How to Cover a Vinyl Floor
If that old vinyl floor in your home is worn and outdated, but not peeling up, you have a few options for covering it. Carpeting requires professional installers; tiling over it with ceramic, or installing hardwood, requires preparation work to install the underlayment. One easy, good-looking option you can do yourself is to lay a floating floor over it. These are clip-together floors that don't connect to the house in any way, and don't disturb the floor under it. So, if that vinyl pattern ever comes back in style, you can uncover it. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Prybar
- Hammer
- Foam underlayment
- Utility knife
- Duct tape
- Laminate floating-floor kit
- 3/8-inch plastic spacers for the walls (with the kit)
- Miter saw
- Table saw
- Trim nails
Instructions
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1
Pry off the floor trim around the perimeter of the floor with a hammer and prybar, keeping it intact. Tap the nails out of the boards with your hammer.
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2
Roll foam underlayment over the floor in rows, starting at the longest wall and working your way across the room. Cut the ends as needed with a utility knife. Tape the edges together with plastic underlayment tape (if it came with your kit) or duct tape.
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3
Set a line of floor planks along the long wall, snapping the ends together and setting them so the grooved side faces the wall. Put plastic spacers every few feet along the wall to hold the planks out from the wall by 3/8-of an inch. This allows the boards to expand with environmental changes.
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4
Install the rest of the flooring by clipping the boards together at their tongue-and-groove edges, cutting the ends as necessary to fit against the sidewalls. Stagger the arrangement of the boards from course to course so they don't line up. Length-cut the final course on a table saw so it fits against the far wall, leaving a 3/8-inch gap there.
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5
Remove the plastic spacers around the edges of the floor at the walls. Re-install your floor trim to cover the gaps at the walls. Hammer trim nails into the same holes where the nails were before.
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Tips & Warnings
Wear goggles when cutting the board.
