SW-04 · Troubleshooting & RepairsLippage between LVP planks means one edge sits higher than its neighbor. You fix it by measuring the height difference with a straightedge and feeler gauge, then matching that number to a repair path. Under 1/32 inch, leave it alone. Between 1/32 and 1/16 inch, reset or shim the plank locally. Above 1/16 inch, pull planks back to the nearest transition and check the subfloor before reinstalling anything.
The tricky part is that click-lock and glue-down floors fail for different reasons. Treating them the same way is how a callback turns into a second callback.
Measure it before you touch it
Do not eyeball lippage. Light raking across a floor exaggerates every joint, and installers who chase shadows end up sanding planks that were never out of spec to begin with.
Lay a straightedge across the seam, perpendicular to the plank edges. Slide a feeler gauge, or a set of shims cut to known thicknesses, into the gap between the straightedge and the low plank. Read the number. Write it down. That number decides everything that follows.
This is the same discipline used to check subfloor flatness before install, described in more detail in our subfloor flatness guide. A common industry figure for flatness tolerance is around 3/16 inch over a 10-foot span, but the manufacturer’s own installation instructions govern the actual job. Lippage tolerances at the seam are tighter than that broad flatness spec, because a raised edge under foot traffic is a different failure mode than a gentle dip across a room.
The decision rule: three bands, two systems
Below is the working rule field crews can use once they have a measured number. It splits by system because the root cause differs.
| Measured lippage | Click-lock floors | Glue-down floors |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1/32 in | Leave it. Falls inside normal manufacturing tolerance for plank thickness. | Leave it. Same tolerance applies to trowel ridge telegraph. |
| 1/32 to 1/16 in | Disengage the plank, inspect the locking edge for debris or a chipped tongue, reset. Shim a low spot underneath if the subfloor is the cause. | Suspect trowel notch size or open time. Pull the plank, check adhesive transfer on the back, re-trowel and reset if transfer is under half the panel. |
| Over 1/16 in | Pull planks back to the nearest transition or wall. Check subfloor deflection and flatness before reinstalling. | Pull planks back to the nearest transition. Check for adhesive skinning, wrong trowel size, or a subfloor void under the seam. |
These bands are working field figures, not a published spec from any single manufacturer. Always check the data sheet for the product on the job. Some resilient product lines carry tighter lippage tolerances written directly into their installation instructions, and those override anything general written here.
Click-lock: 1/32 to 1/16 inch fixes
In this middle band, the plank itself is usually fine. The lock mechanism just did not seat all the way.
Start by disengaging the plank from its neighbor. Check the tongue and groove for sawdust, a dropped staple, or a burr left from a factory cut. Wipe it clean. Reseat the plank with a tapping block, working from the locked end toward the open end so you are not driving debris back into the joint.
If the lock is clean and the plank still will not sit flush, the subfloor underneath is the more likely cause. A high spot a few inches off the seam can tip a plank just enough to open the joint on one side. Check with a straightedge over a wider span before assuming the plank is defective. Our hollow spots article covers how a similar under-plank void shows up as sound rather than height, which is a useful cross-check when the lippage reading is borderline.
Local shimming is a last resort, not a first move. A shim under one plank changes the flatness of the next joint over, and stacking small corrections across a room compounds the problem instead of solving it.
Glue-down: lippage is almost never the plank
Glue-down LVP lippage traces back to the adhesive far more often than the plank. Two failure points cause most of it: wrong trowel notch and blown open time.
A notch that is too shallow starves the bond and lets planks rock under load, telegraphing every ridge and low spot in the substrate straight through to the wear layer. A notch that is too deep leaves excess adhesive that can pool unevenly and lift one edge as it cures. Trowel size is specified by the adhesive manufacturer for a reason, and swapping trowels mid-job because it is what’s on the truck is a common, avoidable mistake.
Open time failure is just as common. If adhesive skins over before the plank goes down, transfer is partial and the plank sits on high points of dried adhesive instead of a full wet bed. That uneven support is exactly what produces lippage at the seam a day or two later, once foot traffic works the joint.
To check for this, pull one suspect plank and look at the back. Adhesive transfer should read as an even pattern across most of the panel. Spotty transfer, dry ridges, or a skinned surface point straight to trowel notch or open time, not to the plank or the subfloor. The category background on this is covered in our silane adhesive flooring piece, and general bubble and bond failure symptoms overlap with what’s described in our glue-down bubbles article.
Over 1/16 inch: pull back and check the subfloor
Once lippage crosses roughly 1/16 inch, local fixes stop being reliable. At this point pull planks back to the nearest transition strip, doorway, or wall, rather than trying to patch a single seam in isolation.
Before reinstalling, check subfloor flatness across the affected area with a longer straightedge, at least 6 to 10 feet. A single high or low point rarely causes lippage this severe on its own. More often it signals a broader flatness problem, a soft spot in the substrate, or actual deflection under load.
Deflection is worth testing directly. Stand on the suspect area and have someone watch the seam a few feet away for movement. Visible flex points to a structural or subfloor issue that no amount of plank-level repair will fix. That is a different scope of work, and it may call in a self-leveling underlayment pour or subfloor repair before any LVP goes back down. Our self-leveler soft spots guide and concrete prep guide cover that groundwork in more detail.
For a single damaged or misbehaving plank that needs to come out cleanly without disturbing the rest of the room, the cut-out method described in our LVP installation guide hub is the reference point most crews already use.
Why the manufacturing tolerance band exists at all
No plank comes off the line at a perfectly uniform thickness. Resilient flooring standards bodies, including guidance referenced by the National Wood Flooring Association for site conditions generally, acknowledge that a small amount of dimensional variation is normal across any manufactured flooring product. That is why the under-1/32-inch band exists: it is not a defect, it is tolerance stacking that shows up at every seam to some small degree.
Chasing that tolerance with a sander creates more problems than it solves. Sanding through a wear layer on resilient flooring exposes the print layer underneath, and that damage is visible and permanent. Save sanding for genuinely raised edges above the leave-it threshold, and even then, confirm the wear layer thickness on the data sheet before taking a sander anywhere near it.
General practice for substrate evaluation before any resilient installation is also outlined in ASTM’s standard practices for resilient flooring subfloors, referenced through ASTM International. That standard, and the manufacturer’s own instructions, govern the actual job over anything general written here.
When it’s worth documenting before you fix it
If the lippage is widespread rather than a single seam, photograph it with the straightedge in frame before starting repairs. That documentation matters if the job goes to warranty review, and it matters even more if the cause turns out to be subfloor deflection rather than installation error.
Crews new to reading these thresholds correctly benefit from structured training rather than trial and error on a live job. Our training and certification hub lists programs that cover subfloor evaluation and adhesive selection alongside the plank-level mechanics. The broader troubleshooting and repair category on this site, at troubleshooting and repairs, covers related failure patterns worth checking against before assuming a fix is final.
Frequently asked questions about LVP lippage
How much lippage is acceptable between LVP planks?
Under about 1/32 inch is normal manufacturing tolerance and usually not worth fixing. Above that, check the manufacturer’s installation instructions, since some product lines specify tighter limits than the general industry range.
Can you sand down lippage on LVP flooring?
Light sanding can work on a genuinely raised edge above the leave-it threshold, but only if the wear layer is thick enough to survive it. Check the data sheet first, since sanding through the wear layer exposes the print layer permanently.
Why does glue-down LVP develop lippage but click-lock doesn’t as much?
Glue-down planks rely entirely on adhesive transfer for support, so a wrong trowel notch or skinned-over open time leaves planks sitting on uneven high spots. Click-lock planks are mechanically joined, so lippage there more often traces to the lock edge or subfloor.
Floor Talks publishes general industry information, not professional installation, structural or contractual advice. Manufacturer instructions and local building code govern any specific job and override anything written here.