourself, or hiring a professional?

We highly recommend reading our Shipping Policy for a comprehensive explanation of our shipping processes.

We ship most freight orders (over 125 lbs) out within 4 business days of purchase, the average being 2 business days. For faster shipment of freight orders, we offer an Expedited Shipping option at checkout however please note that this simply means that we will ship the order out the next business day - it does not shorten the transit time once shipped. For small parcel orders we offer express UPS shipping options at checkout as well; please note that for express shipping services the order must be placed by 2pm EST in order to ship out that same day, otherwise we will process the shipment the next business day.  We do not ship out orders, nor do the shipping companies deliver them, on weekends. 

For residential lift-gate freight order deliveries, once the flooring order arrives at the local freight terminal, they will call you to schedule your delivery appointment, which is usually a 2-6 hour window on the day of your choosing (weekdays only) when possible. All deliveries are curbside as the freight companies do not offer inside delivery.

High quality at low prices.  What really sets Ambient apart from other brands is our unparalleled quality control process, which takes place before, during, and after we manufacture our products.  A quick web search about complaints and reviews on real sites like Yelp, ComplaintsBoard.com, and Reseller Ratings will show you that our quality is without peer in the industry. Additionally, Ambient does not sell through distributors or resellers, so you truly get the lowest prices on the highest quality floors.

100% Waterproof LVP. Homeowners with small children, pets, or who spend a lot of time entertaining can rest easy. Ambient's rigid core LVP flooring is impervious to moisture, spills, wet mopping, and humidity. This worry-free flooring is great for kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms and basements.

Safe for you and your family.  If you're looking for safe, ultra-low emission floors, look no further.  Our LVP is Floorscore certified and passes the most strict indoor air standard in the world: CARB Phase 2. We take the health of our customers very seriously - as if it were our own – that is why many of our employees and their families have our floors in their homes.

Solid to the core. Ambient® LVP provides a waterproof stone polymer composite core. The planks won’t contract or expand due to temperature fluctuations. The rigid core vinyl plank is high density providing for a thinner plank without sacrificing durability, making it perfect for commercial and high traffic areas.

We are a one-stop shop.  We provide a wide range of trim, moldings and installation supplies for our floors. We do all that we can to ensure that you have a finished look that will get compliments for years to come.

Ultra-realistic wood-look wear layer. Ambient® LVP uses the most real-life design imagery available and is visually and texturally similar to hardwoods. The protective wear layer makes it less likely to scratch or dent than laminate. The rigid core vinyl plank flooring wear layer is UV cured with an aluminum oxide finish, backed by a 30-year residential warranty and 10-year light commercial warranty.

Don’t take our word for it – do a web search.  If you do a web search on our company name vs other brands you will see we have earned a reputation for quality that is unequaled.  We guarantee that if installed correctly, our floors will not shrink, buckle, or warp – problems that can plague other brands.

We use only virgin vinyl in our LVP flooring, prioritizing your health and creating a safe indoor environment for your family. We don't use post-consumer recycled vinyl, as it may contain trace amounts of contaminants from its previous life, potentially impacting indoor air quality. However, our LVP flooring still makes a positive environmental impact! Its exceptional durability means it needs replacing much less often than other options. This translates to less waste and fewer resources used in the long run.

Nope! Our luxury vinyl plank floors already come with an attached acoustic underlayment with a high STC rating for sound absorption and comfort underfoot. 

If your building has a freight dock, the freight company will deliver your pallet of flooring to that dock, as long as it it large enough/suitable for a large tractor trailer to back up into. If you are unusure of this, you will want to contact your building management before scheduling your order delivery appointment. If the dock is not suitable for a tractor trailer, the next option is for the freight company to lower the pallets onto the curbside near the most accessible entrance to your building. If no such curbside is available, you may need to drive to the local freight company terminal to pick your order up (or request your contractor/installer to pick up the order for you).

No, our Luxury Vinyl Plank floors with SPC Core do not require acclimation. They come ready-to-install via the click-lock floating method!

We recommend ordering 10% extra for cutting and waste.  If you have one or two large rooms that are square, and you are careful about making cuts, you can probably get away with 7%. If you are installing your floors in a diagonal pattern, we recommend ordering 15% extra for cutting and waste. Don't feel like doing the math? Check out our handy square footage calculator!

Note About Dye Lots: Keep in mind that bamboo and hardwood floors come in specific dye lots, so it is a good idea to hold on to a few extra boxes in case you ever need to make a repair down the line.  The extra boxes can be stored in an attic, basement, or even a garage, just remember to acclimate all floors prior to installation, for at least 72 hours, within the environment in which they’re going to live.

Yes, our luxury vinyl plank flooring is phthalate-free. We prioritize the health and safety of our customers and ensure our products meet strict quality standards.

We highly recommend you review our Shipping Policy, which has a lot of great information and a short video about the shipping process.  When your order ships out we’ll send you a notification email with all of your shipping information.  Once the shipment arrives at the local freight terminal near your delivery location, the terminal staff will call you to schedule a delivery appointment* (weekdays, usually a 2-6 hour window).  Make sure you don’t miss the delivery appointment or the freight company may charge a hefty re-delivery fee. *if you have selected commercial/freight dock delivery, freight may be delivered without needing an appointment

Once the order arrives, ensure you mark any damages you see on the driver’s bill of lading (they’ll then usually give you a copy).  You don’t have to open and inspect every item, just look at the outside of the pallet – that is where the shipping damage will be. Ensure you write the number of damaged items and detailed notes, then take photos of the damaged items and email all of this information to your Ambient representative to ensure we can ship out free replacements.

Important note: If your delivery location is located on a road that cannot be accessed by a semi-trailer truck, you may be required to pick the freight up at the local terminal or meet the driver at an intermediary location.

We accept the following payments:

1. All major credit and debit cards.

2. Personal and bank checks (please note there may be a 14-day shipping delay).

3. ACH payments. 

4. Paypal. In fact, PayPal Credit offers financing. 

If the room you're purchasing floors for is a square or rectangle, you can use the Area = Length x Width formula for calculating the room's total square footage. If your space isn't perfectly square/rectangular, or you have multiple rooms to order flooring for, it's a little more complicated - but we've made a great tool that makes it super easy to calculate your square footage, the extra flooring you'll need to order to account for cutting and waste, and even the number of cleats you'll need if you're nailing down your floors! Check it out here: The Ultimate Square Footage Calculator

Ambient's floors are 100% safe for you and your family. In fact, we're one of the few companies (if not the only one!?) that tests all products annually to ensure they fall within the CARB Phase 2 indoor air standard, which is the most strict in the world, and we've also achieved Floorscore Certification. The CARB Phase 2 indoor air standard requires less than .05ppm off-gassing of formaldehyde, and all of our floors consistently test at under .015ppm which is considered “Below the Limit of Qualification” or “effectively zero”. We highly recommend you check out our safety information and testing page as well as our informative article here. As you might know, formaldehyde is a naturally occurring substance that even our bodies generate, so no substance on earth is truly "formaldehyde-free", but Ambient solid strand woven floors are NAUF (no added urea formaldehyde).

More info about formaldehyde.  Formaldehyde exists in a wide array of household products including paint, wood furniture finishes, and cleaning supplies amongst others. Formaldehyde is also a naturally occurring substance found in air. 

More info about CARB Phase II.  We recommend further reading from the California Air Resources Board

The default delivery method for our residential flooring deliveries is curbside with a liftgate, so the driver will usually lower the pallet(s) of flooring down using a liftgate. However, it also depends on what shipping option you select and also how much of an incline there is on your driveway. We recommend reading more about this on our Shipping Policy page

This depends on several factors mostly related to the current condition of the sub-floor.  If the subfloor is observed to be sagging, it is recommended that you install the planks in a perpendicular direction compared to the joists.  This is a call you'll want your installer to make as he/she will need to inspect the sub-floor prior to installation. 

You can glue down or nail down our solid bamboo floors to a plywood subfloor. You can also float our engineered and rigid core floors (bamboo and LVP) over plywood. Our LVP floors come with pre-attached underlayment, so you don't need to add an extra sound barrier, but for our engineered bamboo floors we recommend either a) floating them over a 3 in 1 underlayment, or b) using the glue-down method with an adhesive with sound barrier for additional sound insulation.

None of our products are brought inside the delivery location by the driver.  All small parcel shipments are at the discretion and policy of the shipping company. 

Flooring freight shipments are curbside delivery with lift-gate unless you specifically request freight dock delivery.  Curbside delivery means they lower the pallet on the street at the end of the driveway. The drivers are not required to enter the property boundaries, although if not hazardous sometimes they’ll back up the driveway (if it’s flat and short) and drop the pallet on the driveway. 

All materials that exceed 4 ft in width or 6 ft in length (Iike bamboo plywood, MagPanel, decking, etc) must bee unloaded by hand, or forklift, at the curbside. Large pallets arrive situated on the truck lengthwise and require a forklift with 8 ft forks or extensions to offload. For large orders we recommend a forklift on-site capable of lifting 4,000 lbs unless alternative arrangements are made. It is the responsibility of the customer to ensure the proper equipment is on-site at the delivery location to unload large-dimension shipments.

It is imperative that the customer, or an authorized representative, be present on-site to accept the delivery, conduct an inspection for any external damages, and document any noted damages on the delivery driver’s bill of lading. Failure to do so will render us unable to provide complimentary replacements. We strongly advise against the engagement of labor for the sole purpose of awaiting the delivery, as freight companies occasionally fail to meet scheduled appointments, and compensation for such delays is not offered. 

Our website may offer the option of "Garage Delivery" at an additional charge during checkout. This service is limited to the placement of the materials pallet into a carport or garage, subject to specific terms and conditions apply.

Vinyl flooring can usually be laid directly on top of a concrete slab, but you'll want to be careful with excessively wet slabs (emitting more than 20 lbs per sq ft of moisture) or you may have mold issues down the line. 

Yes! Our rigid core LVP are 100% waterproof and safe from spills, moisture and humidity. They are ideal for wet environments like bathrooms and kitchens, and also hold up well to pets.

LVP flooring is extremely low maintenance. For residential homes, sweep or vacuum flooring once a week or more often in heavy traffic areas. Clean up spills right away. Use a light mop as needed for a deeper clean.

For high traffic commercial businesses, sweep or vacuum LVP flooring every evening, and wipe up spills right away. To clean dirt left behind from sweeping or vacuuming, use a mop dampened with warm water. If using soap or a cleaning agent is necessary, however, ensure the cleaner is designed for LVP flooring.

Check out the full LVP Flooring Maintenance Guide here!

While it can be a bummer if your shipment arrives damaged – it is not the end of the world! We can easily send you free replacements for anything that was damaged in transit - all we ask is that you do not refuse the shipment and mark any damages on the receipt provided by the driver. After that, please take a few photos of product while it is still on the pallet and email them to [email protected] so we can make a record on your account. Then, please examine the items further once you've brought them inside to determine the extent of the damage, and take photos of affected areas if you require replacements. Once we receive the details and photos we will send out the replacements right away. Most of the time, installers will be able to work around the damage instead of waiting to get replacements. For more information please see our Shipping Policy page.

Occasionally you will have an item with a visible defect either in the stain, finish, or milling. Like most building materials suppliers our effective defect rate is under the industry-standard 3%. However, if you are finding that more than 3% of the product you have ordered has defects, please let us know as soon as possible so we can resolve the matter quickly.

Yep! Ambient® LVP can be installed on, below, or above grade. These floors are an excellent option for an entire house including kitchens, baths, and laundry rooms. Because of their durability, they are also ideal for high traffic businesses like restaurants, medical facilities, and retail shops.

We recommend that you review our handy Return Shipping Guide to see the detailed steps to return your order.

LVP floors typically require fewer tools and less time to install than hardwoods, and average labor costs to install luxury vinyl plank flooring is usually around $1.50-$6 per square foot. Installers will modify their pricing based on a variety of factors such as: moving of furniture, removal of existing flooring, leveling of the subfloor, installation moldings required, inside delivery charges, to name a few.  Some installers (mainly from flooring stores) will try to convince you to buy their floor brands so that they can make money off the products as well as the installation. Any carpenter, handyman, or homeowner can install our floors, we just recommend they follow our handy LVP flooring installation guide.

As a general rule of thumb, floors that are nailed down or glued down (our solid bamboo, solid eucalyptus, and non-SPC core engineered bamboo floors) can be installed under cabinets and islands, and floors that are floated (our rigid core LVP and click-lock bamboo floors) should not be installed under cabinets or islands. 

Note about floating bamboo floors: The primary reason these floors should not be installed under cabinets is because pinning down a long run of a floating floor made of natural materials/wood may inhibit its ability to expand and contract beneath the weight of the cabinets.

We do not sell random length or random width planks. Almost all of our floors come in single length planks lengths of six, four, and three feet depending on the product. Our Copenhagen XtraWide click bamboo flooring is an exception with both four-foot and two-foot planks included in every box. 

One of the benefits of this is that you will have a lot less waste as with random lengths you are usually left with a lot of the smaller pieces that you will not be able to use. You can still achieve the randomized look of the flooring planks by cutting the starting plank in each row at a random length.

Yes, we may be able to accommodate this, but please note that we may still apply a small shipping and handling fee to your order.  Please reach out to your sales representative for details.

For a thorough section about Sub-floor Preparation, we strongly recommend reading the bamboo and eucalyptus flooring installation guide.

The general advice below is for informational purposes only, as you should always consult each floor's specific/official installation guide before making your determination.  Some general sub-floor requirements:

  •     Must be structurally sound
  •     Must be clean - thoroughly swept and free of all debris
  •     Must be level - flat to 3/16" per 10-foot radius
  •     Must remain dry year-round. The moisture content of a wood subfloor must not exceed 12%. Concrete subfloors, crawl spaces, and floors that emit more than 12% moisture will need to be addressed with a vapor barrier.

Important note about Gypcrete: Gypcrete will sometimes exhibit a layer of debris that floats to the surface while being poured. This is usually obvious and if it occurs will need to be removed with coarse open grit paper on a buffer until a solid surface is reached. You will then use a diluted coat of acrylic primer to seal the surface; however, it must soak in and not leave a film. Once the gypcrete is prepped and primed you can proceed with a normal installation.

A note about Lauan/Luan/Luaun: While most urethane adhesives bond to Luan and thus you could glue our floors down to it, Luan is generally considered an unstable substrate for tile or hardwood flooring. It doesn’t have much strength, so it may contribute to squeaking or bouncing. Our recommendation is always to remove it before installing a new floor.

Wood subfloors must be dry and well secured. For nail-down installations, nail or screw every 6" along joists to avoid squeaking. If the subfloor is not level, sand down high spots and fill low spots with an underlayment patch or self-leveler such as Bostik Duralevel 83P Self-Leveling Underlayment.

Concrete must be fully cured, at least for 60 days. If it is not level, grind down high spots and fill low spots with a leveling compound. The concrete must be flat to 3/16" per 10- foot radius. All concrete must be tested for moisture and the appropriate vapor barrier urethane adhesive must be used to account for the moisture emission level.  We recommend reading our full installation guide for details.

The links to the policies below can also be found in the footer of our website, and we encourage all customers to review these policies before purchasing.

Return Policy   |   Sale Policy   |   Shipping Policy

Dimensional stability refers to the ability of a substance or part to retain its shape when subjected to varying degrees of temperature, moisture, pressure, or other stress. Luxury vinyl floors do not expand and contract (in the way that bamboo and hardwoods do) when temperature or humidity changes, meaning they are very dimensionally stable and are much less likely to experience issues that are more common in hardwoods like cupping, gapping, and warping. 

Almost all of our floors can be installed over radiant heat, however, different floor types have different requirements so we recommend checking each floor's "Specifications" section on its product detail page on this website, find the row labeled "RADIANT HEAT SAFE" that will tell you if it can be installed over radiant heat or not. For more details we highly recommend checking out our bamboo flooring installation guide.

Additional important note: In the same Specifications section, you will see a link to the installation guide for that floor - please note there is a specific and detailed section in each floor's installation guide pertaining to installation over radiant heat, and maintenance of the floors over radiant heat, and we strongly suggest you read that section of the installation guide to avoid voiding your warranty!

To ensure a successful installation of your LVP floor, properly prepare your subfloor by ensuring it is clean, dry, flat, and in good structural shape. The required flatness of the subfloor is 3/16" in 10' or 1/8" in 6'.

Ambient® Luxury Vinyl Plank floors consist of three layers, beginning with an underlayment to absorb sound and add comfort. The rigid core layer is made with waterproof stone polymer composite to accommodate for uneven subfloors and add durability. The luxury vinyl print layer provides ultra-realistic hardwood imagery and is topped with a protective aluminum oxide poplyurethane finish to help protect the floor from stains, scratches, dents, and other damage.

SPC Luxury LVP Corner Profile Web Short

Absolutely! We’ve shipped our products to such far-flung locations as Guam, Kenya, Tanzania, Bahrain, Great Britain, Kuwait, France, Mexico, Canada, Hawaii, and many more.  Please note that international shipments may require you to procure the services of a freight forwarder at the port of discharge; most port authorities can provide recommendations for reputable freight forwarders that service your home port.  Also, minimum order quantities may apply to some countries.  Call your Ambient representative today at (866) 710-7070 for shipping quotes to your country!

Yes! Rolling office chairs tend to collect grime, dirt, and small rocks under the wheels, which eventually damage the finish of every floor including ours.  Always use a chair mat under rolling office chairs.  It is also advised that you use felt pads under furniture and chairs to avoid damaging the finish.

A dye lot is similar to a 'batch number' and is an alphanumeric code assigned to each different batch of flooring as it is manufactured. 

For bamboo or eucalyptus floors: Since these floors are made from a natural material, there can be variation between lots/batches. The flooring sample(s) you received will have a sticker on the back that tells you the lot number that the flooring came from, and referencing this number when placing your order will ensure that the floors you receive come from the same lot that your sample was cut from. If you're ordering moldings to go with your flooring, please note that these products are manufactured separately from our floors and are not assigned lot numbers. It is our policy to fulfill every order (that contains floors and moldings) with the moldings and trim pieces that best match the dye lot of the flooring ordered.


For LVP floors: Since vinyl is not a natural product like wood, there is significantly less variation between lots or batches of flooring. Although it doesn't hurt to reference the lot number listed on your sample when placing your flooring order, it isn't 100% necessary to reference it.

We recommend that you always carefully measure your walls to determine how many moldings you'll need, however a quick ratio used by many installers is to order 30% of the total flooring square footage.  For example, if you’re installing 1,000 sq ft of flooring you'll need roughly 300 linear feet of perimeter trim moldings.  It also depends on how many cuts need to be made, but that rough estimate will get you started. For additional help with measurements for your project, check out our Square Footage Calculator (+ more)!

If you constantly keep your indoor humidity at a level of 40%-60%, then you do not have any run limits on your floating floor. This humidity level can be maintained via a humidity modulator (typically as a part of an HVAC system), standalone humidifiers/dehumidifiers, or naturally. The latter is considering that some geographic areas have relatively stable humidity year around (like Southern California or Florida), so run limits usually aren't an issue in those areas. In general, run limits are not a prominent concern for LVP flooring, and they can be installed in any run length - regardless of which direction.

Our bamboo, eucalyptus, and LVP flooring has been installed around the world and in many different types of structures such as homes, restaurants, libraries, and more. However, it is only warranted for indoor use and when installed for its intended use (as flooring).  For our bamboo floors specifically, you can read all about the process in our official bamboo flooring installation guide.

Yes, Ambient is proud to be FloorScore® certified!  FloorScore is a voluntary certification program whereby floors must meet the most stringent indoor air quality standards in the world to gain certification.   Additionally, Ambient is the only flooring brand that proactively and voluntarily tests its floors annually for off-gassing and safety.  You can find Ambient's full test results and other technical information on our product and safety testing information page or learn more about the Floorscore® program here.

Bamboo, hardwood, and vinyl floors should be kept at least 18-24 inches away from high-heat sources or the heat can dry them out and cause irreparable shrinkage.  Here are 2 rules of thumb to follow and you should be just fine:

1. Install the flooring at least 2 feet away from the stove by putting in an apron of brick/stone/similar around the stove.

2. Acclimate the flooring that will be installed near the stove in the same area where it will be installed, with the stove turned on (no closer and no farther than where it will be installed).

Dimensional stability refers to the ability of a substance or part to retain its shape when subjected to varying degrees of temperature, moisture, pressure, or other stress. Bamboo floors, like hardwoods, are made of a natural and hygroscopic material, which means they are subject to dimensional change when exposed to variations in temperature, moisture, and humidity.

Engineered bamboo floors and hardwoods are typically a bit more dimensionally stable than solid floors (the former expands and contracts a little less) however this mostly comes into play with floating vs nail/glue down. 

Engineered floating bamboo floors are very stable, conversely when you are floating a solid bamboo floor (solid means the plank is wood all the way through, and floating means the planks are clicked or glued to each other instead of being nailed down or glued down to the sub-floor) you must have very strict humidity controls inside your home or it may pull apart and out from under walls (even if it is click lock). This is part of the reason we do not recommend floating solid tongue & groove bamboo floors.

The standard requirement for all wood flooring (including bamboo) is that you maintain proper interior humidity levels between 40%-60%.  As long as your installer follows our installation instructions, and those interior humidity settings are maintained, you'll have a trouble-free and super durable floor for a long time. Meanwhile, vinyl flooring is generally stable outside of that range, but you still want to avoid extreme temperatures (outside of 35 degrees to 85 degrees) and humidity (outside of 10%-80%).

STC and IIC sound ratings indicate the ability of a material to muffle footfall noise and reduce sound transmissions between levels. An underlayment or adhesive with a high STC and IIC rating will not only reduce sound transmission between levels more effectively, but it will also reduce footfall noise within the room more effectively.  Materials with higher STC and IIC sound ratings tend to be more expensive, and sometimes thicker, than underlayments with low sound ratings.

Yes, we do provide discounts for large quantity orders.  If your order falls into a category below, please reach out to our customer support team at (866) 710-7070 to see what discounts are currently available:

  • Flooring orders over 1,000 sq ft
  • Plywood orders over 25 sheets
  • Magpanel orders over 100 sheets

Absolutely. If pet urine has damaged your previous floors enough to seep into your subfloor, that's something you'll certainly want to tend to before your new floors go in. Treat your subfloor with an enzymatic odor eliminator to ensure these unpleasant smells no longer escape your subfloor and negatively affect your indoor air quality. Our OdorGhost subfloor primer is a great product for accomplishing this - and it's warranted to work with our Ironwood vapor barrier flooring adhesive!

Yes, you can store flooring boxes in a covered building outside of the home under the following conditions:

  • The boxes are protected from the elements (moisture, rain, snow, etc).
  • The boxes are not open or cut.
  • The temperature does not drop below freezing.
  • The boxes are sitting on top of a pallet or other substrate that keeps them at least 5 inches off of the ground, and the ground is not wet.

 

BAMBOO/EUCALYPTUS FLOORS: Remember, storing boxes in a garage or non-climate controlled space is not considered acclimation.  In fact, for floors that are stored in a garage/shed first, we recommend acclimating them at least 2-3 extra days on top of the normal acclimation period.  The boxes will still need to be brought into the space in which they're going to be installed first (for acclimation) as per our installation instructions.

If you live on the West Coast and buy an Oak or Maple floor (which comes from the East), there is more embodied energy in that product than a bamboo floor made near the coast in China and shipped over the water. Ocean freight is simply that much more efficient. And this does not even take into account the fact that the tree cut on the East Coast will take 50 years to grow back and the bamboo plant will take only 5 years to grow back.

One interesting tidbit that people don't know is that a large chunk of wood flooring (apart from bamboo) harvested in Canada, Russia, Brazil, etc, gets shipped over to China first for milling and finishing, and then gets shipped back over to the US, which in effect doubles the transportation distance and CO2 emissions.

Yes! LVP floors experience little to no expansion and contraction throughout their lifetime, so you can sit heavy furniture on top without issue.

At Ambient, we value the brave men and women that serve in our nation's armed forces and law enforcement agencies. We offer a 5% discount off all products for active-duty members of our U.S. armed forces and full-time local and state law enforcement. Clearance items and odd lots do not qualify for this discount and it cannot be combined with other promotions. Call (866) 710-7070 for additional details.

We do not recommend installers. However, you have several options available to you to locate a good installer:

  • Ask friends and family. Someone you know has had wood flooring installed within the last 5 years. Ask neighbors, friends, family and coworkers if they were happy with their wood floor installer and if so get their name. Contractors appreciate word-of-mouth referrals and some may even offer a "neighborhood" discount. Yelp is also a good way to find installers; look for those with a minimum of 3-5 reviews.
  • Do your homework. If a contractor disparages a certain product and tries to convince you to buy one of their own floors, be wary. Sometimes this is done because of a bad experience with a low quality brand in the past, and other times they're trying to earn an extra commission from a product distributor.
  • Get at least 3 estimates. Most installers will give you a free estimate over the phone or charge a small fee (from $20-$50) to do an in-home estimate. Try to cover all bases and ask as many questions as possible to get a good sense of their experience and knowledge.
  • Pay a fair wage. Doing price comparisons is vital for you as a consumer. The vast majority of floor installers are honest, hard-working men and women that charge a fair wage and are working to support their families. If they go above and beyond it doesn't hurt to give them a tip at the end of the project.
  • Request a warranty. The best installers are confident in their installation skills and will offer a warranty to back up their workmanship.
  • Plan ahead. You'll want to assume that most installers are booked up with jobs for the ensuing 2-3 weeks, so the earlier you start getting estimates the better off you'll be. Also remember that most of our bamboo floors require at least a 3-day acclimation period, so you'll need to factor that into your plans as well.

For flooring and plywood we strongly recommend ordering a sample before placing your final order, so you can ensure that the shading will be to your liking.  Our flooring and plywood samples have a dye lot number sticker on the back of them. Our website checkout process will ask you to type in this dye lot number before final payment; alternatively, if ordering via email or over the phone simply mention this lot number to your Ambient representative and we will update the order with it and ship that exact lot number.  If we don't have that lot number available (it has sold out) but we have a matching lot, we will ship the matching lot.  If we do not have a matching lot, we will not ship your order until you approve samples of the new lot.

Please remember that photographs on our website are taken from a variety of devices and under many different lighting conditions, and are viewed on a wide range of computer monitors and contrast settings, thus we do not guarantee that any floor will match the photographs on the website. If you order your flooring sight unseen (without receiving samples first), Ambient is not responsible for light or shading variation or differences and thus not responsible for return shipping costs (which can be expensive and can vary greatly depending on where you live and the size of your order). 

If you receive the order from the exact lot number you requested, or you order sight unseen (you do not provide a dye lot number at checkout), and you decide after it arrives that you want to return the order, you will be responsible for return shipping charges. For flooring orders, please see our 30 Day Money-Back Guarantee for more information.

Small floor samples with click lock profiles may appear to be loose when you click them together, however you'll notice when clicking full planks together that they fit much more tightly.  This is by design and the floors will not slide around once installed.  The reason there is a bit of space is because on longer flooring planks there has to be some room simply to be able to click the planks together - if there was no space for play, it would be impossible to click the long planks together (you'll have to trust us on this one!).  In fact, a not infrequent complaint from installers about low-quality click floors is that the click system is too tight and they have difficulty even getting the planks to click together - which adds time and cost to the homeowner.  Here at Ambient we're known for excellent overall quality and this extends to our milling machinery – in fact, installers comment all the time on how well-milled our planks are and how little waste they get when they install our floors. 

Below is an overview of the types of moldings and trim commonly used for flooring installations. You can also check out our Moldings 101 page!

T-Molding: This is used to transition between two floors of equal height or within 1/8 inch in height of each other.

Threshold: This is used to transition between two floors of unequal heights.  The bottom of this molding is commonly cut (ripped) as needed depending on the height of the lower floor.  Also commonly used at exterior doorways and sliding glass doors.

Reducer: This is used to transition down to the ground.

Quarter Round: Some installers call this shoe molding and although they serve the same purpose and are usually interchangeable they are slightly different dimensions-wise.  This molding goes all the way around the installation and is often paired with baseboard but not always.  It's used to cover up the expansion gap left around the perimeter of the installation.

Baseboard: This is used to cover the expansion gap all around the edges of the installation and is sometimes used with quarter round for a finished look.

Stair Nose: Also known as bull nosing, this piece is used to transition down to a lower level such as a landing, and at the top of a staircase.

Stair Tread: This is typically one entire piece to cover the stair step, we sell most of them in 48" lengths and some in 72" lengths.  Many of our treads come with two rounded sides and rounded front, so that they can be used on open staircases.

Stair Riser: This is the vertical piece on the staircase in between each tread and they're usually 48 inches in length but we also carry some 72 inch versions.  We stock them for our most popular colors, and we also sell the white stained poplar risers which are very popular and usually more affordable than the matching wood risers.

Register Vent/Dampener Covers: We have mostly flush mount register vents with a removable inner grill, but we also carry drop in vents in some colors.  We carry the most common vent dimensions of 4x10 and 4x12 but also some 4x20 versions in popular colors.

Cove Molding: These pieces are glue up under stair treads and noses to give a more finished look, where the nosing/tread meets the vertical wall or riser.  Most treads and noses aren’t finished underneath, so when you look up at them from below they’ll look nicer if you add a cove molding.

Spline: Bamboo spline helps transition when you change direction in your flooring planks. It allows you to place two planks (tongue sides) together and continue your flooring installation.

For legal businesses that qualify as a trade account (must be in the building trades), or you plan to order more than $10,000 cumulatively in building materials in the future on multiple projects, we encourage you to apply for a trade account on our B2B page. Our wholesale discounts vary depending on sales volume and can range from 5% to 35% off our retail prices.  We also offer container level pricing for large projects at extremely competitive prices, and can manufacture a large array of products not featured on our website such as custom thicknesses, lengths, widths, colors and surface treatments (minimum order quantities apply).

The fastest method to take up cured adhesive is to use grinding machines. A clean and less toxic one is a dustless diamond grinder. If you need to scrape glue out of a smaller space, Sentinel is a brand that makes some good non-toxic adhesive removers that will soften the adhesive to allow it to be scraped up easier.

No, you should never add any substance (glue, silicone, etc) in between the click-lock profile/mechanism.  In fact, you'll want to ensure that the click-lock profile/,mechanism is clear and free of all debris prior to clicking the planks together or else you could compromise the stability of the connection.

Most designers and installers will lay the flooring longitudinally so that it is parallel to the longest run or wall in the installation.  There are some exceptions, but this is a general rule of thumb.

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