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Simple enough to do with the right instructions and tools to hand, many homeowners derive great satisfaction from laying vinyl flooring themselves. However, even if you’re an experienced DIYer, there’s a good chance that anyone installing vinyl planking for the first time is going to make one or two mistakes along the way.
From poor plank alignment to forgetting to let your boards acclimatise to the room, there are plenty of steps, big and small, that, if forgotten, can seriously impact the end quality of your newly laid floor – which is exactly why we’ve made this vinyl flooring mistakes guide!
Covering all the top tips on how to avoid common mistakes made when installing vinyl plank flooring, as well as potential solutions and workarounds if they do happen, with our expert advice, you should find laying your new vinyl flooring that much straightforward.
Key vinyl flooring mistakes to avoid
Ready to get started with your installation? Excellent! Whether you’re laying standard LVT flooring or vinyl, or its more modern click-lock alternative, here are the key vinyl flooring mistakes to avoid before and during the plank laying process:
1. Not correctly measuring your floor space
First up, an obvious but important one – it’s absolutely essential that you correctly measure your floor space before you buy your planks, let alone start work. Simply put, if you don’t do this, then you won’t know how many planks to buy in the first place, which may leave you unable to finish your floor once you’ve started or with far too many extra planks at the end.
So, to get around this problem, make sure you measure your room before you start, and then measure it again, and then measure it a third time, just to be absolutely sure that you know the full square footage of your room and the amount of flooring you’ll need. You can even order a few extra planks on top to account for any cutting errors you might make to accommodate any awkward corners or spaces.
See our guide on how to measure your room for flooring for more information.
2. Not using the right installation tools
Next up, no self-respecting DIY enthusiast would start any project without gathering all the tools they need beforehand. And for vinyl flooring, this means buying or hiring a vinyl cutting saw and a jigsaw, and getting hold of some floor spacers and a tapping block to ensure a correct fit.
Although vinyl might be a relatively thin material, this does not mean it can simply be snapped by hand or cut with a Stanley knife, and proper tools should be used to ensure that any cuts or grooves you need to make are clean and don’t result in any jagged edges that prevent proper plank fitting.
3. Ignoring correct subfloor preparation
By far one of the most common mistakes made when installing vinyl plank flooring, not properly preparing your subfloor can spell disaster for the lifespan and comfort of your new floor. Your subfloor naturally needs to be level, which means clearing away any debris and smoothing out any lumps or dips before your planks go down.
Unfortunately, unlike plank preparation and tool acquisition, there is no workaround here when it comes to subfloor preparation, and everything must be done before you begin your installation. Otherwise, you’ll have to pull up your newly laid floor, correct your subfloor, and then re-lay your boards again!
For more advanced DIYers, you can level your own subfloor; however, if you’re not confident you’ll be able to do this correctly, then it’s best to get expert help for this step.
4. Ignoring any underlay requirements
While not an essential step for all vinyl and LVT flooring, if your vinyl requires an underlay to be placed beneath it, then make sure you put one down so that your planks are not being placed directly onto your subfloor.
A good underlay is a necessity for many types of vinyl flooring, helping to keep your boards moisture-free while also adding a bonus layer of comfort underfoot. So, if your vinyl boards of choice don’t already come with an underlay attached, make sure you find a suitable one for your project before you start putting your planks down – not after!
Shop different types of underlay with Flooring King to find the perfect fit for your new vinyl flooring.
5. Using an incorrect adhesive
A necessity for installing both a separate LVT underlay, and for laying non-click LVT boards, finding the right type of flooring adhesive for both these tasks will ensure that your new underlay and flooring will remain firmly attached to your floor once set.
While it might not occur to you when you’re buying your floor installation supplies, not all flooring adhesives out there are well-suited for use with vinyl, and a low-strength adhesive could result in your planks peeling, or even worse, coming away entirely. Always double-check that the adhesive you’re using is made for vinyl; there’s no harm in asking an expert for a product recommendation if you’re unsure.
6. Rushing your installation
Installing a new floor in your home is not a quick task. The bigger the room, the more time it’s going to take to complete, and the more tempted you might be to cut corners to get it finished sooner.
However, rushing the fitting of your new floor is a surefire road to disaster, almost guaranteeing that mistakes will be made and likely leaving your floor looking scruffy and unpolished by the end.
Again, there is no workaround or repair solution here. A badly installed floor is a badly installed floor. Instead, take your time, double-check your measurements and plank fittings as you go, and be methodical – it might take more time, but you’ll thank yourself when it’s finally done.
7. Not staggering your planks
If you want your vinyl floor to look as natural as possible, then correctly staggering the layout of your planks is an absolute must. If you don’t, your new floor may appear unnatural, and your planks will be more likely to separate after installation.
Thankfully, if you’re laying click LVT flooring and you’ve already started the process, this can be easily rectified by detaching your planks and starting again. But if you’re using glue-down LVT, this will require a little more effort, including the removal of your laid boards, the cleaning of their backs, and then beginning from square one.
As for proper plank staggering, you’ll want to lay your board in alternating rows, leaving a minimum of six inches difference in alignment between your new row and the one you just laid, and cutting planks down to accommodate the smaller length requirements at either end.
8. Not leaving room for expansion
As you go about your vinyl plank installation, one essential step you don’t want to forget is to insert regular spacers between your new boards and the room edge to create what’s known as an expansion gap.
No matter how hard you try, any type of planked floor is going to be affected by changes in moisture and temperature, and they’ll likely expand by a few millimetres once laid.
So, if you haven’t already, go back and trim the end planks for each row you’ve laid to leave a 5-6mm expansion gap, and then shift your floor the same distance away from your chosen starting side wall. Insert your spaces, check that your floor is stable, and then continue laying the rest of your planks.
9. Not accounting for room transitions
More of an aesthetic mistake than a direct installation problem, forgetting about room transitions until after your new floor is laid can often lead to jarring visual breaks from one room to the next.
Fortunately, this is something that’s easily solved with the right transition strip; however, one thing you don’t want to skip before this is trimming the underside of your doorway edges.
Doing so will not only ensure that your new planks fit correctly, but that your transition strip sits flush on both sides of the doorframe, and it’s definitely best done well before you finish your full installation.
10. Starting on the same side as your door
Although you can technically start re-flooring a room from any wall or corner, typical best practice states that you should always start on the longest wall at the furthest point away from the door.
Essentially, doing this will make it easier to get a better flooring fit, and it means you won’t have to start by making awkward cuts and grooves to boards until the end of the project in order to smoothly slot them around and into your doorframe.
Now, obviously, if you’ve already started your fitting and have completed your first row in the same wall as your door, that’s fine – it will be easier to continue laying them than starting again. However, if you have yet to start laying, make sure you double-check which wall you plan to start from before you begin.
11. Not letting your planks breathe
Much like when fully installed, vinyl flooring also needs time to breathe and adjust to the particular temperature and humidity of a room before you actually lay it down. Otherwise, you may experience similar expansion issues to not using floor spacers during installation.
Make sure you order your planks to arrive well ahead of your planned installation date, and then leave them in the relevant room for the recommended time so that they can properly adapt to the new environment.
12. Not listening to the experts
Last, but not least, while it might be exciting to jump straight into your installation, it absolutely pays off to listen to the advice of experts throughout the entirety of the installation process.
Whether that’s following a step-by-step visual guide or watching a detailed tutorial video, make sure you have instructions to hand that you can refer to when you need to, so that you can keep any potential mistakes to a minimum.
Find the perfect vinyl flooring in our collection
And there you have it; those are the most common vinyl flooring mistakes made when laying floors yourself, meaning you should be able to avoid or mitigate them ahead of the fitting date.
If you do make a mistake, the important thing is to stay calm, work backwards to rectify it if you can, and if it proves too tricky for you to handle, then don’t be ashamed to call an expert for help you complete your project.
Of course, no new flooring installation can start without buying the vinyl flooring in to begin with. In which case, you should head over to the Flooring King range today to see what we have on offer!
For more tips on using vinyl flooring, including how to cut vinyl around objects and how to remove your old vinyl flooring, check out our flooring advice guides.
