How To Install Sheet Vinyl Flooring

Sheet vinyl flooring is one of the best residential flooring types available right now. It is relatively cheap compared to other materials like hardwood, and it's very easy to use in the most traffic and abused area, including those with water spills and high levels of humidity, including kitchen, bathroom and laundry room.

However a lot of people are asking how to install sheet vinyl flooring simply because it is not so easy to do it on your own, unless you have already done it before. The main reason is the actual sheet vinyl which is made of longer (and wider) stripes of vinyl as opposed to vinyl tiles that are very easy to install and remove. It can be done but it needs a lot of patience, lots of calculation and following instructions rather than trying to go 'by the eye'. Before you install your sheet vinyl flooring, you need to prepare your old floor, the room and get the materials ready.

Preparing the room for sheet vinyl flooring installation

• Make sure that the room is completely empty of any furniture
• Get rid of trims that are around the walls base or any door thresholds
• Remove any old flooring such as linoleum, or old vinyl that you had before
• Remove any doors by taking them from their hinges
• Clean the floor using a vacuum cleaner or a good sweep
• Use some putty knives to remove any traces of the old gluing as the floor needs to be level, clean and very smooth. It should not have any rough or bumpy areas.
• Measure your floor including areas under thresholds, cabinet edges, and any corners you might have
• With the proper measurements written down head over to your local hardware or flooring store and buy the sheet vinyl material. If you can get a wide sheet that can cover your entire flooring, the better. The less strips you have in stall separately, the easier the installation process will be.
• Buy also any needed glue and other tools that you will need. The sales people will be able to help you as to what exactly you need for the installation. You might have some tools at home, such as brooms, measuring tapes and screwdrivers, and others you will have to buy.

Installing Sheet Vinyl Flooring

What you need:

• Sheet vinyl
• Trimming knife
• Double-sided vinyl tape
• Threshold strip
• Hacksaw
• Screwdriver

After you bought the sheet vinyl leave it for about a day in the room to acclimatize itself to the room temperature. It will install itself easier this way.

• Unroll the vinyl fully on the floor. Leave around 5cm that is going up the wall for the margins
• If you get to corners cut down from the vinyl edge so it lies flat instead of buckling up the corner
• Use something heavy such as a block of wood to push the vinyl to lie flat between the actual floor and the floor board, and then cut to size with a trimming knife.
• If you are installing it in a bathroom, you need to cut around the toilet base or sink working slowly around the base curve and making small regular cuts. Use the knife to trim around the bases to fit the vinyl nicely flat on the floor.
• When installing it in a doorway, cut a strip around the threshold to the length you need and screw it down so it covers the empty place between the floor in the two adjacent rooms. Where you have concrete, use glue to stick to it properly.