[Closed] Anyone laid vinyl flooring?

Vinyl as in posh lino? If so, there's no underlay as long as it's a smooth surface underneath. If there's gaps between floorboards, say, you'll need to fill the gaps or put some plywood/hardboard over them otherwise the vinyl will sink into the gaps. If they're tight against each other you're okay.

This is from getting it fitted, not actually fitting it, BTW.

A friend fitted some in his bathroom, making a template out of newspaper first, laying that on the vinyl and cutting round. Didn't pay enough attention though, and ended up with a piece of vinyl that was a perfect mirror image of his bathroom floor 🙂

If you already have carpet down, you could probably just lay that on the vinyl and carefully cut around it.

Just get a cheap sacrificial rug and put that under where the kids sit.

I'm a self-employed handyman (so I dislike paying if I can do a job myself) and I would still rather pay a carpet fitter to do it. It's an art, done well it takes minutes and looks great, done badly takes forever and still isn't perfect.

Then again I've only done bathrooms, I cheated in our last bathroom and took everything out, fitted the vinyl, then fitted the skirting and put everything back in. Given my skillset it was much less stressful and took a short day.

Don't skimp on the ply, it looks rubbish with the floor boards showing through. If the floor is 8'x2' chipboard, er, boards you might get away with it.

Did the home salon in it. had a good size to do as it went into the utility aswell. probably 8m long 4m wide. was a bit of handful at first due to size and weight, but some carpet tape & spray adhesive round the edges soon had it going in nicely.

trimming it all tight around doors etc. was the hardest for me. and trying not to put dirty creases in it. we had no skirting fitted at the time so edges were easier than what yours may be??

Thanks! Not sure what's underneath actually - might pull the edges up and have a look.

Could be worth paying someone to do ... Though it's only for a few years until we save up to do the kitchen

I had some done in kitchen and bathroom. I laid the ply to save a bit of money on labour. The fitter came and screed over it, then glued the vinyl down. He had specialist rollers and things so no way I would have done as good a job on finish.

laid a few bits, in a few vans and a few bathrooms

its a sod to do nicely. patience is key. easier if you have taken the skirting off as you dont need to be so careful.

if you are butting up to carpet you`ll need an underboard of some sort as the vinyl will be much lower than a carpet on a thick underlay.

i tend to glue it down with a high temp spray glue to stop movement (both when laying and after)

We did our kitchen/dinner, had vinyl down already so we had that as a template to do a rough cut/shape before laying. We have a kind of compressed fibreboard underlay beneath a layer of ply. Vinyl is glued down to the ply, we got a beefy roller to smooth it down. Then it's a case of careful trimming the edges with a Stanley, I think we used hooked ones. I'm ok with the steady and patient trimming so it turned out alright, if Mrs uniqueusername had been on trimming duty we'd need 2 inch thick skirting to neaten it up.

Maybe lay a cheap sacrificial layer of vinyl as practice and to add height then spray glue the top layer. IANAVI

I've done vinyl tiles a few times. They're easy and make a nice finish if you've properly prepped the area either with ply or a self-levelling screed.

Laid vinyl a few times - handy if you've got an old one coming up for a template - mainly due to size and weight on handling, especially if you've got some cutting to do.

Was surprised how good vinyl tiles are. MrsF did our down stairs loo with them. They look great and were quick to lay. We need to re-do the caravan's kitchen floor, and given there is a fair bit of trimming, tiles will make the job much easier. Also they are pretty cheap.

Vinyl tiles is a good shout, thanks

Actually, come to think of it, the one mistake I did make with they tiles was not putting a thin enough scrape of glue on them. It has to be full coverage with a toothed spreader, but if you put too much on I found the excess squeezed up through the gaps and needed to be cleaned off for a good while.

Is it just me that can't read 'vinyl flooring' without thinking of...

I laid those thick heavy lino strips printed to look like wood in my caravan, it was a cinch - cut really easily. On a smooth surface though (ply) not sure it would go down well on concrete.