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I'm installing CoreTec One vinyl plank flooring and I've had trouble finding directions on how to rip it to width. Most of the "vinyl plank" installation guides I've found are for thinner, more flexible product which can be scored and snapped. I've seen suggestions that one can use a circular saw but I can imagine the vinyl might gum up my table saw. If not, that seems dead simple.

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  • I installed some very similar flooring recently. My circular saw cut it beautifully with a standard framing blade, and there was no melting or other gumming of the saw. I imagine that you could cut it fairly quickly with a jigsaw, too.
    – isherwood
    Commented Mar 27, 2018 at 15:34
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    The resource tab on your product link includes some installation guidance. They may call it vinyl, but it looks like some kind of vinyl composite that behaves closer to wood. I doubt scoring and snapping will work. They recommend cutting it with a carbide-tipped blade. The wear surface probably contains aluminum oxide, which will quickly dull a plain blade.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Mar 28, 2018 at 6:07

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In your position, I'd try a fine toothed blade in a table saw for cutting the vinyl planks. As long as the material keeps moving past the blade, I wouldn't expect a problematic amount of melting/gumming.

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It cuts just like wood or MDF. I just installed a vinyl plank floor and I was able to do cross cuts by snapping and scoring, cut around door jams using a jigsaw and rip it to length on the table saw. Some brands snap more easily than others, I have had to use a miter saw for a whole floor instead of the score and snap method. If a crosscut was too near the end of the plank I did have to use a miter saw. It produces little vinyl chips kind a like sawdust but a little bigger and they can be vacuumed up easily.

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I recently did some rip cuts on luxury vinyl plank and just used a table saw. A lot of people say to score and snap but every time I watch a how-to video, they will only score and snap the short way. I also don't trust my hands to create a good, straight line. This is just my opinion, but I think it's hard to score and snap 4 feet of any rigid material.

So I used a table saw. The table saw was not damaged after use, but the vinyl plank leaves a ton of dust behind that looks like rubber eraser dust, which I had to shop vac.

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An alternative to the table saw is the "flooring saw" which is basically a table saw with the blade "cutting from above" but safer (can do cross cuts [with or without angle (i.e. can do mitre cuts)], and rip cuts, but not bevel cuts like a table saw or mitre saw can), so it can't cut very tall things but it also rests closer to the ground possibly making it more convenient. Max rip cut that can "be on the inside" of the blade looks like about 2" so you may have to flip the board over and cut it on the smaller side (or make two cuts if it's right up the middle?)

In this example, you'd be moving that grey support from the left to the bottom for a rip cut (and locking the blade in place). enter image description here

Much safer on the fingers.

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I used a mini circular saw which worked fine on them (had to mark the line each time to cut down it though). enter image description here

You can either cut by following a line or with a board c-clamped on or what have you. Or use a big circular saw or jig saw, same kind of deal. Does generate sawdust and have to be propped against something (or over a bucket or what have you).

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Some high end "flooring cutters" have the current blade offset so you can do rip cuts as well as the standard cross cuts.

enter image description here

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