How to Install Vinyl Tile in a Bathroom

Vinyl tile isn't considered as fine a material for bathroom floors as hard tiles like ceramic or marble, but it's much easier to lay, and a lot less expensive. It's a good choice for a secondary bathroom or kids' bath. The process of laying the tiles is the same as that of any other floor, except you have to remove the toilet first, tile around the toilet floor drain, and re-set the toilet over the tiles. Using self-adhesive tiles makes the project go that much easier.

Things You'll Need

• Wrench
• Tape measure
• Chalk snapline
• Carpenter's square
• Vinyl self-adhesive floor tiles
• Utility knife
• Caulk

Instructions

1. Turn off the water supply line from behind the toilet, at the valve. Use a wrench to disconnect the line from the toilet. Remove the floor bolts holding the toilet base onto the floor. Carry the toilet out of the room, leaving the exposed floor drain.

2. Divide the floor into four quadrants with your chalk snapline, laying two intersecting lines across the middle of the room. Use your square to adjust the lines a needed be perpendicular to each other.

3. Remove the wax paper from the back of a tile. Set the tile at the intersection, bordered by the two lines.

4. Pull the paper off a second tile and set it next to the first one. Get them tightly butted together.

5. Continue laying tiles off each other, working out from the middle toward the edges of the room in a grid pattern. Install all the full tiles that will fit, leaving open the edges of the room and the space around the toilet floor drain.

6. Cut tiles for the area around the floor drain by setting the loose tiles over the drain, tracing the drain's curve onto each tile with a pencil, then cutting around the curved line (freehand) with your knife. Peel of the paper and set the tile around the drain. The cuts don't have to be perfect because the toilet drain will cover the tiles.

7. Cut the tiles for the perimeter of the room using your utility knife. Score the tiles along your square, then by bend them until they break. Lay then with the cut sides facing the walls.

8. Reinstall the toilet, tightening the floor bolts and hooking up the water line. Run a bead of caulk around the toilet base where it meets the tiles.

References

• This Old House: Laying Self-Stick Tiles