Vinyl flooring help please?

aliasojo

Getting Rhinofloor vinyl fitted next week. I asked the store if the fitters could slide the vinyla little way under the kitchen unit legs rather than cut round them as they usually do. The legs are height adjustable and the units are screwed to the wall and also each other so it's perfectly do-able to screw the front feet up a cm or so just for the fitting then lower them afterwards. I only wanted the vinyl to go past the feet by a couple of inches btw.

(I would have raised the feet before they arrived so it's not like they had any extra work.)

Store said they dont usually do that and that the vinyl may expand and contract slightly with the kitchen temperature and so it's best not to have something stopping this, like the unit legs. I know many people fit their vinyl first and put their kitchen in on top of the flooring so I'm confused.

I cant find anything about this on the manufacturer's website.

I know there are some flooring experts on MSE, so I'm hoping for opinions from them or anyone who has had this done....or not.

redpoison

Oh i rather confused also, because we want vinyl flooring for our kitchen and we also want it underneath the cupboards, Could you perhaps call few other carpet retailers for their opinion on this? It is your kitchen and you are paying for it. But i could also see their point of view perhaps if something goes wrong.

andrew-b

I wouldn't lift up all the front legs at once just in case the fronts of the cabinets do drop - one at a time would be best if you insist they go under the legs. I probably wouldn't have worried about expansion - i thought it was usually glued down any way rather than laid loose?

Could you not just ask them to go beyond the plinths by a few inches and simply cut around the legs. If your bothered about water getting under then you could always put a bead of silicone sealant all along the plinths - or even just around the legs. You can also get a special clear plinth sealant strip i believe which would allow access under the plinths if it is needed.

I hope your kitchen fitters allowed a big enough gap for the floor covering..ours didn't and we ended up having to trim about 5mm off all our plinths ourselves.

Andy

stebiz

redpoison wrote: »

Oh i rather confused also, because we want vinyl flooring for our kitchen and we also want it underneath the cupboards, Could you perhaps call few other carpet retailers for their opinion on this? It is your kitchen and you are paying for it. But i could also see their point of view perhaps if something goes wrong.

Just another slant on this. I'm due to have mine done also in the next couple of weeks and are quite happy for them to cut around legs - after all you have kickboards.

It may be us who are paying for the job, but it is usually the manufacturer and fitter who will have the comeback - so you can see their argument. It must be so difficult to fit 2 feet back under the cupboards?? I'd ask a few too. If they all say the same thing listen to the 'professionals'. That is what you are paying for.

Just my penneth.

Stebiz

aliasojo

stebiz wrote: »

It must be so difficult to fit 2 feet back under the cupboards??

Lol....I only wanted it to go 2 inches under the cupboards, not 2 feet.

I'm going to phone Armstrong on Monday to ask for their opinion. They make the stuff so they should surely be able to advise one way or the other.

Apparently it doesn't get glued..it's loose laid. The only place it gets stuck down is at the doorways.

I honestly dont see what the issue is with fitting under the legs as opposed to cutting round them, if anything I would have thought it would have been easier for the fitters.

My last kitchen had the vinyl cut round the legs and when my youngest spilt something, the liquid would seep under the plinth and head for the hole where it was cut out for the unit leg. If the vinyl went under the leg and back just a shade more, it would be less likely to reach the subfloor this way imo.

Of course if there was a large spill then it would get to the floor no matter what.

I'll go with what the manufacturer says though.

Errata

What happens if the fitters !!!! something up or break something whilst they're struggling to get it under the legs? Who pays the cost of putting things right, you or them? They're vynil fitters not kitchen unit faffers. If you have translucent sealant put along the join between vynil and kickboard nothing can seep underneath.

stebiz

aliasojo wrote: »

Lol....I only wanted it to go 2 inches under the cupboards, not 2 feet.

I'm going to phone Armstrong on Monday to ask for their opinion. They make the stuff so they should surely be able to advise one way or the other.

Apparently it doesn't get glued..it's loose laid. The only place it gets stuck down is at the doorways.

I honestly dont see what the issue is with fitting under the legs as opposed to cutting round them, if anything I would have thought it would have been easier for the fitters.

My last kitchen had the vinyl cut round the legs and when my youngest spilt something, the liquid would seep under the plinth and head for the hole where it was cut out for the unit leg. If the vinyl went under the leg and back just a shade more, it would be less likely to reach the subfloor this way imo.

Of course if there was a large spill then it would get to the floor no matter what.

I'll go with what the manufacturer says though.

:rotfl::rotfl:I thought with you saying 'way under'!!!

Debt_Free_Chick

Stebiz makes a good point - do you not have kickboards?

PasturesNew

If the kitchen is a uniform shape and the units are only along one side it might seem reasonable as it wouldn't take them any extra time.

But if the units are on more than one side, especially if they go, say, round a corner, it could be a hell of a game and faff to get the flooring simultaneously under the legs while they're trying to roll out the vinyl and check it's still fitting at the other extremities.

aliasojo

I think I should make clear that the store did say they could do this if I really wanted...it's just that they dont usually.

Most of the replies are centering around the fitters and their ability to do this or not...when I think what I more need to know is ....is there a good reason (from a vinyl point of view iyswim) to not do this?

I've also just remembered that when I first looked at samples and spoke to them about what I was after....my original plan was to floor the whole kitchen before the units were installed. They advised me not to do that.......but only because the kitchen fitters might damage the vinyl...nothing was ever mentioned about expanding/contracting then.

Now if this was a genuine issue, then surely that would have been raised by them at that point, given that the whole kitchen would be sat on it and not just a few front feet?




One other thing....I'm shelling out handsomely for this vinyl, it's got a 20yr guarantee and is far from cheap....so I want the job doing the best way possible, which may not necessarily be the easiest way. The guarantee is only valid if it's installed correctly. My issue is just finding out which is the best way, lol. Which hopefully the manufacturer will be able to advise on.

aliasojo

Just thought I'd update in case it helps the other person who was also considering doing this.

I phoned Armstrong who told me that expanding and contracting is not an issue so it wouldn't matter if there was weight on the vinyl. They did say that 'perimeter' fixing was not advised in case there were small pockets of air trapped underneath during laying. If the vinyl was glued down round the edges then it couldn't be smoothed out, but unit legs wouldn't pose a problem as any air could simply pass round those.

They did add that the usual method was to cut round legs but there was no particular reason to do so.

So when the fitters arrived, I asked them to fit under the units on a particular wall .....(the units on this wall were firmly fixed to the wall and each other whereas the units on other walls had spaces for appliances either side so I wasn't as confident about raising the legs on these) .....and at the other units they could fit as they normally did if they wanted to.

The vinyl at the unit legs they cut round isn't neat at all and there are a couple of areas where the plinth will only just cover this and no more. I'm glad I got the main longest wall fitted under now. This plinth is to have lights in it and any floor irregularity might be highlighted more.

I'm happy with my decision and only wish I coud have got all the legs raised.

The fitters were nice enough blokes but I do think they were just used to doing things the usual way though and any request for something to be done in a slightly different way produced some raised eyebrows.

Anyway, tis done now.