Joints in vinyl flooring

[keiron99]

Vinyl flooring (off a roll) looks like it might be the best bet for our new kitchen/dining/utility area. However, because of the odd shape of the space and the maximum width of 4m of vinyl, there will have to be

2 or 3 joins, and quite long ones at that.

My question is - just how naff, if naff at all, will those joints look? There's no way of escaping the fact that one of them will go right across a highly visible area. Will it be obvious, and is it likely to prove problematic (coming apart etc) in the long term?

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Never had the inclination to stick this down in a kitchen. Have you ever walked on this stuff when its wet from cleaning it with a mop....woooosh! this has got to go. :-)

[Grunff]

Just how big is this room??

You can get vinyl at 5m width, but they order it in. Avoid joins if at all possible, and if not, then minimise. With a 5m width, you would only ever need 1 join for rooms where the smaller dimension is 10m or less. That's a *big* room.

[manatbandq]

Just like ceramic tiles or lino, then. Do you have any experience of it? A mop implies you are using far too much water. It works just fine in practice.

MBQ

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Experience? my girlfreind has after calling me all the names under the sun for not telling her the floor was damp from cleaning it.(vinyl was down when i moved into house).

As for mopping had 3 years experience as a deckhand. :-)

It only has to be damp and you can go sliding on your arse.

A squeezy type mop is best suited for tiles...whats Lino?

[Bookworm]

I had the problem but the other way round. My kitchen small but odd shape meant 50% waste on 4 m roll. Using the roll the other way with joins would have saved the waste.

Fitters wouldnt touch joins with a bargepole they said! Joins will show and will crack with age. Thats what they said.

[Simon Stroud]

If you want a "vinyl" kind of finish, have you considered something like Karndean

or the apparently vastly more expensive Amtico?

Very good for doing strangely shaped rooms of arbitrary size. I have used it (Karndean) in two bathrooms with great success, and 5 years later it is still looking great. If we ever get round to doing up the kitchen I wouldn't hesitate to use it there. Search for my previous posts for more info!

One example of my previous attempts: