Have you ever wondered whether you could put vinyl flooring over tile or other floor coverings? Vinyl flooring is very popular in homes and commercial buildings. The reasons can vary from ease of maintenance to its durability. While it is not necessarily easily installed over certain floor coverings, it still can be done.
Vinyl Over Wood Flooring
Wood flooring, such as solid hardwood or engineered wood, can serve as bases for vinyl flooring. However, some cases may require an intervening underlayment.
Vinyl Over Laminate Flooring
Laminate flooring can act as a substrate for vinyl. However, before doing this, make sure you fix high-moisture areas because laminate can swell when exposed to water. In the case that you have a floating laminate flooring that isn’t attached to the subfloor, you will get better results if you remove the laminate flooring instead of laying vinyl on top of it.
Vinyl Over Tile
You can install vinyl flooring over ceramic and porcelain tile flooring directly. If there are any cracked or missing tiles, they need to be fixed first; otherwise, the gaps and wide seams can create depressions in the vinyl flooring. In the case the tile floor has wide or deep seams, you can use an underlayment instead of installing the vinyl directly on the tile.
The bottom line here is that you can install vinyl flooring on top of existing flooring. Here are things to keep in mind to help make the process go as smoothly as possible:
- Remove floor coverings so the installer can see the condition of the subfloor easily. This way, if the subfloor is rotted, cracked, or generally not in good condition, your installer will see it immediately.
- Ensure existing flooring coverings and subfloors are strong enough for the installation of vinyl floors.
- Any high spots in the substrate must be sanded down, while the low spots must be filled.
- Consider embossing to make the floor covering look more realistic. For example, pronounced embossing can telegraph to the surface of the vinyl flooring.
- Ensure no moisture is trapped between the vinyl floors and their substrate; otherwise, mold and mildew can grow.
- For newly poured concrete, it needs to fully cure and dry out before you add vinyl floor on top.
- Vinyl flooring adds less height compared to other types of flooring.
These are things you need to remember when installing vinyl flooring on top of an existing floor.
Time to Go Vinyl?
As you can see, you can install vinyl flooring on all types of existing floor. All you need is to make the necessary preparations and ensure the existing surface is ready before adding the vinyl flooring. That way, you can look forward to a quality floor that will last. Vinyl flooring can be installed on top of most types of existing floor coverings, such as ceramic tile, laminate, or hardwood floors. The basic rule is that there needs to be a smaller gap between the vinyl and the existing floor. If this isn’t the case, then it will need to be removed and prepared for the new flooring.
European Painting & Electrical Services offers quality construction work in Pattaya. If you need to give your floors a whole new look, we can help you with that. Contact us today!
