Vinyl Flooring

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Vinyl flooring is really cheap. And I mean really cheap. It typically costs 5-10 pounds per square metre, and with my kitchen only needed 6 sqaure metres of the stuff my floor cost me a grand total of 38 pounds.

The only drawback was that I decided to ensure that the flooring stayed cheap by fitting it myself!

So how do you fit Vinyl flooring?

It isn't an easy job as you generally only get one shot at cutting the whole sheet correctly. However I discovered a few pointers that should help.

First of all make sure the entire kitchen is cleared out. That means taking out all the appliances you can (I only left the cooker as that was connected to the gas supply) and then giving the floor a good clean. Any lumps or bumps will easily show through the Vinyl flooring. I was lucky enough to be covering over some old plastic style tiles, they looked horrible but they were flat and undamaged.

Measuring out the Vinyl Floor.

Again I was rather lucky as my kitchen only had one edge that was visible (i.e had a skirting board rather than a kitchen appliance or a cupboard unit). Therefore I simply squared the Vinyl flooring up to this edge and rolled the carpet out as much as I could.

The flooring unrolled until it hit the cooker, where I needed to cut out a significant portion. However I made sure that I could tuck the Vinyl flooring UNDERNEATH the cooker after it was cut.

The Vinyl flooring then just had to be trimmed to fit underneath the cupboards and to get around the cupboards. My kitchen has a removable plinth that runs along the bottom of all the cupboards, so this hid all the rough cuts that I had made.

Not enough Vinyl?

Unfortunately I had measured incorrectly and for one small section of the kitchen the Vinyl flooring was not wide enough. No matter I just took out a roll of paper and traced out the size of the piece I needed. Then placed it over a Vinyl off-cut and cut the section to size, using a heavy flat surface to cut against to ensure a good straight edge.

I glued the area around this join down with some 'No more nails' glue, available from all DIY stores. Luckily the section in question is usually hidden by a bin anyway:.

Making the Vinyl lie properly

After I had the sections cut properly I needed to make some final 'subtle' adjustments to the lie of the flooring. This involved putting my shoes on (for grip) and then jumping and pushing on the Vinyl flooring until it was square against the wall, and all wrinkles had come out of it.

Putting the Appliances back with damaging the floor

I didn't realise it, but this was the hard part! Vinyl flooring is cheap, and it is easily damaged, and so dragging a heavy washing machine over the top of it would just rip it to shreds.

To help prevent any damage to the Vinyl flooring I took some thin hardboard and then cut it to the same size as the appliances. I then borrowed an extra pair of arms and lifted the appliances close to their final positions (using an old carpet underneath to prevent scratches on the floor). Then simply mounted them onto the hardboard and slid them into place.

I then placed an extra bit of hardboard to the side of the washing machine, to lay down incase I ever have to pull it out in a hurry. I don't want a ripped Vinyl floor!