how to prepare a floor for vinyl flooring

Signs That Your Vinyl Flooring is Laid Incorrectly

No matter if you have had a professional fit the flooring or if you have given it a go yourself, knowing how to prepare a floor for vinyl flooring is essential. You want your luxury wood effect vinyl flooring to look amazing.

The appeal is that it looks flawless and stunning and is highly protected; however, even the most fabulous looking vinyl flooring can look awful if not installed properly. Small mistakes in vinyl floors stick out like a sore thumb and you want to avoid the most common mistakes to assure it is fitted right the first time.

Improper Alignment

Among the most common mistakes in older homes, vinyl may move more resulting in corners that are not 90 degrees, creating problems that won’t be apparent upon laying the tiles but will showcase once completed.

Using an experienced fitter will easily combat this problem but when left on your own to install you will find yourself like a deer in headlights when finished and unsure how to correct the problem.

Mismatching

Many people can soon find themselves bored and wanting to get the job of installing vinyl over quickly, especially in larger rooms.

Without proper breaks over time, you can sometimes get confused and dizzy from laying tiles constantly, which can result in mismatching your tiles during placement and resulting in the project looking disastrous to the eye. It is incredibly annoying when going for an alternating pattern and one tile is turned wrong, leading to every tile after that following suit.

It’s a very easy trap to fall into but requires a lot of work to fix, so be sure to pay close attention when working to ensure this does not happen.

Uneven

Many people make the mistake of not adequately preparing their subfloor before installation. Make sure you know how to prepare a floor for vinyl flooring correctly.

Whilst minor imperfections can be covered, some areas need extra attention such as flooring transitions between rooms and any area where an object like a nail in the floor that is not levelled can cause your floor to give off an uneven look that can ruin your project completely.

Make sure your subfloor is perfectly flat and any imperfections filed down or filled in before laying the floor, including any existing floor you are layering over.

Adhesive Use

Be sure before applying the adhesive that you know exactly how much is needed and where exactly it is supposed to be put before starting on the project.

If you use too much adhesive it can seep through cracks when installing and be very hard to remove. If you use too little adhesive in a large area you run the risk of ridges in your flooring. Every type of vinyl flooring such as quick step luxury vinyl to Invictus has different requirements, so be sure to get the guidelines from your supplier when purchasing.

To ensure your floor is fitted right the first time, contact the team at Floorbay today.