Before you use linoleum to cover your current floors, learn how to install linoleum flooring, including the right preparation and a reliable sealant.

The cut linoleum floor tiles can be placed around the room, carefully working into all four corners and along the room’s edges, to install linoleum flooring in your home.

This helpful guide outlines common mistakes you should avoid when installing a linoleum floor.

What is Linoleum Flooring?

Linoleum flooring is an affordable, durable, and long-lasting material made from canvas, linseed oil, powdered cork, pine resin, and mineral fillers. This material typically comes in sheets that must be cut by a professional to fit a particular room. A flooring adhesive is then used to secure the flooring material to the underlayment or current flooring in the room.

Because it is less expensive than some flooring options and has anti-microbial and biodegradable qualities, real linoleum is a common option for remodeling a space.

Tools Needed to Fit Your Vinyl Flooring

• Double sided tape (plasticizer-resistant)
• A sharp utility knife (Read More: How to Cut Vinyl Plank Flooring – Best Way to Cut)
• A hair-dryer
• A soft brush
• Pencil
• A long metal ruler or straight edge
• A damp cloth
• A tape measure
• An adhesive trowel (type A-1 or A-2)
• Suitable seam bond (if there are joints)
• A roller (50kg plus)

How to Put Down Lino Flooring

1. Adjusting Your Vinyl Floor to the Room

It is best to set up your cushioned floor 48 hours prior to beginning to install it. Work on this in a dry area that is between 18 and 29 degrees Celsius and out of direct sunlight.

Sheets of two meter wide floor covering should be rolled loosely and stored upright. Cut to size and laid flat for acclimation, sheets that are four meters wide should be used.

2. Laying Direction

The interior of your room should ideally match your vinyl floor. When using multiple rolls, keep your seams away from doorways and busy areas of the room.

Your vinyl sheets ought to be positioned parallel to the incoming light in big, well-lit spaces. Sheets can be hung down the length of long, narrow rooms. The rolls should be laid out parallel to the entrance light in square rooms.

3. Pre-cutting

24 hours before installation, it is recommended to pre-cut your vinyl roll. Roll the material face out and trim off the excess after measuring the space (adding 5 cm to each dimension).

When arranging your vinyl roll if more than one piece is being used, make sure the pattern matches. Make sure both rolls are from the same batch to ensure that there are no color variations.

4a. Fitting Your Floor (one Vinyl Roll)

• Following floor cutting, align the vinyl piece with the starting wall. Make sure the pattern is parallel to the wall by letting the 5 cm over-cut run up the wall.
• Step by step, cut the floor in. It is better to attempt several small trimming cuts than just one. To finish a straight cut, always hold your utility knife parallel to the ground.
• In order to ensure that the material fits neatly into the internal corner, internal corners are cut by making very gradual, small diagonal cuts across the corner of the material.
• For external corners, you apply the vinyl down firmly into the joint between the floor and the wall. Trim the material flat to the floor while cutting along the corner. it can be helpful to gently warm the floor with a domestic hair dryer to make it more flexible.
• Push the material into the seam between the floor and the fitting if there are pipes or other irregular fittings, and then cut down almost to the floor. The material will then stop tearing after a brief cross-cut. Cut all pressure points to the floor and cut flat to the floor to gently push the material down around the pipe.
• If done correctly, your vinyl sheet should lie flat at corners and fittings. The last cutting along the wall lengths can now be completed. Cutting off small strips at a time, press the vinyl into the seam between the wall and the floor. Gradually work the material down and keep the blade of your utility knife vertically and tight against the skirting board.
• Avoid trimming in too tightly as this will prevent the material lying flat (around 2-3mm). Your vinyl floor should be able to move a little bit. You do this because temperature can make your room expand or contract.
• Release trapped air by sweeping with a soft broom.

4b. Fitting Your Floor (multiple Vinyl Rolls)

When using one roll, the fitting instructions for your vinyl floor are the same. Nevertheless, you need to look out for these things:

• Cutting length: When precutting the vinyl sheet, add a margin equal to one pattern’s worth of the design plus 5 cm. On the product sheet for your vinyl design on our website, you can view the pattern size.
• Cutting in the joints for tile and wood designs will produce the best visual result when patterns are matched. As previously stated, various rolls must originate from the same mother roll. We suggest arranging all of the sheets in the same direction for designs using planks and tiles. For all-over designs, we recommend to rotate the direction of each sheet 180°.
• When installing 2m rolls, check the back of the rolls and keep an eye out for the arrows on one side. Place the sides with no arrows next to one another and the arrows next to the other.
• The largest piece should go down first, followed by the next largest. If the pattern is the same, allow the pieces to overlap by 35 to 50 mm.

5. Attach Vinyl to the Subfloor

• After fitting, turn back the flooring to expose about half of your subfloor.
• Apply your adhesive to the entire surface of the subfloor. As stated on the package, follow the directions.
• Give it the suggested drying time.
• Without trapping air bubbles, carefully reinstall the vinyl flooring on the subfloor.
• Repeat this procedure on every other area of the floor.
• To release any air bubbles that may have been trapped, roll the flooring with a 50 kg flooring roller.

To attach multiple rolls next to each other, you follow the same instructions, but at the seam, you follow these instructions:

• Place your steel rule so that the guiding edge is over both of the overlapping material’s edges.
• Knife should be held as vertically as possible as you cut through both sheets. This will require gradual cutting.
• After applying adhesive to both sheets, you must wait 24 hours before choosing between cold and hot welding. Information about these techniques can be found on page 20 to 23 of our installation manual, which you can download below.

Can You Put New Flooring over Old Lino?

While there is nothing to prevent you from installing new linoleum on top of old linoleum, we strongly advise against doing so.
Although linoleum flooring is antimicrobial, the right conditions can allow mold to grow on its surface. Even if you can’t see the mold with your unaided eye, it can spread and pose a health risk if new linoleum flooring is installed on top of the moldy flooring.

Preparing Your Subfloor for Vinyl Flooring

• First of all, virtually every type of flooring can accommodate vinyl rolls. Simply make sure they are perfectly level, clean, and free of grit, dust, grease, oil, polish, and old adhesive.
• Next, your subfloor has to be dry, so there is no dampness causing color changes to your floor.
• This is not a problem if you have an underfloor heating system installed. Heated floors work well with vinyl floors, at least those from Beauflor. Make sure your heating system has an automatic cut-off at 27°C so color changes can’t ever occur.
• Also make sure the heating is switched off 48 hours before and after the installation, but keep the room between 18°C and 30°C. The temperature of the subfloor should be gradually increased (5°C per day) after installation.
• Underfloor cooling is governed by the same guidelines. Here, the temperature of the cooling water supply can’t be below 18°C.

After the Installation

After installing your vinyl floor, give it one to three days to rest. Reduce traffic and keep furniture away from the room. Always protect your floor when moving large furniture.

Avoid contact with heat and water for the first 72 hours.

FAQs