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Get a Beautiful Home from the Floor Up!

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Get a Beautiful Home from the Floor Up!

When looking for flooring for heavy footfall areas in your home or for rooms, such as bathrooms and kitchens, where water is ever-present, vinyl flooring provides an ideal inexpensive and low maintenance choice. Although homeowners with Do it Yourself skills can install vinyl sheet flooring, it is a job that requires a very thorough preparation, measuring and cutting for a perfect installation. There are two ways to fit sheet vinyl flooring either by gluing it down or "loose fitting" as with a floating floor, which is much easier and not as messy.

Preparing the Surface Under the Flooring

Thorough preparation is the key to perfect vinyl floor preparation. Vinyl flooring laid on a rough surface will never be satisfactory, you will be able to feel a rough surface through the vinyl as you walk on such a floor and it could even split or crack the vinyl. Flooring contractors recommend that if you are laying new flooring over existing linoleum or vinyl, it is usually better to ensure that the existing flooring is clean and leave it in place. Where old tiles have had to be removed or your old vinyl is damaged and must be removed, old fixative may cover the sub-floor surface, flooring contractors generally cover this surface with a quarter inch plywood, thus providing a smooth surface on which to lay the new vinyl floor.

Always Make a Template

Measure your floors dimensions to discover its area which you'll need to work out what vinyl you will need. Rather than relying solely on measurements, before cutting the vinyl construct a guide template using craft paper. Lay it across the whole floor and cut it exactly along the walls and around obstacles. Then lay your paper template over the new vinyl, which you will already have unrolled and left outside to flatten. You're then able to cut it much more accurately and exactly than you would just by using a tape measure. Before cutting the vinyl, check twice that you have your template in the precise position over the vinyl.

Laying the Vinyl Flooring

Remove any baseboards, for example, from kitchen units. Wipe the subfloor surface with a damp cloth to eliminate any debris, and ensure that the room and floor are dust free before beginning. Then apply double sided carpeting adhesive along the edges of your room, but do not remove its paper backing. Then place the vinyl on the floor aligning each of the edges carefully along your walls. Starting with one wall, begin removing the backing tape from the carpet tape, press firmly onto the tape and vinyl. Using a roller, flatten out the vinyl when taping the edges of the vinyl on the other walls.

Joins or Seams

Flooring contractors advise that you should try to avoid joins or seams in your vinyl flooring whenever possible. Vinyl flooring is available in 6 foot or 12 foot sheets and therefore it is possible to avoid joining the vinyl on all but the very largest floors. Where you do have to have a seam-line, roll out a length of vinyl flooring on both sides of the join, over lapping it by an inch, then cut both of those sheets simultaneously. When you lay those sheets, cut through them both at once with a straight edge tool as your guide, remove any off-cuts. Then lay carpet tape beneath the join pressing the two edges together using the roller.

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