Reuse vinyl flooring?

[Percival P. Cassidy]

We are about to redo our kitchen and plan to replace the sheet vinyl floor covering by hardwood or bamboo (which will also replace carpet in the dining room and another adjacent area).

How practical is it to reuse part of that vinyl (which is in good condition) in a small bathroom, assuming that we can pull the vinyl up without tearing it? On the small area I have tried, some of the backing remains stuck to the plywood underlay, so what we are able to pull up will be thinner than it was originally and perhaps of uneven thickness.

Perce

[valvejob]

Go green!

[Percival P. Cassidy]

The motivation was partly green and partly cheap. But if I can't achieve a smooth surface with the old stuff because of the varying thickness I'll have to buy new.

Perce

[Art]

Some vinyl flooring comes factory "stretched" and shrink after installation so they fit well. I don't know about your floor but it seems like a bad idea to me.

[Mike]

[Al Bundy]

"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote in news:udpni.360$jU2.244 @newsfe12.lga:

Once you get past this point, post back and ask. Be seein' ya--not :-)

[aemeijers]

Definitely falls in the 'life's too damn short' category, IMHO. If you aren't too fussy about patterns, and have a couple weeks lead time to keep stopping by the local flooring places, odds are you can find a roll end you can stand for under 100 bucks. If the existing vinyl is full glued and not just edge-glued, the odds of getting an undamaged section big enough are slim and none.

aem sends...

[mkirsch1]

Unless the original installation job was extremely poor, you will not be able to pull up enough vinyl in one piece to make a drink coaster, let alone cover a bathroom floor. It's glued down with some pretty tenacious stuff.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

The small section I've tried seems to peel up OK but leaves an uneven thickness of the backing material attached to the underlay. This is not a single layer of vinyl directly glued to the underlay but vinyl with some kind of soft backing material (could be an Armstrong product -- reminds me of what we used in a previous house), so the vinyl take some of that backing material with it while leaving part of the backing material behind. The killer as I see it will be the uneven thickness of the backing and the resulting inability to achieve a smooth enough surface in the new location.

Perce

[celticsoc]

I would simply plan on buying new. Even if you pull the old stuff up without damaging it, there will probably be adhesive stuck on parts of it, and the backing will not likely take new adhesive as well.

If you are looking to go inexpensive, you can often get enough vinyl tile for a small bathroom on clearance. You can also go to a jobber or odd lot place. The other option is Re-Store, run by Habitat for Humanity, if there is one by you.

[Chris Lewis]

According to Percival P. Cassidy :

It's doable if the existing vinyl is loose-lay, but that's fairly rare.

If it's a full blown glue-down as better quality jobs are, forget it.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

Sorry to disappoint you, Al, but I now have an untorn sheet of vinyl floor covering approx, 9' x 7', which is plenty for the bathroom in which I am thinking of using it.

The only question now is whether the uneven thickness (where varying amounts of the backing got left behind stuck to the underlayment) will be a problem. I suppose I could just lay it flat on the subfloor in the bathroom and decide whether it feels OK or not.

Perce

[gmorman]

Flip it over outside in the sun. Apply flooring adhesive with a flat trowel to the low spots in the backing and let it bake dry from the sun. If necessary, so this several times. You should have a fairly level finished floor after this. Also, scrape off any high spots. You wont be too happy if there are hills and valleys in it.

[Al Bundy]

"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote in news:Cfwsi.174$ [e-mail]:

Dissappointed? Not! Glad to see someone beat the system for once :-)