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I am a homeowner getting ready to install a sheet vinyl floor over plywood underlayment in a bathroom. The instructions from the flooring manufacturer (Armstrong) say to glue down the vinyl with adhesive. Is it really necessary to glue it down? What does gluing it accomplish? I figure gravity will hold the flooring down, not to mention all the stuff we will have on top of it. Not gluing it would make the installation easier and removal easier if I ever want to remove it.
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I have 3 duplex rentals and in them I never glue sheet vinyl. I pull up the shoe, staple it around the perimeter every 4" or so and put the shoe back down. I put it in the baths and kitchens the same way every time. Easy to change, no difference in wear. Keith C
*Interesting....near the stream,aj
*Just so you know, I am not Brad.
*Brad seems like a nice enough guy. Am I missing something here?Also, wish my vinyl guys were around to explain why some vinyl needs a total glue-down and some only an edge glue. Keith C's idea has merit for his application.Curiously, Steve
*I'll be damned. Never crossed my mind not to glue it down. Sounds like a good idea to me. S.
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It works well this way. In our Habitat houses we typically dont glue, or only glue the perimeter. Have to be careful in the kitchen however, because moving appliances across the floor can cause a "wave" in the vinyl which can make a permanent kink or tear.
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We just did vinyl in our bathroom, and I asked the guy 'cuz my aunts large kitchen has vinyl apparently shrinking and pulling out from under cabinets, etc.
When manufactured the vinyl is stretched somewhat to flatten it and get more sheet per pound of raw material. (side note - in plastics extrusion lingo this is called "drawdown")
There is some stress in the material as delivered and lingering on for much later.
Because the amount of shrink is a percentage, the total shrink is less on small expanses of vinyl like baths, and greater in big kitchens.
When I described the condition at my aunts house he said "egde glued, everyone used to do it that way, until we started getting bit!"
Her floor was shrunk by 4 to 6 inches accross 16 or 18 feet. The shrinkage stresses apparently overcome the shear strenght of the 10" or 12" band of glue around the edge. When the big are is glued down, the stresses cannot build high enough in an one area to cause the adhesive to give.
In materials science terms, egde gluing created a "stress concentration"
Pull a string accross the pattern of some big vinyl installs, you'll be surprised - I was.
-Rob
P.S. - I had him glue my whole tiny bath due to non perfectly smooth floor.
*I glued the whole damn thing down, but I didn't caulk it. Wish I had caulked and not glued, cause the water seeped under by the shower, and now the mould is coming through the flooring, and so now I'm gonna have to pull it back up and re-do it.
*I don't buy the shrinkage issue. I know it shrinks somewhat, and expands with temp changes, but I think if it shrank that much it would spall the felt back anyway. They still make alot of perimeter glue vinyls, with a cushion back, and they don't have the shrinkage problems with them....why?
*Just get one of the checkerboard patterns and screw it down with a drywall screw and finish washer at the corner of each square in the pattern. When yer guests and yer dog trip over the screws, give them dirty looks and tell them that it is a genuine antique vinyl floor joinery process and it is the accepted method of install in all the really gauche hotel lobbies and castle bathrooms.
*That's too much work Luka and a waste of perfectly good drywall screws, which everyone knows don't have the shear strength to cope with the modis of elasticity as the vinyl shrinks diametrically across the grain of the embossed pattern.A couple of used bricks or a rock from the backyard placed at each corner should be all you need. The rock would be more in keeping with the castle look, too.
*I put down really cheap and ugly vinyl in my kitchen in order to get a certificate of occupancy from the town. (The ugly part remains my incentive to get around to tiling the floor) Since I knew I'd be tearing it up soon, I only glued the seam, holding the edges down with shoe. Have I mentioned how much my new central vac sucks? Well, it really sucks, so much so that it's pulled the vinyl from beneath the shoe.Andy
*A good vac will do that...;-) Steve
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heard about some real bad rips and wrinkles when using a permiter glue vinyl and a wheel chair. And it was a high quality vinyl and all manufacture directions were followed. oh well, guess they shoud of stapled.
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I am a homeowner getting ready to install a sheet vinyl floor over plywood underlayment in a bathroom. The instructions from the flooring manufacturer (Armstrong) say to glue down the vinyl with adhesive. Is it really necessary to glue it down? What does gluing it accomplish? I figure gravity will hold the flooring down, not to mention all the stuff we will have on top of it. Not gluing it would make the installation easier and removal easier if I ever want to remove it.