How to Lay Vinyl Flooring

When looking for an affordable flooring solution for your home, vinyl flooring is a great option. Not only are there various colours and designs to choose from, it’s also easy to install, incredibly durable and an affordable option that you can fit yourself!

With some basic DIY skills, access to YouTube and some patience, even those with zero knowledge of how to lay vinyl flooring can easily install the ideal system to optimise your space and save money on renovation costs. Whether you’re fitting a new vinyl floor in your home or workplace, we’ve outlined a brief and easy-to-follow guide to help you complete your project. 

We recommend fully researching the installation method unique to your products. This can be found on the datasheet. We also advise you to take care to complete your project safely, with the correct products and safety protection.

How to Measure a Room for Vinyl Flooring

To start your project, you will need to measure the area where you’re looking to install your vinyl flooring. This will give you an indication of how much materials you need to buy. For help with this, you can also use our Material Calculation service. Simply enter your project details and one of our experts will be in touch with the amount of materials you need to complete the job.

If you’re ready to calculate the materials you need yourself, it’s fairly simple. For a standard room, take the width and length and add 10mm all the way around. There are plenty of YouTube videos available on measuring for vinyl floor laying that can help you with this.

Not everyone, however, has conventionally shaped rooms. This complicates projects and it can make it a challenge to get the correct dimensions. If the geometry you learn at school has sadly left you and you’re struggling to calculate the square footage of the room, don’t worry. A quick research of certain guides can help you work out the correct dimensions so that you’re set to go out and buy the vinyl flooring for your room.

Tools Needed to Fit Vinyl Flooring

When preparing for how to fit vinyl flooring or stick-on vinyl flooring, the first thing you must do is get all the materials you need to complete the task. It’s likely that you’ll already have most of these items lying around, however, things such as protective gear can be easily rented from a reputable tool hire company.

The items you need for laying vinyl flooring include:

• A good craft knife (get additional blades)
• A scribing gauge (homemade is fine)
• Measuring tape
• A straight edge
• A bolster chisel
• Vinyl adhesive
• Lining paper
• A pencil
• Knee pads

Once you have everything you need to complete your vinyl flooring fitting project, you can start to prepare the floor surface!

Prepare Your Floor for Vinyl

Whether you’re learning how to lay vinyl flooring on floorboards and a concrete surface, the trick to getting the perfect finish is ensuring the floor surface is smooth and flat. You’ll need to take time to prepare the room’s surface; clean it and smooth it down if required. You’ll also need to ensure that the surface is completely dry before you begin the vinyl flooring installation. 

Preparing the surface for vinyl flooring can be time-consuming and you can consider using an electric sander if you’re looking to make smoothing and cleaning the surface easier. You can also consider underlay for your vinyl floor fitting – this will make it more comfortable and softer underfoot. If you need visual guidance on preparing your floor for vinyl, there are many videos which you might find helpful.

Once you’ve finished preparing the floor’s surface, it’s time to learn how to install vinyl flooring.

Guide for Laying Vinyl Flooring

Top Tip: We recommend storing the vinyl flooring in the room it will be laid for around 48 hours before installing. Doing this will allow the vinyl flooring to acclimatise to the temperature of the room and can help to prevent any cracking and the floor from becoming brittle.

Before you begin, you’ll want to remove anything from the room, including any internal doors. This will make things easier for you.

Step One: Unroll the Vinyl

Start by unrolling your vinyl floor. Place the longest edge parallel to the longest wall, keeping it roughly 25mm from your skirting board.

Step Two: Trace the Skirting Profile

Before you cut your vinyl, trace the profile of your skirting onto it (this is because the skirting is not always 100% straight). You can use a homemade scribing gauge to help with this.

Step Three: Cutting the Vinyl

If you’re not a professional vinyl floor fitter, please take your time when cutting your vinyl to ensure you don’t make any mistakes. At the ends of the edge you’re laying first, cut small triangular sections at each end of the vinyl. This will allow you to lay the floor flat.

You’ll now need to use your bolster chisel and press the vinyl between the skirting board and the floor, creating a sharp crease in the material. Once this has been done along the entire edge, cut along the crease using your straight edge and craft knife. Cut the material at a slight angle.

Step Four: Fitting the Sheet Vinyl Flooring

Learning how to lay lino will take time and practice (helped by getting your lines as straight as possible when cutting the vinyl flooring). Once you’ve finished cutting the edges, lift the flooring edges and apply vinyl flooring adhesive. Whilst this will ensure it stays in place, you can also use adhesive tape if preferred.

Place the edges back down (which they should do easily), and then let the adhesive dry before moving everything back into the room.

How to Join Vinyl Flooring

One of the most challenging aspects of learning how to lay lino flooring is joining two pieces together. It’s easier if there is no pattern, but the trick is to match the pattern before joining two pieces of vinyl flooring. Ideally, you should use two pieces of vinyl from the same roll to avoid any discrepancies in colour or pattern between rolls.

Fit the first piece of vinyl following the steps above, and then take the second piece and move it along the first until the patterns match precisely. Then, fold the edges and use an adhesive or tape to fit the vinyl together. Fix this firmly to the floor so that it doesn’t move. You can then finish installing the second piece of vinyl and be confident that the pattern will match.

Fitting a Door Bar

Don’t forget to ensure you fit door bars to the doorway! This will create a neat join between thresholds.

Position the door bar centrally so that you can see it from either side when the door is closed. You’ll need to measure the correct length and cut it to size. Please be careful to check there are no electrical wires or pipes below where the door is using a meter before you hammer nails in to keep the door bar securely in place. If you have a concrete floor, you’ll need to use a drill and screws to fix your door bar.

Commercial Interior Specialists

So. Now you know how to fit lino floors. We hope you feel confident to give it a go yourself. Ensure you take your time and research future tips and tricks to make the job more manageable and safe. Then, you’ll soon be an expert at vinyl flooring fitting.

When it comes to buying the materials needed for your vinyl flooring installation, we have everything you need. We offer high quality products at competitive prices. For any more information, contact our team today. One of our experts will be happy to assist you with your vinyl flooring needs.