How to fit vinyl Flooring?

mystery07

Hi guys

Can anyone help?

Sorry if this seems very basic to anyone, but i am female :rolleyes: !!!

I have a carpet in my bathroom to replace & would just like some simple vinyl flooring. If I want it, I will have to fit it myself! The only problem is, I don't know where to start. I'm quite good with my hands so I'm sure once I've sussed how to do it, I would be fine. But could anyone offer me any advice on where to start? Or even point me to a website that may help? I've googled it but haven't found anything that helpful!

Sorry for being long winded, any help would be gratefully recieved

Jules

stilernin

mystery07 wrote: »

Hi guys

Can anyone help?

Sorry if this seems very basic to anyone, but i am female :rolleyes: !!!

I have a carpet in my bathroom to replace & would just like some simple vinyl flooring. If I want it, I will have to fit it myself! The only problem is, I don't know where to start. I'm quite good with my hands so I'm sure once I've sussed how to do it, I would be fine. But could anyone offer me any advice on where to start? Or even point me to a website that may help? I've googled it but haven't found anything that helpful!

Sorry for being long winded, any help would be gratefully recieved

Jules

I have never tried this myself, but I watched how a professional fitter worked on a 3m x 4m piece for my bathroom and shower room. This is actually 3 spaces made out of an old large bathroom, so quite tricky to do all in one.

The technique is to lay the roll of vinyl on the longest run of the floor, probably down the middle, and unroll it from there, measuring and cutting as you go. Very difficult to describe but interesting to watch.

If your room is a simple shape, could you use the carpet as a template and lay it out in a larger room to cut? If the carpet is too heavy you could use strong paper. Cut the vinyl a tad too big to give a tight fit to the space and then roll it up again to be able to lay the roll along the longest part of the room. Then slowly unroll it to fit. Be careful as you move it though as it will tear if you pull against a cut. IYSWIM

Hope this helps a bit.

mystery07

stilernin wrote: »

I have never tried this myself, but I watched how a professional fitter worked on a 3m x 4m piece for my bathroom and shower room. This is actually 3 spaces made out of an old large bathroom, so quite tricky to do all in one.

The technique is to lay the roll of vinyl on the longest run of the floor, probably down the middle, and unroll it from there, measuring and cutting as you go. Very difficult to describe but interesting to watch.

If your room is a simple shape, could you use the carpet as a template and lay it out in a larger room to cut? If the carpet is too heavy you could use strong paper. Cut the vinyl a tad too big to give a tight fit to the space and then roll it up again to be able to lay the roll along the longest part of the room. Then slowly unroll it to fit. Be careful as you move it though as it will tear if you pull against a cut. IYSWIM

Hope this helps a bit.

Thanks for this. Moving the carpet sounds like a good idea.

dazza001

If you have floorboards or an uneven floor under your carpet, make sure that nail some hardboard sheets over the whole area of the floorboards so you have a nice flat even surface before you lay the vinal.

This will stop lines and joints of the floorboards or the uneven contours showing through after a period of time. (I found this to my cost after about a year, initially it looked really good but after a year or so you could see the outline of the floorboards through the vinal flooring and it looked a mess.)

cheers

amcluesent

Yep, you'll need to nail down hardboard over any floorboards first. Then lay out the covering, avoiding tears, and cut it to fit neatly around WC pan, basin stand, CH pipes etc. Then once it's all flat, zip around with silicon seal to water proof the edges. Then put in some cover at the door, to neaten off the jump from carpet to vinyl. IMHO, let the tradesman do it - I'm handy with DIY and was happy to pay 'the man' to do this!

timnicebutdim_2

Good advice iven above. If you can find someone to fit it (sometimes they include it with the cost) and it's not too expensive then i'd go for that option if your not feeling that confident. Laying hardboard first is a must unless you have a nice smooth level surface below.

I wasn't too confident that I would achieve a neat finish by cutting around the cistern and sink so what I did was I removed both the toilet and sink (after turning the water off and removing the water from the cistern with a cup;not as difficult as it sounds!). Then I cut and laid the hardboard (a lot easier as the room is squarer and not as many obstacles; only the wastepipe, pipes and bath to negotiate) and before i nailed the board down i used the board as a template on the back of the vinyl leaving 10cm extra around the edges. Then i just cut the vinyl, laid it on top of the board, neatly cut around the edges of the room; the bath, pipes and waste pipe and then reconnected the sink and toilet. It gave a nice flush finish with the vinyl 'sweeping' under the units. One of my brighter DIY moments though! Not as difficult as it sounds but does require patience, a bit of help and a some hard graft

broonbear

let the professionals do it, trust me i'm a carpetfitter and vinyl in a bathroom is a really difficult task for a d i y enthusist. but if you want to try heres a few tips. your vinyl has 4 edges and a least 1 of them will be a straight edge [cut by a robot at the factory]. if you have a straight wall lay it off that if you can. the vinyl will be folded up the front of the toilet , with a stanley knife make a cut in the vinyl where it touches the pan straight up towards the edge of the vinyl , then make tiny slits as you start to feed it round the pan. get some hooked blades for your knife and insert your knife at an angle of about 70 to 80 degrees making sure the tip of your blade is where the skirting meets the floor and cut the chances are your thumb knuckle will be touching the skirting as you cut along . like i say if your bathroom is not huge it would cost anywhere between £15 to £40 for a professional to do it . good luck