Vinyl Flooring - A Couple of Questions

Hello.

Thought I'd go for vinyl flooring in the bathroom.

It's only 6 m2 so thought I'd go for some decent quality stuff.

Can anyone recommend some makes please. I'm hoping for stuff that's durable and won't fade.

Also, I want to replace the skirting boards. Are these normally placed on top of the vinyl/ply or would a good fitter be able to cut the vinyl against the board?

Thanks very much. Kirk out.

Reply to
Bill
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Bill wibbled on Monday 16 November 2009 12:07

Yes and yes.

If you have the choice, fit the skirting leaving a 1/4" gap. Even if you fit before, the fitter (provided you tell him first) should be able to get the vinyl under the skirting. This is the idea - then fill the gap with a decent silicon, either clear or a colour to match the skirting. This will give you a good seal against water getting trapped under the skirting and staining/rotting it.

Another trick is to put down some ali angle - about 10mm x 10mm x thin (unimportant). Back top the wall, base glue to floor with silicone. Lap vinyl over the base section and fit skirting over the lot. eg

I=wall

- | = Ali = = Vinyl

  • = skirting

I * I * I|* I|========== Vinyl I----- Ali

That will be bombproof. It's overkill perhaps, but's what I do for the bath panel (stops water running under the bath) but it will continue to work even if the silicon fails. You're probably fine with a good plug of silicone though, which I certainly wouldn't do without personally...

Reply to
Tim W

Rhinofloor

I have bought it twice. The first lot has now had twelve years hard labour and is still looking good

The third lot of vinyl I bought was some other brand, sorry I can't remember the name and I am not planning to lift it to find out. It cost as much as Rhinofloor so I rashly assumed that it would be comparable but it isnt. It has a much thinner surface which was damaged when I slid the washing machine in to place, it stretched after laying, it traps dirt and always looks slightly shabby. A bad buy

Get Rhinofloor

Anna

Reply to
Anna Kettle

Do you specifically want vinyl, or would lino be okay as well (they have a similar appearance, but vinyl is petroleum-based, while lino comes from linseed oil)? I've got Marmoleum lino in my bathroom, which is extremely durable, and looks good. You find it in lots of high wear places like hospitals, shops, and so on. Don't think that it's an institutional thing though - you can get a big range of colours and patterns to suit domestic use as well.

My floors were quite uneven, and fitting a skirting board first would have been quite tricky. Easier to fit the tiles, and then adjust the skirting to suit. As Tim mentions, do seal underneath the skirting to avoid water getting in. The vinyl/lino is waterproof, and with a slight slope in the wrong direction, any spilled water will disappear under the skirting and cause you problems.

dan.

Reply to
dent

IME the washing machine issue is the number one consideration with kitchen flooring, whereas in a bathroom you can get away with something less resilient

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Have you considered tile-type flooring such as Karndean (or the much more expensive Amtico)?

I have Karndean in both of my bathrooms and have been really pleased with it. It has now been down for about 8 years and looks as good as the day I fitted it. Actually it would look even better if I ever strip and re-apply the "dim glow protector" stuff. I only applied one lot of this, just after laying the floors, and TBH it never seems to have worn off!

One bathroom has square tiles in a a diagonal checkerboard pattern which I am very pleased with:

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other has the "wood plank" shaped tiles, also fitted at 45 degrees. Sorry, haven't got any decent pictures of that one.

This type of flooring is a pleasure to fit with the modern adhesive. With this type you apply the adhesive (with a special grooved trowel) and leave it to dry completely. This leaves an extremely tacky surface and the tiles drop very nicely into place. Far easier than the original "wet" adhesive which was a right old messy pain to work with.

BTW I fitted both lots myself - having something complicated like my checkerboard layout done by a "pro" would be reassuringly expensive!

Regards, Simon.

Reply to
Simon Stroud

Oops! Sorry, just checked one of my old posts on the same subject and remembered an important point ...

The Karndean range goes from a "domestic" product up to a significantly more expensive "commercial" range. The latter have "bevelled" edges which give an interesting texture to the floor but would probably NOT be a good idea to fit with a border like mine. The problem is you would be cutting tiles across the middle where they are thick. The border ones would then be thin at the edge (because of their bevelled edges) and you'd get a horrific step between the border and the main floor. Nasty!

I could be mistaken but I can't quite think of a way to make that work perfectly.

Regards, Simon.

Reply to
Simon Stroud

In article , Simon Stroud writes

Any tips for the marking and cutting of the curved border work?

Reply to
fred

Yep - take your time and cut it all and dry-fit it all before sticking anything down!

The tiles actually cut really easily with a very sharp Stanley type blade. You don't always have to get right through the whole thickness in one go - as long as you get through the strongest bit (which is the top textured surface layer) you can usually bend the tile "in half" and easily cut through the back layer which is much more "rubbery".

I can't quite remember exactly how I marked out where I was going to cut - I THINK it involved sticking on loads of good quality masking tape to give a nice surface to write on, and then marking it all carefully and just cutting freehand.

There are probably tricks and/or special tools used by the "pros" but I didn't have too much trouble. The best thing was if I cocked it all up I could still buy two more full lots of materials and have two more goes and STILL work out cheaper than the quote I had for a pro to do the install.

Good luck! Simon.

Reply to
Simon Stroud

In article , Simon Stroud writes

Did you fit the bath & shower then cut inside curves to match them or did you lay the tiles under the edge then lay the bath/shower on top? The latter seems the easier option.

Good point on the tiles being easier for us non-experts to diy, think I'll add that to the mix when choosing flooring for my kitchen.

Thanks for the tips and the materials recommendations, funnily enough, I'm seeing Amtico cheaper (on special) at around 15quid a sqm with Karndean at 18.

Reply to
fred

For the shower (which stands on an 18mm ply base) I did cut the flooring carefully to fit up to the edge of the tray. For the bath the side panel is of course removable so the flooring is a random wiggly shape under there and is hidden by the panel.

As per the Karndean instructions I fitted ply over the whole remaining floor with many many screws, filled all the holes etc and PVAed the lot. I think it was actually 9mm ply because Jewsons sent the wrong thickness - so the ply base didn't actually stick up too far above the finished floor. I gloss painted the edge of the ply base to give a nice surface to stick to and I stuck some of that PVC self adhesive strip over the small bit of ply and the bottom edge of the tray to cover it all up. Oh - finally a bead of sealant around the whole floor. Looks acceptable to me.

Here it is just after fitting ...

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now 8 years later it's still fine. The PVC strip is a little less white now but it's lasted really well.

In the second bathroom, where I used the wood-plank-effect Karndean, I didn't bother with the PVC strip - just left the painted ply edge visible. It doesn't look too bad ...

formatting link

Reply to
Simon Stroud

In article , Simon Stroud writes

Reply to
fred

Question: As these are tiles what stops water seeping between them and into the ply?

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Simon Stroud wibbled on Wednesday 18 November 2009 09:26

difficult place to get a nice finish on the upright bits.

Hope mine looks that good :)

Reply to
Tim W

Good question - never really thought about that and I haven't had any issues with water. It's WBP ply of course.

With 3 kids the floor gets very wet from time to time but there have been absolutely no problems.

Regards, Simon.

Reply to
Simon Stroud

Note sure about makes, but make sure you get non-slip vinyl if you don't want to do the splits when getting out of the bath. Simon.

Reply to
sm_jamieson

Thanks to everyone who replied.

Bill.

Reply to
Bill

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