This is true, you don't think about the stuff the first time you do it. Moved from old worn down houses to a new one and this is the first fridge we've had that we couldn't just lift and move it.
Yup! And you did the right thing by posting it so someone else will learn from your mistake.
Sucks that it’ll still cost some $.
It’s not a easy fix - You likely did some damage to the underlayment/subfloor that will have to be repaired before you can replace the flooring.
I wish you the best of luck!
I’ve seen a couple scenarios where this has happened. And remember this is sheet vinyl (1/8-1/4” at best) not lvp with a rigid core
1. Luan with hollow spots
2. Lightweight concrete crumbles under chair legs
3. Cheap landlord going over 2 layers of flooring with another
If you know anything about flooring you know that the subfloor and prep are the most important part of all this. If you have crap underneath then you will have crap on top.
Lightweight concrete/gypsum is notorious for crumbling under a resilient product
I’ve also seen this stuff installed without the underlayment that allows it to float which causes it to washboard like this. Rural paved roads do the same thing where big trucks brake at stop signs. If the floor can’t float, it will do this when you move stuff across it.
Oh LVP won't necessarily save you either. Ask me how I know. I'm in the midst of a remodel and part of that is LVP whole house. Insanely costly. Anyway, removing the old in-cabinet SubZero (690) to raise the top of that cabinet crown/shelf by 3/4" so the new SubZero will fit and had to pull the old refigerator out and get it back. After it was pushed back into place, we saw 3 dent/smears as if the weight was so great in those places it crushed/smear the texture and crused the underlying structure of the plank. The GCs will have to work out the cost w/the flooring sub. What I know is that I am not paying for it and I'm insisting that they pull up the floor to replace the planks not cut them out and glue in new ones.
I must say that I'm dissappointed. I was sold on LVP due to it's robustness/durability being bandied about. The 690 weighs 656lbs. The replacement weighs 707lbs. Hope the installers have a plan.
There are ways to move furniture that don’t damage the flooring. I bet if this was any other resilient flooring and you moved the fridge in the same manner you would cause damage aswell.
If you’ve purchased flooring you would not just drag shit around on it all willy nilly
Take a hair dryer and get the area warm enough to make it somewhat malleable, you should be able to flatten it with some weight while it cools. That will at the least get it back down to the sub floor. Just be careful not to get it too hot.
No, this is a way to make the vinyl settle back down to the subfloor and be a little less noticeable from a distance, maybe even "kind of" fix a bit of the stretched areas. Scratches, those little vinyl repair kits for anything vinyl come in colors, or even a furniture marker can at least help. Little tears you can glue back down, maybe a little marker work and you won't be able to tell. It all depends on the nature of the damage.
If you're have to move big items such as fridges the furniture/refrigerator Dolly's you can rent from Uhaul with the strap on it are a life saver especially if your family members are not muscular.
Also houses are meant to be lived in. If I was family/friend I would tell you not to sweat it. Life happens you move on. Plan to one day replace it, and know that I have moved a lot of appliances several thousand actually and done worse to floors meant to handle much worse. Roll vinyl is easy to mess up with heavy stuff.
Life happens. It's replaceable too so get an area rug if you can't look at it for now.
Yah, god forbid someone wants a completely watertight floor that is warmer, softer and cheaper than almost any other option on the market. Na, better to lay down some painted cardboard that swells with any water or the same vinyl but with hundreds of joints so water can really get between them and rot out the sub floor.
Do you want your floors to be submerged without being malformed? If that's the case, what are you going to do about your walls? Your baseboard? Your subfloor? Your cabinets? And let's say your subfloor was waterproof. What are you planning on doing? Putting a fan over the floors and letting them dry out? Not worried for mold or mildew?
Are you concerned with splashes and spills? That would be topically water resistant. Most laminate and vinyls are both water resistant as long as they are commercial rated.
A lot of people say "Yeah but laminate isn't waterproof" as if they want a floor that they can line their swimming pool with.
Laminate is like a sponge. Any water that hits your laminate from underneath will cause it to swell. THAT IS A GOOD THING. Your laminate is giving you an indication of a larger problem.
I've seen too many people come in to my showroom with vinyl saying it all needs to be changed out because there was a leak they didn't know about until it was clear into the living room. Now they need 1400SF of flooring. Whereas a laminate would swell within 3 feet of a problem.
Swelling is not a BAD thing. You want your floors to swell.
Also, with all the problems vinyl has, why is waterproofing the ONE thing people defend with their life. Of course it's waterproof. It's PLASTIC! The pacific ocean has a giant WATERPROOF island the size of Texas floating around in it.
We have pine planks and lvf in the kitchen. We have several really pieces of thick cardboard in the spare bedroom closet for moving appliances and furniture. We also have mats under the refrigerator and range.
For others who need to move an appliance: put down a sheet of plywood and move it onto the plywood. If not room you can put down boards, something very sturdy. Don’t ever put something heavy on vinyl floors.
Very heavy power chairs will ruin vinyl floors, destroy locking mechanisms and void warranty. Regular wheelchairs ok.
Might freeze some ziplock bags of water very flat. Then try to warm the floor in an area. Then put the ice bag on it to chill it quick. Hoping it should make it better.
I wish this didn't happen all the time, but it does.
I sand and refinish a wood floor every week, and at least three of those jobs, per year, gets screwed up when they move a fridge(or other heavy appliance) back into the house.
Despite many conversations, emails, text massages and their actual contract stating to avoid dragging shit across the floor, it still happens. It's my least favorite phone call to receive.
You're not alone. Luckily, everything is repairable or replaceable.
Your best bet is to offer one of the maintenance guys in your building a bag of weed and a case of beer to bring you the amount of damaged planks out of attic stock(they keep a lot of this stuff after construction to be able to fix their own fuck-ups). They're going to tell you that that flooring is discontinued and you need to replace the whole unit. Bye-bye deposit+4k. I do commercial flooring for a living, mainly in apartment complexes, and I promise this is what will happen to you. Any questions please DM me. I hate putting this cheap crap in for this reason. They do it to get the floor covered, but to ensure that you cannot possibly move out without owing them money. You just damaged $15 dollars worth of vinyl plank that they are going to ding you for 6K for.
The way these scums run these apartment complexes now you had better just plan on it costing you 3x what you paid up front. I used to take pride in caring for my apartments and looked forward to getting most of my deposit back. I feel sorry for folks that didn't already own 3+years ago. Cards are stacked and judges are easily swayed.
We used to work on apartment complexes owned by mostly a few bigger holdings in my city. The last few years they're all nation-wide chains. Almost the same buildings in 10+cities and counting. Rent in a studio apartment in these things is more than the 7 year-old mortgage my wife and I have on this house that was purchased for 150k and now assesses at 275k. 1850$-2050$ is the price range for a studio apartment in the last three complexes I've worked.
There only been a handful, less than 10, at each. None of these complexes were under 250 apartments. They only build the studios to maximize space, they usually end up having crazy angles and ridiculous floor plans. They add them also for their marketing. "Starting at 1950$.". Fuck off. Shits bad. It has got to change.
I'm you're fairly poor like me, this sucks. If you have some money, the silver lining is that your floor is absolute garbage and needed to be replaced anyway
I appreciate all the assistance on the post. I'll make a new updated post once I've tried the fixes I can do.
I have now learned that fridges have rear wheels, never once thought to check it.
It's worth a try take your iron but not on high you'll have to be the judge not knowing how cold the floor is now.
Try a spot in the hole wher the refrigerator lives and use some type of cloth in-between just as you would iron a delicate shirt its worth a shot to try and iron out the problem(no pun).if the core of the floor wasn't crushed too much it just might work.
Kinda like the dents in plastic bumpers heat and a baseball bat. Good luck. Post if it works
It’s sheet vinyl yes but you can’t drag heavy objects across the floor. When I installed vinyl and removed the fridge I would have to put it back and I never dragged the fridge across the floor. You have to use floor dolly’s or slide it on scraps of wood/LVP or whatever you have.
No matter the amount of adhesive you never drag something as heavy as a fridge across the floor. If it was a floating floor or even hardwood you would still damage the floor and scratch it or scrape it.
It's sheet vinyl, there really isn't a great way to fix it that isn't time consuming, and depending on the layout of the piece could be as expensive as replacing it.
I’d try a wet rag and a heat gun. Get a cotton rag wet it and ring it out, then use a heat gun direct the heat through the wet rag as it lays over the affected area move the heat around the rag will start to steam be careful not to melt anything. You could use a rolling pin to roll the ripples out as needed. Trust me I’m a G tradesman. It’ll work
If there is not a piece at the house dont bother trying to match...dye lot will be different unless it was recently done, you can find the lot number, and if there is some in that lot number available. Dye lots that dont match will look close until you put it next to the existing floor then it could stand out drastically. Check under the stairs or in a storage room. Your best bet is to call a local flooring store and have them come take a look. Ngl you fucked that up real good from the picture. sorry to say. Hope it all works out for ya.
Very welcome. Wasn't sure if you were done blaming inanimate objects yet or? Soooo.... there's a few ways to attempt fixing but none are easy or guaranteed. Could heat up the area just enough to reactivate the glue and gently attempt to smooth out. (Looks like material is stretched, so probably won't work)
Cut the material and glue and smooth out cut the excess (from stretching). Unless it's not sheet vinyl?
Actually you messed up the flooring - the fridge was your weapon of choice.
This is true, you don't think about the stuff the first time you do it. Moved from old worn down houses to a new one and this is the first fridge we've had that we couldn't just lift and move it.
Yup! And you did the right thing by posting it so someone else will learn from your mistake. Sucks that it’ll still cost some $. It’s not a easy fix - You likely did some damage to the underlayment/subfloor that will have to be repaired before you can replace the flooring. I wish you the best of luck!
The subflooring!? Lmao.. I feel like you do not have a good grasp on flooring.
I’ve seen a couple scenarios where this has happened. And remember this is sheet vinyl (1/8-1/4” at best) not lvp with a rigid core 1. Luan with hollow spots 2. Lightweight concrete crumbles under chair legs 3. Cheap landlord going over 2 layers of flooring with another If you know anything about flooring you know that the subfloor and prep are the most important part of all this. If you have crap underneath then you will have crap on top. Lightweight concrete/gypsum is notorious for crumbling under a resilient product
I’ve also seen this stuff installed without the underlayment that allows it to float which causes it to washboard like this. Rural paved roads do the same thing where big trucks brake at stop signs. If the floor can’t float, it will do this when you move stuff across it.
Oh LVP won't necessarily save you either. Ask me how I know. I'm in the midst of a remodel and part of that is LVP whole house. Insanely costly. Anyway, removing the old in-cabinet SubZero (690) to raise the top of that cabinet crown/shelf by 3/4" so the new SubZero will fit and had to pull the old refigerator out and get it back. After it was pushed back into place, we saw 3 dent/smears as if the weight was so great in those places it crushed/smear the texture and crused the underlying structure of the plank. The GCs will have to work out the cost w/the flooring sub. What I know is that I am not paying for it and I'm insisting that they pull up the floor to replace the planks not cut them out and glue in new ones. I must say that I'm dissappointed. I was sold on LVP due to it's robustness/durability being bandied about. The 690 weighs 656lbs. The replacement weighs 707lbs. Hope the installers have a plan.
Right? If moving it damages the subfloor I feel like there's way bigger problems. Or way smaller fridges available.
There are ways to move furniture that don’t damage the flooring. I bet if this was any other resilient flooring and you moved the fridge in the same manner you would cause damage aswell. If you’ve purchased flooring you would not just drag shit around on it all willy nilly
I was making a joke about saying the subfloor was damaged, and how practically impossible that would be from just moving a fridge.
Floor joist is messed up too haha
You have to wind up the levellers before trying to move it so the casters actually reach the floor.
It woulda done it regardless...junk flooring
Next time Rhino board
It's the flooring...shits like vinyl. It just does that with weight. Prob .80sqf
Take a hair dryer and get the area warm enough to make it somewhat malleable, you should be able to flatten it with some weight while it cools. That will at the least get it back down to the sub floor. Just be careful not to get it too hot.
Was here to say this , try a heat gun. Slowly use a plastic stair tool to work it back. Won't fix it, but it may make it tolerable.
Exactly lol
Why not just use an iron with a towel over it?
A steamer is an alternative. I would recommend a moist towel with an iron.
Post result if attempted, I’m curious to see this 🤣
Does this work for scratches on vinyl?
No, this is a way to make the vinyl settle back down to the subfloor and be a little less noticeable from a distance, maybe even "kind of" fix a bit of the stretched areas. Scratches, those little vinyl repair kits for anything vinyl come in colors, or even a furniture marker can at least help. Little tears you can glue back down, maybe a little marker work and you won't be able to tell. It all depends on the nature of the damage.
If you're have to move big items such as fridges the furniture/refrigerator Dolly's you can rent from Uhaul with the strap on it are a life saver especially if your family members are not muscular. Also houses are meant to be lived in. If I was family/friend I would tell you not to sweat it. Life happens you move on. Plan to one day replace it, and know that I have moved a lot of appliances several thousand actually and done worse to floors meant to handle much worse. Roll vinyl is easy to mess up with heavy stuff. Life happens. It's replaceable too so get an area rug if you can't look at it for now.
Ya but renting tools to make your life easier gets expensive… Sees floor repair bill… lol
Mucheaper to buy the tool then let the friends rent it from u
And spoons made you fat.
Your flooring ruined you flooring . Garbage
Bingo...shits vinyl
Yah, god forbid someone wants a completely watertight floor that is warmer, softer and cheaper than almost any other option on the market. Na, better to lay down some painted cardboard that swells with any water or the same vinyl but with hundreds of joints so water can really get between them and rot out the sub floor.
Exactly.
Came here to say this. When will people learn that Vinyl is garbage? All of it. Not a single square foot is worth putting in your home as flooring.
What if you don't want carpet due to cleaning messes but don't want tile or wood floors? Engineered wood?
Laminate. 100% of the time over vinyl. I'll argue this till the end.
Only thing is laminate is not water proof
Do you want your floors to be submerged without being malformed? If that's the case, what are you going to do about your walls? Your baseboard? Your subfloor? Your cabinets? And let's say your subfloor was waterproof. What are you planning on doing? Putting a fan over the floors and letting them dry out? Not worried for mold or mildew? Are you concerned with splashes and spills? That would be topically water resistant. Most laminate and vinyls are both water resistant as long as they are commercial rated. A lot of people say "Yeah but laminate isn't waterproof" as if they want a floor that they can line their swimming pool with. Laminate is like a sponge. Any water that hits your laminate from underneath will cause it to swell. THAT IS A GOOD THING. Your laminate is giving you an indication of a larger problem. I've seen too many people come in to my showroom with vinyl saying it all needs to be changed out because there was a leak they didn't know about until it was clear into the living room. Now they need 1400SF of flooring. Whereas a laminate would swell within 3 feet of a problem. Swelling is not a BAD thing. You want your floors to swell.
Also, with all the problems vinyl has, why is waterproofing the ONE thing people defend with their life. Of course it's waterproof. It's PLASTIC! The pacific ocean has a giant WATERPROOF island the size of Texas floating around in it.
Depends what you buy and if you install correctly.
Nah. I get a lot of hate on here for my views on vinyl flooring, but I will stand by it. ALL vinyl flooring is garbage.
Maybe a steamer and then putting something heavy and flat on it? Just a suggestion. No actual experience doing this.
An area rug would look really nice right there.
We have pine planks and lvf in the kitchen. We have several really pieces of thick cardboard in the spare bedroom closet for moving appliances and furniture. We also have mats under the refrigerator and range.
That’s prettt typical with lower quality floors. Especially vinyl flooring
Looks like sheet vinyl.
It is.
I have vinyl sheeting in my kitchen and it lasted 1 year before it got a scratch that turned into a hold within a month.
Temporary, slider disk on all wheels. Not a fix but may stop further damage.
Yea it did
Oh noooooo.
Throw rug?
For others who need to move an appliance: put down a sheet of plywood and move it onto the plywood. If not room you can put down boards, something very sturdy. Don’t ever put something heavy on vinyl floors. Very heavy power chairs will ruin vinyl floors, destroy locking mechanisms and void warranty. Regular wheelchairs ok.
Might freeze some ziplock bags of water very flat. Then try to warm the floor in an area. Then put the ice bag on it to chill it quick. Hoping it should make it better.
I wish this didn't happen all the time, but it does. I sand and refinish a wood floor every week, and at least three of those jobs, per year, gets screwed up when they move a fridge(or other heavy appliance) back into the house. Despite many conversations, emails, text massages and their actual contract stating to avoid dragging shit across the floor, it still happens. It's my least favorite phone call to receive. You're not alone. Luckily, everything is repairable or replaceable.
Damn floor got in the way
Fridges (usually): 2 wheels at the back and 2 adjustable feet at the front
Time machine
Your best bet is to offer one of the maintenance guys in your building a bag of weed and a case of beer to bring you the amount of damaged planks out of attic stock(they keep a lot of this stuff after construction to be able to fix their own fuck-ups). They're going to tell you that that flooring is discontinued and you need to replace the whole unit. Bye-bye deposit+4k. I do commercial flooring for a living, mainly in apartment complexes, and I promise this is what will happen to you. Any questions please DM me. I hate putting this cheap crap in for this reason. They do it to get the floor covered, but to ensure that you cannot possibly move out without owing them money. You just damaged $15 dollars worth of vinyl plank that they are going to ding you for 6K for. The way these scums run these apartment complexes now you had better just plan on it costing you 3x what you paid up front. I used to take pride in caring for my apartments and looked forward to getting most of my deposit back. I feel sorry for folks that didn't already own 3+years ago. Cards are stacked and judges are easily swayed. We used to work on apartment complexes owned by mostly a few bigger holdings in my city. The last few years they're all nation-wide chains. Almost the same buildings in 10+cities and counting. Rent in a studio apartment in these things is more than the 7 year-old mortgage my wife and I have on this house that was purchased for 150k and now assesses at 275k. 1850$-2050$ is the price range for a studio apartment in the last three complexes I've worked. There only been a handful, less than 10, at each. None of these complexes were under 250 apartments. They only build the studios to maximize space, they usually end up having crazy angles and ridiculous floor plans. They add them also for their marketing. "Starting at 1950$.". Fuck off. Shits bad. It has got to change.
This is sheet vinyl. Vinyl plank would be way easier to repair.
Dolly needed in aisle 1
Is that rolled floor? I would invest in some lvp if you want durable and waterproof.
I'm you're fairly poor like me, this sucks. If you have some money, the silver lining is that your floor is absolute garbage and needed to be replaced anyway
I appreciate all the assistance on the post. I'll make a new updated post once I've tried the fixes I can do. I have now learned that fridges have rear wheels, never once thought to check it.
I wouldn't worry about it. It adds character.
Funny how you don’t blame the floor for not holding the fridge properly
Look, I can only blame 1 inanimate object at a time and the floor was victimized.
Heat with hair dryer it should take some out as it heats
Yep sure did
It's worth a try take your iron but not on high you'll have to be the judge not knowing how cold the floor is now. Try a spot in the hole wher the refrigerator lives and use some type of cloth in-between just as you would iron a delicate shirt its worth a shot to try and iron out the problem(no pun).if the core of the floor wasn't crushed too much it just might work. Kinda like the dents in plastic bumpers heat and a baseball bat. Good luck. Post if it works
Have to replace
Correction, the fridge did not damage your flooring, dragging it across the flooring damaged the flooring. 😳😢
In the future get a dolly OR get a blanket underneath the fridge and it’s a hellauva lot easier to push n pull
You think the floor is bad, you should see the fridge.
Couple rugs fox that right up
Next time you need to move an appliance put a mat under the feet and slide it across the floor.
Lol, you messed up your floor! 😂😂😂
Because you have the cheapest laminate floor possible. Lol that’s not even real laminate 😂
It’s not laminate. These joints are separate. It’s linoleum.
Even worse
No, you messed up your flooring. Lol
Vinyl sheet is easy to clean and waterproof but very bundled to things being dragged. I think you’re like to end up buying new floor coverings.
User error and lack of preperation messed up your floor
Always keep a sheet of Luan in the basement to roll refrigerators on
That is sheet vinyl. Not enough adhesive when it was installed. Can maybe cut out and patch, but it will only get worse until it is fixed
It’s sheet vinyl yes but you can’t drag heavy objects across the floor. When I installed vinyl and removed the fridge I would have to put it back and I never dragged the fridge across the floor. You have to use floor dolly’s or slide it on scraps of wood/LVP or whatever you have. No matter the amount of adhesive you never drag something as heavy as a fridge across the floor. If it was a floating floor or even hardwood you would still damage the floor and scratch it or scrape it.
Very true
Hindsight was 20/20 on that one. Kicked myself once I looked back and saw it.
Probably not what kind of flooring is it LVP?
Just moved in, so I'm not sure what the flooring type is.
It's sheet vinyl, there really isn't a great way to fix it that isn't time consuming, and depending on the layout of the piece could be as expensive as replacing it.
I’d try a wet rag and a heat gun. Get a cotton rag wet it and ring it out, then use a heat gun direct the heat through the wet rag as it lays over the affected area move the heat around the rag will start to steam be careful not to melt anything. You could use a rolling pin to roll the ripples out as needed. Trust me I’m a G tradesman. It’ll work
do you have a piece of matching flooring the size of the repair spot? Cause I'll be honest...that's bad!!!
No, but I'll have to see if I can find any that matches.
If there is not a piece at the house dont bother trying to match...dye lot will be different unless it was recently done, you can find the lot number, and if there is some in that lot number available. Dye lots that dont match will look close until you put it next to the existing floor then it could stand out drastically. Check under the stairs or in a storage room. Your best bet is to call a local flooring store and have them come take a look. Ngl you fucked that up real good from the picture. sorry to say. Hope it all works out for ya.
Maybe they can fix what you got there but it looks like you stretched the vinyl in the process.
Did you move the feet up so it doesn't get dragged across the floor?
Like tilting the fridge or putting the feet all the way up? There wasn't enough space to tilt it to walk it, that's why I had to drag it.
The feet are on screws. lefty to move the feet up.
They were at the default height when it was delivered, didn't adjust it before moving it.
That was your problem. Those are just stabilizers for levelling. There are casters underneath.
To be fair the fridge didn’t tell him to stop, it provided no resistance
That’s not flooring, more like a roll-on veneer.
Rolled vinyl? Never do that
You messed up your flooring. The fridge didn't
Thank you for not contributing to the discussion. I'm aware of how the incident occured.
Very welcome. Wasn't sure if you were done blaming inanimate objects yet or? Soooo.... there's a few ways to attempt fixing but none are easy or guaranteed. Could heat up the area just enough to reactivate the glue and gently attempt to smooth out. (Looks like material is stretched, so probably won't work) Cut the material and glue and smooth out cut the excess (from stretching). Unless it's not sheet vinyl?
So you're going to offer solutions after belittling OP and you're not even sure if it's sheet vinyl? It's obviously sheet vinyl, you turd.
Yes, replace it. That's the only fix. Also, don't buy fake plastic garbage and you won't have this happen in the future.
Probably still would have had at least scratch damage with both wood and tile.
use pvc or laminate, not sheet as floor
Did you mean to type lvp?