Kitchen renovations, such as installing an underlayment in preparation for installing a new vinyl floor and for larger kitchens, installing vinyl seamed floors are inexpensive and easy to accomplish. Even easier when you employ the help of a handyman such as 1st Handyman in Bristol city
Installing a floor underlayment
1. When installing an underlayment over an existing sub floor, it is important that the sub floor is free of imperfections, replace any damaged boards, nail down loose boards with galvanized 6d (6 penny) nails as well as uneven seams, if still uneven use a floor sander even seams.
TIP: When nailing down sub floor, hammer the nails below the surface of the sub floor, raised nails will create bumps in underlayment.
2. Purchase exterior-grade plywood, use at least the minimum, ¼ inch lauen, or if you want more strength use ½ inch plywood.
3. Remove baseboard molding, place a piece of flooring you intend to install and place on a scrap piece of plywood, use this as a template/guide to cut undercut any door casings, so the underlayment and floor fit underneath. Using a handsaw, make a level cut.
4. Make templates out of butcher paper for irregular areas and corners on the kitchen floor, example, a corner around a cabinet, transfer to plywood and cut out.
5. Measure out kitchen and draw a rough diagram of floor. Calculate approximately, the size of each piece of plywood to install and include in diagram.
6. Lay out a full sheet of plywood against the longest straight wall, nail down, every six inches across and six inches down (6d nails), and every three inches along the seams, use this nailing pattern for all plywood installed.
7. Work through the kitchen following your diagram, cut plywood to fit, nail down the plywood.
TIP: Allow for an 1/8 inch gap between every seam of plywood floor as you install, this will allow the floor to expand and contract without buckling due to heat and humidity.
8. After installing plywood, go back and fill the 1/8 inch gaps between the plywood seams with premixed, latex-underlayment compound using a putty knife.
9. Take floor sander and sand the seams smooth, clean floor surface.
Installing Vinyl flooring
1. Vinyl flooring is manufactured in six and twelve foot rolls, determine the amount and size you need for your kitchen, purchase, put aside.
2. Some manufacturers of vinyl flooring make template kits, which include paper, tape, knife and instructions, purchase one if available, making the template fabrication process easier.
3. Make a template of your floor using heavy butcher paper, roll out long strips of paper to cover majority of kitchen floor, cut out triangles in template paper, tape the template to the floor using triangles.
4. Overlap template paper and tape, do not butt up edges, for corners and uneven areas use smaller pieces of paper, tape these to the larger paper template.
5. When template is completed, it should cover kitchen floor completely, with no gaps, remove tape from triangles and carefully roll up.
6. Roll out vinyl sheet for the floor on a hard, large, clean surface. Tip: do not cut vinyl on the underlayment of the kitchen, as the cut marks will show through the vinyl flooring. Flip over vinyl so design side faces up. Tip: Vinyl will lose its flexibility about three hours after rolled out and cut, consider this when planning to lay a vinyl floor.
7. Unroll template on top of the vinyl, fit it to the vinyl and tape down.
8. Using a ballpoint pen (do not use a pencil or felt marker), trace around the entire template, and remove the template.
9. Using a very sharp flooring knife, cut vinyl along the pen line, using a metal ruler or metal straight-edge, as a guide to cut straight lines, freehand cut the smaller lines, slowly and carefully.
10. Roll out vinyl onto the underlayment, position vinyl, pencil a few lines outside against the vinyl edges, this will help reposition vinyl correctly after moved.
11. Roll back the vinyl sheet halfway across itself (work your way out of the kitchen). Apply vinyl adhesive to floor with notched trowel, let dry for 10-15 minutes, then roll vinyl flap onto floor, make sure it is flat with no air pockets, flip back the remaining half of vinyl, apply adhesive, wait and roll out flat.
12. Using a large rolling pin or a wooden hand roller, roll out vinyl flooring, star in middle and work out.
Installing Vinyl floors using seams in large Kitchens
1. If your kitchen is large, it may require a little creativity to install a vinyl floor.
2. Follow the directions in the above vinyl floor installation, but make use of the following technique to install a vinyl floor that requires joining separate vinyl pieces together, creating effective seams.
3. Lay one piece of vinyl over another by at least two inches and match the design of the piece on bottom to the piece on top and tape together. Follow a line in the design, and using a metal straightedge, cut through both pieces of vinyl, untape, remove the scrap pieces. These edges of the two separate vinyl pieces match.
4. Lay the two vinyl pieces out on the floor next to each other and line up design.
5. Tape the two pieces together, using wide masking tape, press down hard to secure, the two pieces of vinyl are now one.
6. Roll back half of the vinyl (the two joined pieces) and apply adhesive to the floor, let dry for 15 minutes, roll out vinyl into place, go to opposite end of floor and roll back the unglued combined vinyl piece, apply adhesive to floor, wait and roll out vinyl into place.
7. Pull off the tape joining the two pieces of vinyl together slowly, following immediately with a hand roller, applying with a great deal of pressure, roll back and forth several times to insure a flat seam, take time to do this, about six to eight inches at a time, until entire seam is done.
Installing a floor underlayment
1. When installing an underlayment over an existing sub floor, it is important that the sub floor is free of imperfections, replace any damaged boards, nail down loose boards with galvanized 6d (6 penny) nails as well as uneven seams, if still uneven use a floor sander even seams.
TIP: When nailing down sub floor, hammer the nails below the surface of the sub floor, raised nails will create bumps in underlayment.
2. Purchase exterior-grade plywood, use at least the minimum, ¼ inch lauen, or if you want more strength use ½ inch plywood.
3. Remove baseboard molding, place a piece of flooring you intend to install and place on a scrap piece of plywood, use this as a template/guide to cut undercut any door casings, so the underlayment and floor fit underneath. Using a handsaw, make a level cut.
4. Make templates out of butcher paper for irregular areas and corners on the kitchen floor, example, a corner around a cabinet, transfer to plywood and cut out.
5. Measure out kitchen and draw a rough diagram of floor. Calculate approximately, the size of each piece of plywood to install and include in diagram.
6. Lay out a full sheet of plywood against the longest straight wall, nail down, every six inches across and six inches down (6d nails), and every three inches along the seams, use this nailing pattern for all plywood installed.
7. Work through the kitchen following your diagram, cut plywood to fit, nail down the plywood.
TIP: Allow for an 1/8 inch gap between every seam of plywood floor as you install, this will allow the floor to expand and contract without buckling due to heat and humidity.
8. After installing plywood, go back and fill the 1/8 inch gaps between the plywood seams with premixed, latex-underlayment compound using a putty knife.
9. Take floor sander and sand the seams smooth, clean floor surface.
Installing Vinyl flooring
1. Vinyl flooring is manufactured in six and twelve foot rolls, determine the amount and size you need for your kitchen, purchase, put aside.
2. Some manufacturers of vinyl flooring make template kits, which include paper, tape, knife and instructions, purchase one if available, making the template fabrication process easier.
3. Make a template of your floor using heavy butcher paper, roll out long strips of paper to cover majority of kitchen floor, cut out triangles in template paper, tape the template to the floor using triangles.
4. Overlap template paper and tape, do not butt up edges, for corners and uneven areas use smaller pieces of paper, tape these to the larger paper template.
5. When template is completed, it should cover kitchen floor completely, with no gaps, remove tape from triangles and carefully roll up.
6. Roll out vinyl sheet for the floor on a hard, large, clean surface. Tip: do not cut vinyl on the underlayment of the kitchen, as the cut marks will show through the vinyl flooring. Flip over vinyl so design side faces up. Tip: Vinyl will lose its flexibility about three hours after rolled out and cut, consider this when planning to lay a vinyl floor.
7. Unroll template on top of the vinyl, fit it to the vinyl and tape down.
8. Using a ballpoint pen (do not use a pencil or felt marker), trace around the entire template, and remove the template.
9. Using a very sharp flooring knife, cut vinyl along the pen line, using a metal ruler or metal straight-edge, as a guide to cut straight lines, freehand cut the smaller lines, slowly and carefully.
10. Roll out vinyl onto the underlayment, position vinyl, pencil a few lines outside against the vinyl edges, this will help reposition vinyl correctly after moved.
11. Roll back the vinyl sheet halfway across itself (work your way out of the kitchen). Apply vinyl adhesive to floor with notched trowel, let dry for 10-15 minutes, then roll vinyl flap onto floor, make sure it is flat with no air pockets, flip back the remaining half of vinyl, apply adhesive, wait and roll out flat.
12. Using a large rolling pin or a wooden hand roller, roll out vinyl flooring, star in middle and work out.
Installing Vinyl floors using seams in large Kitchens
1. If your kitchen is large, it may require a little creativity to install a vinyl floor.
2. Follow the directions in the above vinyl floor installation, but make use of the following technique to install a vinyl floor that requires joining separate vinyl pieces together, creating effective seams.
3. Lay one piece of vinyl over another by at least two inches and match the design of the piece on bottom to the piece on top and tape together. Follow a line in the design, and using a metal straightedge, cut through both pieces of vinyl, untape, remove the scrap pieces. These edges of the two separate vinyl pieces match.
4. Lay the two vinyl pieces out on the floor next to each other and line up design.
5. Tape the two pieces together, using wide masking tape, press down hard to secure, the two pieces of vinyl are now one.
6. Roll back half of the vinyl (the two joined pieces) and apply adhesive to the floor, let dry for 15 minutes, roll out vinyl into place, go to opposite end of floor and roll back the unglued combined vinyl piece, apply adhesive to floor, wait and roll out vinyl into place.
7. Pull off the tape joining the two pieces of vinyl together slowly, following immediately with a hand roller, applying with a great deal of pressure, roll back and forth several times to insure a flat seam, take time to do this, about six to eight inches at a time, until entire seam is done.