How to lay and fit roll vinyl flooring

Fitting your vinyl flooring yourself

Fitting vinyl flooring is a relatively simple DIY task. Modern roll vinyls offer a superb quality fit and their comfort and versatility mean they are suitable for anywhere in the home.

If your floor is an uneven concrete or screed floor, use a self levelling compound to smooth out the surface to ensure an even fit. For wooden floors, again, ensure all obstacles are attended to before fitting, like loose or prominent nails, or loose boards. Remove all debris and dust by sweeping or vacuuming and if there is evidence of damp, you will need to fit a waterproof membrane before installation.

There is no need to fit underlay with vinyl flooring, as it will already have a integral felt or foam backing to absorb sound and provide insulation and comfort. Please note, vinyl flooring is not suitable for fitting on stairs. Most vinyls are suitable for underfloor heating, but must be fitted over a screed, and the heating must be turned off during installation and re-introduced slowly, over a period of days to allow your new flooring to acclimatise.

No specialist equipment is required, but you will need a tape measure, a cutting tool, for example a Stanley knife, and you will also need some form of adhesive to secure the edges and prevent movement.

Fitting vinyl flooring

Vinyl needs to acclimatise to its surroundings. Roll out the vinyl in the room for at least 24 hours prior to fitting and only fit in a warm ambient temperature to maintain it’s flexibility and ease of fitting. This will also ensure that any slight expansion, or contraction in the material will settle to allow you to achieve a prefect fit. Turn off any underfloor heating (and only return it to temperature gradually, over a period of a few days after fitting).

Once your vinyl flooring has acclimatised, manoeuvre it into position and roll it out to fill the room. You may need help with this for larger rooms due to the weight of the material.

Start by gently manoeuvring the vinyl into the opposite corners of the room leaving an equal excess of material on each side. Smooth out any creases, or wrinkles and ensure the vinyl is completely flat before trimming the edges.

Crease the vinyl into the edges of the room, forcing it into a 90 degree bend and trim off any excess to leave approximately 5-10cm remaining, which you will trim later.

Work all around the room, pulling and smoothing, until no creases remain.

You will need to adhere the vinyl to the floor around the edges and where there are any joins. Use double sided flooring tape, or a spray glue, or a combination of both if your floor is porous.

Fit the tape, then work around the room, cutting off the excess vinyl with a sharp knife, or a vinyl cutting tool. Then, secure it at the edges to the flooring tape.

Finally, if fitting in a wet environment, you will need to seal the edges with a bead of sanitary grade silicone. If you have room, tuck the flooring beneath the skirting boards, or you can opt to remove and refit the skirtings (or fit new skirtings) over the top of the vinyl. This will give an even better finish… or a simpler method is to use scotia beading around the perimeter of the room, but again, always use silicone to seal the edges in wet rooms.

Further information

Take a look on YouTube and you will find numerous helpful videos to assist you and to give you further confidence to tackle what is essentially, a fairly straight forward DIY job. Good luck!