How To Install Vinyl Tile Squares

Long before the advent of resilient sheet flooring and plastic-laminate planks, there was vinyl tile. Originally produced as an culling to linoleum, vinyl tile grew in popularity because information technology was colorful, piece of cake to clean and crack resistant.

Vinyl tiles remain popular today and are commonly installed in baths, foyers, laundry rooms and mudrooms. The 12x12-inch tiles come in dozens of colors, patterns and textures, making information technology like shooting fish in a barrel to create checkerboard designs and floors with contrasting borders.

In that location are two types of vinyl tile: glue-downwards and cocky-adhesive. Glue-down tiles are gear up into a bed of mastic, which is a rather messy process. Self-agglutinative vinyl tiles are a skin-and-stick product, making them ideally suited for practice-it-yourselfers.

Here, we asked Jimmy Tiganella, owner of Classic Tile in Oakville, Connecticut, to demonstrate how to install a long-lasting vinyl tile flooring, a job that starts with covering the old flooring with plywood underlayment.

Footstep 1

Tiling a Floor Overview

Strive for a layout that maximizes the number of whole tiles and the size of any cut tiles.

When awkwardly sized tiles tin can't be avoided, place them where vanities volition cover them later or out of the main sight lines from the doorway.

You shouldn't step on any tiles until the thinset has cured for at least 24 hours.

Salvage until terminal all of the cuts requiring a wetsaw. Then rent the wetsaw for 1 day.

Step 2

Put down Underlayment

Pry up any existing shoe molding from around the perimeter of the room.

Embrace the entire floor with ¼-inch plywood underlayment secured with one ¼-inch (3d) underlayment nails. Make sure to stagger the joints.

Spread a thin layer of leveling chemical compound along the plywood seams with a 6-inch drywall knife. Allow to dry completely (about thirty minutes).

Sand the seams polish with a sanding pad with 100-grit newspaper.

Footstep 3

Trim the Door Jamb and Casing

To trim down the door opening and then the tiles will fit underneath, place a tile upside downward in front end of either door jamb to serve as a height guide.

Lay an undercut saw flat on top of the tile and carefully cutting through the jamb (equally shown).

Slide the tile around to the front and so cut through the casing in the same fashion. Repeat these steps on the other side.

Step 4

Lay out the Room in Quadrants

Measure the width of the room in two places and in each instance mark its exact heart on the floor.

Snap a wall-to-wall chalk line lined upward on the marks.

Measure the chalk line and marking its eye to indicate the room's eye point.

Line upward a framing square along the chalk line at the center point, then make a line along the square'due south tongue perpendicular to the chalk line. Do the same on the other side of the chalk line.

Snap a 2d wall-to-wall chalk line on the perpendicular lines to divide the room into quadrants (every bit shown).

Pace five

Start Tiling at the Room's Heart

Sweep each quadrant clean.

Tile the floor one quadrant at a time, beginning at the center betoken.

Peel off the backing canvass from the first tile and gear up information technology into the corner formed past the intersecting chalk lines. Printing the tile to the floor.

Set the rest of the tiles in the quadrant. Work out from the first tile in a step pattern, first out along the chalk lines, then filling in (every bit shown).

Continue until y'all reach the concluding course before the walls; then start on the adjacent quadrant.

Step 6

Scribe Tiles to Fit Along Walls

Place 1 total tile on top of the tile closest to the wall. Align the acme tile then that its iv edges line up with the already-installed tile below.

Set a second tile on height of the get-go and slide it up against the wall.

Draw a pencil line along the inner edge of the superlative tile, marking the heart tile (as shown).

Slide out the eye tile for cutting.

Step seven

Cut Tiles to Size

To brand very make clean, straight cuts quickly, consider using a vinyl tile cutter. Similar to a paper cutter, this tool is bachelor at rental shops.

Lift the tool's handle to heighten the hardened-steel blade. Slip the tile under the bract, then press down on the handle to slice the tile cleanly (as shown).

To make interior cutouts, notches, or 50-shaped corner cuts, you'll need to use a utility knife, first softening the tile with a oestrus gun.

Step viii

Trim Tiles Around Estrus Registers

If you lot come to a heat register (where a duct emerges from beneath the flooring), remove its grille to expose the rectangular hole.

Marking a precise cutout for the hole on the vinyl tile by laying a full tile on top of the hole, pressing it tightly to the wall and penciling where it overlaps the duct.

Use an electric heat gun to soften the tile, so cut it along the line with a utility knife (as shown).

Test-fit the tile before peeling off the backing paper.

Stride 9

Install Shoe Molding

After laying all of the tile, roll the entire flooring with a bakery'southward rolling pin or J-roller. That volition ensure that every tile is firmly bonded to the underlayment.

Side by side, muffle the gap between the tiles and the baseboard molding past replacing the old shoe molding or installing new molding (as shown).

Secure the molding with 1 ½-inch (4d) finishing nails.

Tip: Don't wash the floor for at to the lowest degree five days; that gives the adhesive time to cure fully.

Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/flooring/21016447/how-to-lay-a-vinyl-tile-floor

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