Nope ,the stuff I laid had snap lock T&G. That sounds scary to me. hope it goes good .

Get a centerline of your room and rip the first and last row,so you don't get a tiny narrow rip at the far side, but you know that, don't mean to tell you how to do it.

Herb

 

go ahead and tell him Herb...
it'd be out of character not to...

 

Hi Chuck, I did a floor approx 10 x 18 four or five years ago. It turned out very well and while it was not super easy, it was not that difficult either. After doing the first two or three joints you kind of get the hang of it. Just follow the directions for layout and take your time and it should turn out great!

 

Thanks Wes.

 

I thught you would have that floor done by now and be reporting back.:grin::grin:

Herb

 

I'm going to be helping my son lay some vinyl plank style tile in a basement bathroom. This is the stuff with a lap style joint system where the top of the tongue has adhesive on it and the underside of the flap on the backside also has adhesive. Seems to me I've read that these can be tricky to get lined up before the adhesive grabs so I'm curious if any members have experience with them and any tricks or suggestions to offer.

...knee pads...patience...no foul language...

I hate that stuff...sorry, no other suggestions...

 

:surprise:Every time I contemplate doing flooring, me knees remind me that 'WE DON"T DO THAT, ANYMORE"!:no::no::no:

 

what part of ''sub it out'' did you not remember a longtime ago....

 

Well son didn't have the old flooring off yet so hopefully we'll start by tomorrow afternoon.

 

I presume there is vinyl/linoleum over underlayment. on the subfloor. Will the new flooring be the same thickness or do you have to lay new underlayment too?

Herb

 

His old floor was glued to the concrete. The new flooring instructions didn't mention underlay I don't think. This type floor floats like laminate does but because it's vinyl it may not need it.

 

The one I laid last time was on concrete and they recommended this 1/8" foam underlayment . It acted like a moisture barrier and under layment. That floor floats too.

Herb

 

I'll check and make sure first.

 

Chuck, we were in HD a few weeks ago looking at the various vinyl type floorings. The one you speak of interested us considerably.

I asked number 1 son (who is in the reno biz and does many floors) and he seemed to think that many of the click together types only have a very small locking section, and that if anything went out of line they would actually come apart.

He has done a couple of the glue together ones, and he says he prefers them. I didn't ask him about any underlay. But I do recall the HD sales person showing us the thin foam underlay...so I guess that is what is recommended.

Maybe give them a quick call first.

Please let us know how you make out with this, perhaps a photo or two.

 

The supplier said that the warranty depended on putting the underlayment down if it was in a moisture prone install/ below grade. The specs for the foam called for it to be run 2" up the wall and covered by the base, and taped continuous on the overlap seams. When I lay any bathroom floor I run a fine bead of caulk around under the base board to keep any water from migrating under and then under the flooring in the event of a toilet overflow. It is hard to dry out standing water trapped under the flooring.

Herb

 

Well son and I finished the floor a while back and it turned out fairly good by my standards. I had tried to review this a couple of weeks ago but my keyboard quit responding near the end and I lost it all so here goes again. As stated, the vinyl tiles were the type with an adhesive coated (ship) lap system. The vinyl is thick, two layers perhaps a 16th thick each I would guess and the vinyl is relatively stiff and was a bit difficult to score with a good utility knife. I had to make multiple passes like I would with a laminate knife before I could snap them on the line. The tiles are two layers that are bonded together but are offset to each other which forms the laps. The adhesive is a type of contact cement which is fairly unforgiving if you don't get them lined up right to start with.

I read what Keith said about his #1 son's contractor experience with just lining up the corners of the tiles by hand and eye but I found the adhesive to be a little too aggressive to try that. I opted to use a method that I use when I glue laminate down and that is to use a paper in between the glues. The tiles come packed with sheets of tissue paper between each sheet and we used it between the glue strips to keep the tiles from bonding to each other until we knew they were in position. Once we had the paper and tile in place we would lift the corner of the paper back and tear the paper just enough so that we could see if the next and last tiles were matched at the corners. That was about as good a test for fit as I could figure out. The tiles were really close to perfect but I'm not sure they were perfect as we would up with very small gaps here and there (less than a 64th but enough to show a black line). I tried starting with a chalkline but the overlap from tile to tile turned out to be different so lining up the corners and making sure that the gaps between adjacent tiles was as tight as possible wound up to be as good a method as any.

One pic shows how we used the paper to separate the tiles. The second shows how we tore the corners of the paper to make sure the corners matched.

I would recommend this tile for many applications. My son's basement floor was uneven, whether original or from shifting I don't know. He had to do some grinding with an angle grinder and diamond wheel to get rid of the humps and it still wasn't flat but the tile conformed enough that you couldn't tell. His tile was a gray color and I suggested that he try filling in the minor gaps with a gray children's crayon in order to eliminate the dark lines.

 

Good thinking on the putting paper to keep the glue from contacting. That is different material than I imagined. I thought you were laying flooring like the 1/4" snap together planks, this is a lot like VAT plank, only with a lap joint and floats.

Good job looks nice, a new floor sure dresses up a room.

Herb