How to Lay Vinyl Tiles

Vinyl tiles make one of the best flooring for bathrooms and kitchens. The main advantage of vinyl flooring is the wide range of the patterns and colors that are available in the vinyl tiles. Vinyl tiles are inexpensive and fit into any size of room. They are popular choice for home improvement as they are crack resistant, waterproof and easy to maintain. Vinyl tiles are usually laid in bathrooms, kitchens, mudrooms, laundry area, etc.

How to Lay Vinyl Tiles?
Laying vinyl tiles is an inexpensive way of improving home décor and can be done by yourself at a very low-budget. The popular form of vinyl tiles is 'peel and stick' / self adhesive tiles, where the tiles already have adhesive set up. Thus, while installing you need to just remove the backing paper and stick the tile to its required position. Let us discuss how to lay vinyl tile flooring in a room. The list of equipment required for laying vinyl tiles is given below.

• Vinyl Tiles
• Measurement Tape
• Carpenter's Square
• Utility Knife
• Chisel
• Hammer

Deciding the Number of Tiles
Deciding the number of tiles required for vinyl floor is an important task. Vinyl tiles come in dimension of 12 inches by 12 inches. So you need to take appropriate measurement of the room where you want to install vinyl tiles. Measure the length and breadth of the room and multiply them and the result will be the number of vinyl tiles required to cover the flooring. Consider a room that is 8 feet by 12 feet, the total area is 96 feet square and hence the number of tiles required is 96. It is always safe to get more tiles than required by considering the errors that may take place during installation.

Preparing the Subfloor
A nice smooth subfloor is necessary for successful installation of vinyl tiles. Vinyl tiles are easy to install on any type of floor, may be concrete, wood or already existing vinyl floor. But you need to smoothen and level the surface before installing vinyl tiles, because if the floor is uneven the vinyl floor may appear unsightly. If the subfloor is concrete then see that there are no holes or cracks in the floor. Repair them if any. If there is any floor protruding, then level it by using a hammer and chisel. Sand the floor to make it uniform in level. If there is already existing raised vinyl flooring then apply a layer of leveler. If leveling of subfloor is too difficult then lay down plywood all over the room.

Laying Vinyl Tiles
Once the subfloor is ready, it's time to lay the vinyl tiles. Before laying the tiles you need to find the center of the room because the pattern of the vinyl tiles will be placed at the center. The center of the room can be found by drawing perpendicular lines from center of each wall of the room. The point where the lines will intersect will be the center of the room. Ensure that the lines intersect at exact 90 degrees with the help of carpenter's square. After finding the center of the room start laying the vinyl tiles with the help of reference lines drawn while finding the center.

Final Touch
Cut the extra layers of the tiles with the help of a utility knife. You may need to cut the tiles that are to be installed near the walls. To fit these tiles exactly in the remaining space, use cardboard templates for exact measurements. Once you are done with laying vinyl tiles, install moldings to fill in the gaps between the tiles. Leave the vinyl tiles to get adhered properly to the subfloor. Do not wash the flooring for at least a week.

Laying vinyl tiles is quite an easy job and can be done without help of a professional. Now when you are aware of how to lay vinyl tiles, remodel your kitchen or bathroom flooring by laying them yourself.