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By Tileswale
Installing a floating vinyl floor is an easy do-it-yourself project. You can complete it in about three days. We did ours over the course of two long weekends, but you may want to take more time if you need to go out of town or have other obligations. Here’s what we did:
A floating vinyl floor, installed correctly, is one of the easiest DIY projects you can tackle in your home. However, if you’re not careful with how you install it, you could end up with some problems later on, which is why it’s so important to follow the instructions carefully and get everything right the first time around. Luckily, I’ve got some easy steps to show you how to do this job right. Let’s get started!
Tiles, planks, nails, power saw or jigsaw, hammer or nail gun. You might also want a trimming tool and a carpet knife. If you're planning on carpeting over your tile floors, be sure to account for that when measuring out floor space. Let's get started!
As we mentioned above, Jeff had experience doing this with tile and it’s much easier with a concrete subfloor. We removed loose tiles around each toilet closet in our bathroom as well as the old linoleum under the kitchen cabinets and counters. We removed most of it with an 8-inch bucker and hammer. We chipped out the last of it with a head-mounted reciprocating saw. The old linoleum came up in pieces rather than one big chunk, giving us lots of nails (we saved them for use later) but not so many that we got our nerves up too much.
We laid down a layer of 1/2-inch plywood (leftover from Jeff’s garage rebuild) followed by a layer of reinforcing grid, tacking it down to the edge of each piece with nails. We cut the squares around doorways and outlets first, then trimmed out the rest. No need to be too careful about laying the pieces, since they’ll be covered by the vinyl. Consider using a nail gun if you have one.
We used both methods to check for square as we went along. The laser is easier to use, but less accurate; we found that it takes a few times to get the hang of it. The water level is more precise but takes some time to master, and you need good light. We found that the laser was easier for us to use when we were just starting out, while the water level eventually became our prefered method.
We found that it goes down easily over plywood and reinforcing grid, which is exactly what you want. We laid pieces about 18 inches apart, with the joints in adjacent pieces staggered by an inch or so. As we got to more complicated areas like around doors, we used a jigsaw to cut around door frames and a utility knife to trim the vinyl. We added pieces of 1-by scrap lumber between door jams and wall studs, since we wanted the walls to be completely covered by the vinyl flooring.
We tacked down each sheet with staples or mini-nails as we went along. We ran out of staples, so we used a hammer to drive nails into every fourth sheet. The important thing is that vinyl doesn’t tear if you just stick it down with something thin like tape or tacks and then put the tile right on top of it — almost as if there were no floor under the removable tile!
Tip: First, prepare your floor. Vacuum or sweep loose dirt from it and clean with warm water and dish soap. Dry with a soft cloth or paper towel. Next, place your first plank down on top of your vinyl flooring. Gently press down on one end of the plank with your roller to secure it in place, then pull out any wrinkles by rolling back and forth along its length.
We wanted our base color to be white, so we laid several sheets of white vinyl over each sheet of colored flooring. It’s not a bad idea to put the colored vinyl down first so that you can see where you need overlaps, but be aware that you may end up with colors in places you don’t want it (like under cabinets).
At this point we had a white base layer and three sheets of black grid on top of that. We cut out the openings for toilets and cabinets by using a pair of pliers to pull off the pieces of vinyl surrounding each opening.
We aligned each piece with the edge of a sheet already down, and trimmed the waste away with an x-acto knife. The first time we tried to do this, we found that the vinyl was getting pulled out of alignment — something we’re not sure if it’s supposed to do, but probably shouldn’t happen. The second time, we made a point of starting at one end and working our way down by pulling on each sheet slightly towards us as we cut the neighboring piece .
We weren’t sure if the vinyl was supposed to be cut in one continuous motion, from start to finish, or if it’s okay to have little bits of waste remaining. We tried both ways and only found that the first way leads to extreme amounts of frustration — so much so that we switched back and forth between methods.
We also added a layer of tile grout between the sheets, which was messy but satisfying. We used a cheap chip brush to spread on some diluted white grout, then went over it with a damp rag to smooth out bubbles and wipe up excess grout. Apply very little pressure and let the grout do most of the work for you.
The grout added enough thickness so that we had to resquare our base layer with a laser, but it was nothing too major.
Add another layer of vinyl over the top to cover the squares of tile grout we just laid down. We found that we needed to use a hammer, not just our fingers, to make sure the vinyl went down smoothly.
Grouting between layers of vinyl. We used white grout with black floors for contrast. Everything was going fine until we got to the gap around a toilet, where we found that tile grout kept getting stuck in the flush mechanisms. We ended up just taping off around those areas and using white caulk instead.
We still haven’t been able to find caulk that comes out of an applicator gun like paint. We can probably order some from a tile-supply store, but we’re too cheap for that!
For the last layer of vinyl, add it over top to cover everything else. We applied this layer by using a wide putty knife to scrape up excess grout and keep the floor flat. The instructions say not to put any staples or nails in this layer, which makes sense because we don’t want to pierce the vinyl below.
Once all layers are added, we went back over to level out the floor and knock down any high spots with a rug-beater. Pushing down on one part of your work area can cause the vinyl to rise up in other areas.
We knew we were done with this part of the floor when there was no roughness or unevenness in anything we brushed over with our hands. The few spots that remained after we finished leveling out our flooring could be popped down with a mallet and then flattened by binding them up with a rug-beater.
We then quickly moved on to laying down vinyl for our living area. We started by taping off the sides of each section, which was incredibly time consuming because we had to cut small pieces of tape and adjust them as we went along . Since we’re working with an old house and walls that aren’t perfectly straight, we had to level out each seam with an x-acto knife.
We found that it was easiest to cut the vinyl in 10-foot sections. We started by cutting a 6-foot piece of tape into two 3-foot pieces and laying those over the seams.
Then, we cut a 10-foot piece from another pack and laid it over the seams. We folded that 2-foot overlap along the seam and stapled it into place. Next, we used an x-acto knife to trim off excess vinyl around each joint and then added two further staples where the seams met at the end of the 2-foot overlap.
We repeated this process to lay down vinyl in all other parts of our home.
Next, we went over each seam with a razor knife to cut off any remaining vinyl hangovers sticking out from the floor and walls. The blade on this knife was really dull, so it was difficult to cut through thick sections of the sticky stuff.
We also painted all of our baseboards white to match up with our floor. We put down plastic to protect the baseboards from paint.
When finished, we had a large pile of excess vinyl and tile grout in our garage that was difficult to dispose of:
We ultimately wrapped all of it up in garbage bags and threw it away with regular trash. It would have been nice to find a recycle bin for construction materials in San Diego, but we didn’t have any luck.
This job was not meant for the faint of heart! It took us about five weeks to finish tiling our whole house. We had no previous experience with installing floors and we were concerned that it would be too hard or take too long, but we’re happy to report that it wasn’t difficult and took only a third of the time we had estimated.
The main challenge was getting everything perfectly level. It seems like small sections are never quite level with each other, which could be due to uneven flooring or walls in older houses. We ran into this problem with both finishing grout and laying down vinyl, so we hope the finished product is level enough to not have problems with leaks.
Other than that, the whole process went really smoothly once we got past the initial frustrations of working around all the obstacles a 100-year old house inevitably has. It’s nice to see how our hard work has transformed both our stairway and the living room:
We like how it’s subtle enough to not stick out too much, but also eye-catching enough to make a big difference. The feeling of walking on this is so much better than carpet!
Also, you can see some dirt we had in the corners where pieces of the flooring were laid down in a bit of an off-angle. We used sandpaper to grind these down, but then they left sharp edges that would catch socks.
Later, we read that what we were supposed to do was go over them with a belt sander and smooth them out. Another mistake! Our poor belt sander started smoking and died…lol. We’ll be picking up a new one soon to finish the job and also to work on sanding out some small issues with our tiling.
Tips: Before starting your installation, measure around any obstacles in your room. This way, you won’t have to worry about mistakes once you start gluing down tiles. For my installation, I needed to cut around my baseboards. With a ruler and pen, mark out exactly where you need to make cuts. Be sure to wear gloves! Then use tin snips or an X-Acto knife (and more safety precautions) for cutting tile.
So, these is the easiest process or steps to install floating vinyl floors. I hope you understood each step. Thank You.
Article Updated:- November 18, 2021
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