How to Install Vinyl Flooring

In this video, This Old House general contractor Tom Silva lays down a vinyl sheet floor.

Steps for installing vinyl flooring

1. Make a template of the floor using felt paper.
2. Use utility knife to cut the template roughly around the room. Tape together the felt paper pieces to form a single, room-size template.
3. Cut several triangular-shaped holes into the template with a utility knife, then tape the template down to the floor.
4. Hold the 2-inch-wide leg of a framing square against the wall, and mark the inside edge of the square onto the felt template. Slide the square down the wall and repeat until you’ve marked the entire room perimeter onto the template.
5. In another room, tape together several 4×4-foot sheets of ¼-inch plywood underlayment.
6. Lay the felt-paper template on top of underlayment, and use a framing square to transfer the template’s shape onto the underlayment. Be sure to mark along the outside edge of the framing square.
7. Fill all voids, cracks and holes in existing kitchen floor with use underlayment filler. Smooth out the filler with a 6-inch-wide putty knife.
8. Use a circular saw to cut the underlayment along the template lines.
9. Nail down underlayment using 1¼-inch-long ring-shanked nails; space the nails 4 inches apart.
10. Lay the template onto the vinyl sheet floor and use the framing square to trace its outline onto the vinyl floor. Again, be sure to mark along the outside edge of the framing square.
11. Carefully cut the vinyl floor along the template lines using a sharp utility knife fitted with a hook blade.
12. Spread vinyl-flooring adhesive around the perimeter of the room with a 1/16-inch V-notch trowel.
13. Set the vinyl flooring down onto the underlayment, making sure you firmly press it down into the adhesive.
14. Install flexible vinyl cove baseboard to the walls around the room perimeter using vinyl flooring adhesive or vinyl cove mastic.
15. Fasten metal transition molding across the threshold where the new vinyl floor meets the existing floor in the adjacent room.

Tools