How do you lay vinyl flooring on old vinyl flooring?

Answer 1

Industry standards allow for vinyl to be laid directly over existing vinyl as long as the existing is the only layer. To do so the existing vinyl needs to be free of cracking or curling. Because vinyl is very plyable any defects in the floor will telegraph into the new sheet. To prep the floor you must strip it of any remaining residue. Armstrong makes a good product called "New Beginnings" and can be found in most home improvement stores. Once the floor is stripped, you need to emboss it. Any pattern in the old floor will ultimately show through onto the new pattern. Embossing leveler is put on with the flat side of a trowel. You don't need to put a thick layer. You drag the trowel along the floor leaving only enough to fill in the old pattern. This will dry very quickly, usually within an hour but up to 2. If the old floor is cracking or curling but is the only layer and not over concrete, you can lay a new 1/4" sub floor. In the past people used luann for sub floor. Most luann today you can buy in Home Depot or Lowes don't meet the quality standards required for a sub floor. Instead you need to buy 1/4" smooth on one side BC pine ply. It is usually close in price to luann. The plywood needs to be nailed down with a galvanized flat head spiral nail. The seams of the boards and tops of nail heads need to be patched and smoothed over with a high quality wood filler. Once that had dried you will need to lightly sand the areas to make sure the entire floor is very smooth. Any area you have even a minor defect will show through to the new floor. Assuming you are using a full spreed sheet vinyl, you will want to cut the vinyl before you move it to the room. If this is a bathroom or small kitchen, you can make a pattern using rosin paper. Be careful, cut wrong and it cannot be repaired. I would always buy the vinyl manufacturer's recommended adhesive. The container will tell you the size trowel you need. This is very important to follow. Trowels ensure you put the right amount of adhesive down. Too much or too little can cause the floor to fail. Starting and the back of the room, trowel adhesive making semi circles. Work your way out of the room. You need to let the adhesive dries. It will go from a paste like substance to a Chewing Gum feel. ****Very important to allow this to dry**** Starting at the front of the room you take the vinyl which has now been rolled in reverse. Roll this out into the room. Hopefully you have cut this out in advance. Make sure once the floor is laid you roll the entire floor with a 100 lb roller to ensure all air bubbles are out. The edges of the floor at the wall and door need trim to make sure they do not curl with time. If you already have wall base 3/4" is shoe or quarter round will do fine. Otherwise you can use new wall base.

Answer 2

Glued down vinyl is put on an underlayment. Coming in sheets like plywood, this is put down first to give a smooth and level surface to glue to. All seams between the boards need to be filled with a compound and sanded level. Make sure that all nails or screws are in solid and the heads don't protrude. They can cut through the vinyl in a matter of days if not level or below the surface, if the head is below then the hole needs to be filled level. Glue down the vinyl, starting at the center of the room for squares and work outward.

Answer 3

Now why do people add questions about things that are impossible to explain in text? I could as well ask: "What does Barack Obama look like?". Well anyways, i think you should go to a place that sells vinyl floors, and ask them.

Answer 4

If you don't remove carpeting first, wow, let's see. You'd still need some kind of sub-flooring, which wouldn't be sub since you'd be putting the 'sub' on top of carpet on top of existing sub-flooring. The big problem with that idea--actually problems are these:

• Inserting a sub flooring on top of carpeting then traps ALL moisture, water, insects, dust and mites that are in the carpet... so you could end up with a mold problem between the two sets of sub-flooring
• If you have a water leak later, water will move to an area of least resistance--- the carpeting and carpet padding!
• If you have mold, water leak, or any other problem later, you'll need to remove the vinyl flooring, top sub flooring, and carpet anyway.
• If you install a sub on top of carpet on top of padding on top of the original sub-flooring, you will raise the floor! The floor door jams will be higher... so you'll need to cut into the ends of the door jams too. Your doors won't open and close over a raised floor, so doors would need cut or shaved down...
• One big headache as far as I can imagine it.

Why not just remove the base-boards or base woodwork, remove the carpet and padding, clean up staples and debris, check the original sub-flooring for wood integrity, and THEN use that base for installing your vinyl flooring? You'd finish up by re-installing floor door jams and baseboards/woodwork. Re-check opening and closing of doors-- add door sweeps if there are gaps between the door and new floor. It'll be less costly to do labor of removing the old carpet yourself. Rehanging doors, re-installing baseboards/woodwork, and door sweeps is very inexpensive, except labor, but if you use a marking system when you remove baseboards, it's simple to re-install them. (Mark Wall A with an A where the baseboard would hide your marking, and mark that baseboard on the BACK with an A, etc. so you have each one and each Wall marked in order as you go around the room.)

Before deciding what to do, get 3 estimates from reputable floor and tile installers. They can explain why it might be better to just remove the carpet and padding.

Answer 5

The method for installing Vinyl Flooring depends on factors like type of Vinyl and type of floor. Generally, you want to make sure the floor is clean before you install the Vinyl. Allow room for adjustment. Allow for there to be an overhang of 3 inches on all edges of the floor. Cut the sheeting so that it could fold properly. After you install it, walk on the flooring in order to check for bumps and other inconsistencies.

Answer 6

If it's very good quality vinyl sheeting, lay it on. If lesser quality or thin, glue it all over with vinyl glue.