Vinyl Flooring Tips
Read these 7 Vinyl Flooring Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Flooring tips and hundreds of other topics.
3 Tips for Removing Vinyl Flooring
Replacing vinyl flooring is an arduous task that shouldn't be entered into without proper preparation and planning. Having done this myself let me offer you a few tips on how to make the job easier. Here are some vinyl flooring tips: • Get a Stripper – Easy… I mean a chemical stripper. You will want to get a strong chemical to eat away the adhesive seal between the floor and the vinyl flooring. Be sure to get a hook knife and score the surface of the vinyl at any cracks before applying the stripper. Once applied…. • Get a Long-Handled Scraper – These heavy duty blade surfaces are essential to getting the eroded vinyl flooring up after you have applied the chemicals. It is all about leverage, so get a long handle. Preferable, you should purchase a scraper with a foot press to provide you extra strength behind each effort. • Protect Yourself – When using a chemical to strip up the floors, use a mask to protect yourself from the caustic fumes. Also, wear goggles when scraping the floor. Pieces of vinyl flooring can shoot up at any time and catch you in the eye. As I have also been a victim of this, I cannot stress it enough… it hurts.
Regular Cleaning of Vinyl Flooring
One of the many advantages to vinyl flooring is the ease with which you can keep it clean. Vinyl flooring is not a very porous surface, which means that dirt and grime have a hard time settling in. Here is a great plan for extending the life of your vinyl flooring by keeping it clean on a regular basis. • Sweep Regularly – Forget the vacuum. Because of the smooth surface of most vinyl flooring, you would be far better served with a regular old broom that vacuum. Vacuums can have a hard time actually suctioning the surface of vinyl flooring, but a broom will sweep everything into a nice pile. • Mop Monthly – At Least. Depending on the amount and type of traffic you have on your vinyl flooring, you may want to mop weekly. You will know soon after you install it how much cleaning will be necessary to keep the floors shiny. • Scrub Scarcely – The point of regular cleaning is to reduce the amount of “hands and knees” scrubbing you will need to do. Scrub the floors with a low abrasive only when absolutely necessary. Scrubbing the surface can scratch it which will only lead to more scrubbing. By sweeping and mopping regularly, you will certainly avoid over scrubbing.
Laying Laminate on Top of Vinyl Tile Flooring
If you are looking to replace your flooring but want to avoid the added labor of removing your existing flooring, don't worry. You may be able to simply apply your new floors over your existing ones. Specifically, you can often lat laminate wood flooring directly on top of existing vinyl tile floors. Too many people break their backs removing vinyl tile when they didn't have to in the first place. First, determine how level your existing floors are. You can use a long 2x4 piece of wood for this. Simply start at the center of the room and spin the board to the edges. If there are no large gaps between the floor and the board at any point, then your floors should be level enough to lay laminate right on top. Be sure to buy underlayment to provide some cushion between the existing vinyl tile flooring and the new laminate surface. This will also help level out any spots that may be slightly off. When the job is done, nobody will ever know that you saved yourself hours of work and stress by leaving the vinyl tile flooring instead of removing it.
Repairing Peeling Corners in Vinyl Flooring
Many older vinyl flooring surfaces age less gracefully than others. The most common problem with older vinyl flooring is when the corners and edges begin to peel up. This makes many people think that they need to replace it all, but this is not so. If your corners start to come up, here are a few simple fixes that will last. First, if we are truly talking about a corner and the surface is not too damaged, you can get some strong glue (Goop is my personal choice) and just tack the corners down. Use a Q-tip to carefully insert the glue only where you want it. If your problems are larger scale, such as an entire wall's worth of vinyl flooring peeling, think about doing a quarter-round border to hold it down for the future. Quarter round is inexpensive and can be painted to match your baseboards. Using an adhesive to tack these pieces to both the baseboard and the floor will give you a seal that will last a long time. Don't get too worried if you have small issues with older vinyl flooring. For more serious problems, consult with a local flooring expert to give you an estimate on your repairs.
Benefits of Armstrong Vinyl Flooring
Armstrong has been a leader in vinyl flooring for decades. There are many reasons why, but the most important one to you, the consumer, is their reliability and customer care. Armstrong vinyl flooring is made up of as good a composition of materials as any other manufacturer around, so the product is top notch. They go above the rest in other areas. When I ordered my vinyl flooring from Armstrong, I was met with a customer support mechanism that gave me one of the best purchasing experiences I have run into in my home renovation. All of the customer care lasts on through purchase, where you get a full warranty on your purchase. I have not needed to use my warranty because my Armstrong vinyl flooring has set in perfectly and has had no issues, but many people would like to know that there is a comfort level when ordering Armstrong vinyl flooring that few can match. Get a quote from Armstrong and see their service for yourself, first hand. You will agree that they not only make a great floor, but also take great care of their customers.
Creating Unique Patterns with Vinyl Tile Flooring
So you have chosen to use vinyl tile flooring on the floors of your room. Although vinyl tile flooring is nothing new to the marketplace, there are many new styles and advances in manufacturing that make vinyl tile flooring more customizable than ever before. Needs some vinyl flooring tips to help your selection process? First, take a look through the styles and colors that are available to you from your supplier. Just like with ceramic tile or stone, you can choose different sizes and textures to make for very unique patters. Check with your supplier to see if they can provide you with samples to take back to your space before buying. When you have you samples and a sketch of your area, start designing. Most people choose certain symmetry in their styles and patterns. You can go wild with vinyl tile flooring because it is so easy to lay out the entire plan first, step back, and then decide for sure whether this one is a keeper or if it is back to the drawing board. Once you have gotten your pattern down to a certainty, you just need to peel the backs of your tiles and start sticking. In only a few days time you can have a new floor that you did yourself and that is totally unique to anything else around.
Congoleum – A Revolution in Resilient Floor
Many people don't know what congoleum or resilient flooring is. Basically, unlike older vinyl or linoleum flooring, resilient flooring is a man made combination of several polymer materials. It is from these combinations and mixtures that congoleum has created a revolution in flooring. The ability to produce a wide variety of flooring colors, designs, textures, and sizes makes congoleum a great solution for any remodeling project. The materials that are mixed create such a durable surface that there are now several manufacturers that license congoleum to produce their own brands of flooring. You can find a variety of congoleum floors by shopping the Internet or your local flooring outlet. With so many patterns and styles available, you are sure to find the perfect solution for your needs.
| Guru Spotlight |
| George Sayour |
