For many homeowners with heavy furniture like sectional sofas, dressers, and other heavy items like pianos and gun safe, a common concern is often about whether their vinyl plank flooring can easily support the weight of these items without resulting in any damage.
This is a genuine concern because vinyl plank flooring is a floating floor. With a floating vinyl plank flooring, the planks are typically joined together along the edges and end with a modified tongue and groove system. The tongue and grooves engineered into the boards allow them to lock together.
This method of installation has its disadvantages, especially when it comes to placing heavy weight on the floor.
You see, when an extremely heavy piece of furniture or equipment like a piano is placed on the floor, the excessive direct pressure exerted on the joints and planks causes buckling if expansion and contraction is restricted.
How Much Weight Can You Put on Vinyl Plank Flooring?
Grand pianos are extremely heavy, weighing as much as 1400 pounds or as little as 500 pounds. The weight varies from model to model.
Some upright models, particularly those measuring at least 48-inches can weigh as little as 300 pounds while those measuring more than 48-inches can go as high as 800 pounds.
Your vinyl plank flooring is perfectly capable of supporting pianos with up to 1400 pounds. However, itโs very important that you place floor protections underneath the feet of your piano.
If your piano doesnโt have any wheels, you should consider placing felt furniture pads. Felt furniture pads do a great job distributing the weight of your piano evenly to prevent damage to the vinyl plank flooring subfloor below. These pads also help protect your sensitive flooring against scratches and dents.
I totally recommend the X-Protector Felt Furniture Pads which create a strong shield between your flooring and piano, thus protecting it from scratches and scuffs while distributing its weight evenly to avoid the planks from buckling under the heavy weight.
If your piano has got wheels, I recommend placing protective caster cups like the WOGOD Store Upright Piano Caster Cups. If yours is a grand piano, I recommend the Sound Harbor Store Piano Caster Cups Grand Piano.
In addition to protecting your vinyl plank floors against scratches and dents from the piano, these caster cups will also support and evenly distribute the weight of your piano, so you wonโt have to worry about floor damage.
Gun safes are also extremely heavy and most people are often worried about them damaging their floors.
Gun safes can weigh as little as 200-600 pounds all the way to 1600 lbs. There are even commercial-grade gun safes that weigh up to a whopping 5000 lbs. Of course, you probably wonโt need to place a commercial-grade gun safe.
Assuming that you have a 1600 lbs gun safe, your vinyl flooring is strong enough to accommodate its weight. However, like any other heavy furniture, itโs important that you place something underneath to protect your subfloor from buckling.
You have two choices;
- ย Place a piece of plywood which will evenly spread out the load while preventing scratches and dents on your floor. The Woodpeckers Store Premium Baltic Birch Plywood from Amazon is an excellent choice. Itโs super durable yet lightweight and highly stable. Place it underneath your heavy gun safe. It would be even much better if there is a carpet on the flooring which will offer additional protection
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- ย Option two is to place a heavy-duty mat like the Rubber-Cal Shark Tooth Heavy Duty Mat which helps to protect subsurface floors against damage due to heavy furniture, machinery, and other heavy items. However, since this particular mat is made of rubber, it might be a good idea to place a felt pad right underneath it since rubber is notorious for reacting with the chemicals inside vinyl plank flooring, thus causing discoloration. A good rug pad is the RUGPADUSA 1/2โณ Thick โ 100% Felt โ Protective Cushioning Rug Pad which will shield your vinyl floors against staining by the rubber mat.
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How to Safely Move Heavy Furniture on Vinyl Plank Flooring?
If youโre moving or basically moving a piece of heavy furniture from one room to another, avoid dragging or pulling it across the vinyl plank flooring โ you risk scratching, ripping it, or even cause the planks to buckle under the heavy weight.
You certainly donโt want this.
If the furniture is too heavy, use a dolly and slowly push it across the floor. When unloading the furniture from the dolly, have a few people assist as dropping it on the floor can seriously dent it or cause the planks to โliftโ at the edges.
If moving, make sure that professionals handle the heavier furniture and of course, make sure they are using the right equipment to avoid damaging the floor.
If youโre moving heavy couches or other manageable items, you can simply use the FLERISE Furniture Felt Pads for Carpeted and Hard Floor Surfaces. These felt pads have a smooth felt surface that allow you to easily and quickly move furniture across all types of hard surfaces and carpets while protecting your floors from scratches and dents. They are not noisy and are really durable.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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1.Can You Put Heavy Furniture on Vinyl Plank Flooring?
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Heavy furniture will definitely damage your vinyl plank flooring. Thatโs why itโs necessary that you place furniture pads or caster cups on furniture feet to protect the floor from scratches and also help distribute load evenly to avoid damage.
So avoid placing heavy furniture directly on vinyl plank flooring at all cost.
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2. How to Protect Vinyl Plank Flooring from Heavy Furniture?
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Like I earlier explained, placing felt furniture pads or caster cups on furniture with wheels like pianos is one of the best ways to protect your vinyl plank flooring from heavy furniture.
Vinyl floors are soft and this makes them highly susceptible to damage, especially from heavy furniture.
When moving heavy furniture across the floor, be sure to use furniture sliders as explained above.
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How Much Weight Can You Put on Vinyl Plank Flooring?- Bottom Line
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Vinyl plank flooring is one of the best and most popular flooring. Itโs strong, stable, and easy to maintain.
However, like any other subfloor, vinyl plank flooring can become damaged when subjected to heavy weight. The good news is that you can easily prevent this by placing furniture pads or caster cups on heavy furniture and piano as these two products do a great job distributing the entire load evenly.
So go ahead and place heavy furniture or other items on your vinyl plank flooring. It wonโt buckle as long as you take the necessary precautions as explained.
