Vinyl Tile "repair"

[Stephen Gower]

Once we finally got the many layers of carpet up, we discovered that the concrete floor is covered throughout with vinyl tiles. Now, basically, these provide a decent surface for laying new surfaces (carpet/laminate/whatever) on, and I really don't want to lift the lot of them. However, some of them have broken and come away (mostly where the previous carpets were nailed down), so I'm left with a 1/2-tile. I'm hoping to fill the gaps with a self-leveling compound of some sort. Does anyone have any recommendations of what to use, or is this a stupid thing to be attempting? Many thanks!

[Mike Faithfull]

Just been there, done that, and been disappointed. The self-levelling compound was judged unnecessary by the local builders merchants, and they advised me to use a cement-rich mortar mix which would "do the job and be much less expensive". On reflection, I *should* have gone with my first instinct to buy some cheap self-adhesive vinyl floor tiles from one of the sheds and cut them to size to fill the gaps. I would commend that approach to you. With new carpet or vinyl over the top of them, the odd few mm gap won't be noticed, so the cutting and fitting need not be overly painstaking and time-consuming.