Vinyl Flooring Tiles Installation

by Nancy

Using vinyl flooring tiles is one of the best and easiest ways to modernize any floor or install a new one over subflooring for a home improvement project.

Of course, being fast to do also means that it comes with a few issues of its own. Read further to learn more about the benefits using vinyl tile on your floor and why you'd want to install it in your home, particularly in your kitchen. Installing vinyl flooring with pressure sensitive adhesive doesn't need to be dificult at all.

First of all if it's only a matter of sprucing up your existing flooring, you can easily install the vinyl floor tiles over your current floor. However you need to ensure that the existing layer is smooth and looking and feeling good, meaning it is in good shape. You can, for example, install vinyl over ceramic, linoleum, sheet vinyl, pretty much anything that has a smooth surface. You can even install it over hardwood, however this might not be the best option for you. What you'd really need in this case is have a first level of 0.4" plywood or something else smooth instead.

A few of the disadvantages people found with vinyl flooring tiles are:

• Not all tiles look the same, there is a variance in floor tile appeal 
• Vinyl is not a natural material like wood. Many people say it looks fake in your home
• The grades, just as the appeal, might vary from vinyl tile to tile 

Here are some of the advantages of installing vinyl tiles at home:

• Quite cheap compared to hardwood for example 
• Much easier to install than other flooring types 
• Very easy to clean, no problems with water spilled on the surface 
• Mostly used in kitchens and bathrooms, in high traffic and floor abuse areas 

Installing vinyl flooring tiles with pressure sensitive adhesive  as a home improvement design idea is not difficult but you need to know the actual steps before hand so you don't do something that might hurt your flooring more than help.

• Use a measuring tape and a chalk or writer of some kind to measure the center points of your home walls. Make a line with the chalk between the facing walls to create a sort of a cross. Take the center point and start laying down the tiles going outwards within one single quadrant. It really doesn't matter which way you go, but once you started in a direction, stick with it. 
• Fill up the entire quadrant with vinyl tile pieces right up to the wall, if there is a tiny gap left, don't worry about it for now. 
• Continue the same procedure foe the remaining 3 quadrants. 
• Once all 4 quadrands are done, you still have the gaps to deal with and fill them in with vinyl tiles. First put down a whole tile across the gap. Make sure that one part of it overlaps the outside edge of the tiles. Use a pencil to mark the edge on the lose tile and draw a line between the marks. Now use a utility knife to cut down alongside of the line. Make sure you slice the tile through entirely. If it's not done right the first time, go through it a second time so the vinyl tile is cut entirely. If it's done right, you should now have a smaller tile that fits perfectly in the gap. Do this procedure for the remaining places with gaps where additional vinyl should be placed on your flooring.