Several questions about specific LVP installation

Hi! This is my first post and I have several questions about glue down installation. My son and I are rehabbing a portion of an old church in Fulton, NY into two 3-bedroom apartments, about 1,800 and 1,300 square feet. We're doing this on a shoestring, as funds permit, so cost-cutting is a major consideration. We're going for a "respectable" job in a depressed town, and not necessarily first class.

I purchased enough LVT to do the whole job at about .30 a square foot. It's wood-grained commercial plank that was surplus to Walmart and comes in boxes marked "Flooringworks Solutions" It's 3mm 7 x 48" plank with 35' to the carton. I believe they use it in their stores. Does anyone know what this stuff is (maufacturer and product line) and what the wear layer is?

The church subfloor is 7/8" T&G pine and is a bit creaky, wonky and uneven. We're replacing several rotted out sections (old roof leak) with 3/4" strand board type subflooring shimmed up at the joist to to match the height of the T&G. Most of the rooms have only the T&G subfloor with nothing above it. Just stained and varnished. Two rooms on the second floor have old asbestos tiles over that which are tight and in good condition. The structure has a full basement which we're not touching right now.

Our plan is to:

1. Snug down all the T&G to the joists with 1.5" staples;

2. Go over everything with 3/4" plywood to stiffen everything up. Here's a wrinkle. We can't afford 3,100 feet of ACX from a big box store. There's a place where we can get 40" x 42" recycled cargo crate sheets. I've seen a whole lot of them and there's not a void to be seen on any edge. I contacted a US maker of the crates and they tell me they use ACX when they manufacture them. Most of the sheets I saw were sanded on at least one side and all were smooth, some with streaks but no knots on the face ply. We were thinking of using these. They'd be stored dry, indoors in the empty church sanctuary for about 4 month prior to use.

3. We'd install them with 1.5" long 1/4" crown staples in the recommended pattern which I guess will involved significantly more edge stapling, and we'll avoid stapling to the joists (actually the staples too short to penetrate into the joists anyway). The sheets would be lightly edge butted with no filler at the seams. The staples would be driven below the surface to allow for light sanding. They depressions would not be filled.

4. We'd run a small drum sander with 120 grit lightly over the installed underlayment with some attention to the seams.

5. After vacuuming we'd lay with Kardean K-91 adhesive and roll.

Would the plan work?

 

That's good to hear abot the size. We were leaning toward staples because I already have a staple gun.

 

Thanks CFR, I think this stuff may be about 8-10 years old. So basically, what I'm getting is that there's nothing glaringly wrong with the plan of attack, just that the result may not be up to professional standards.

 

Thanks all. I'll be checking out the concerns you raised with the supplier. I hadn't though of any of them!

 

I thought luaun wasn't used anymore because of voids and such? Anyway, I did find out that the plywood isn't treated with pesticides because only solid wood shipping crates need that under the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). Also identified the LVP I bought as Adore Decoria commercial plank with a 22mil "micro-ceramic" wear layer with a 25-year commercial, unlimited residential, warranty--so we done good.