Vinyl onto laminate.

[ohoward]

Hello, just looking for some advice.

About 18 months ago a friend and I laid laminate (click) flooring in my living room. I was never very happy with the job for a number of reasons and I now want to change the appearance of the room.

I quite like the look of these self adhesive, wood effect vinyl floor 'planks' and think they would solve a lot of the issues I have with the current floor ie in places the expansion gap is so wide that i couldn't find edging to cover it! With the vinyl i could go right up to the skirting. My subfloor is concrete and whilst not in bad shape it is not entirely level, there are some areas (ie near the hearth) where you can see the floor move. Not a massive amount but it does move.

So I suppose my question really is the best way of going about this? I believe my current laminate floor provides a better surface than the subfloor and would provide a good surface to stick the vinyl onto, or am I wrong?

When responding please bear in mind I am on a fairly tight budget.

Thanks.

 

[lymmranger]

The correct answer = NO do it properly

....you should really follow the instalation instructions very carefully, otherwise you will end up dissapointed with this floor too

I have always heard of poor results from these DIY shop self adhesive tiles, so correct preperation is essential. Do the instructions say you can stick them to laminate?

 

[ohoward]

The correct answer = NO do it properly

....you should really follow the instalation instructions very carefully, otherwise you will end up dissapointed with this floor too

I have always heard of poor results from these DIY shop self adhesive tiles, so correct preperation is essential. Do the instructions say you can stick them to laminate?

From what I can gather online, most of the poor results people talk of online are due to poor preparation before laying the vinyl. As long as the subfloor is clean and reasonably level there shouldn't be a problem, but that's the issue with searching online. Who wrote the information? I was hoping some professionals here could give an opinion.

I reasoned that as the laminate floor currently down would provide a better surface to lay the vinyl than what's underneath it might work out.

Of course the other option is to rip out current laminate and lay vinyl planks on chipboard or similar.

 

[crazydaze]

The issues you are likely to have with trying to stick vinyl tiles to laminate are going to be unavoidable.

You will most likely have issues with getting a 'key' for the adhesive to bond too, the shiney plastic surface of the laminate will not take the adhesive well.

Also, the vinyl DIY tiles are very susceptable to movement anyway so it's likely that you will find that they move after sustained use.

If the laminate is not tight and smoothly fitted and not flush accross the whole room, assuming you have managed to get the tiles to bond, you will see every imperfection through the vinyl product resulting in lines, lumps, bumps and the product dipping away where you had issues with the edges of the laminate.

The correct way of tackling this install would be to uplift the laminate, screed the subfloor and fit the vinyl tiles to the new floor, again results will depend on luck/quality of the vinyl tiles and adhesive.

Professional products like Karndean, Amtico, Marmoleum etc, installed over a subfloor prepared this way, would be very difficult for a DIY'er to fit correctly, especially if you have struggled laying a simple floor like laminate before.

 

[lymmranger]

The correct answer = NO do it properly

....you should really follow the instalation instructions very carefully, otherwise you will end up dissapointed with this floor too

I have always heard of poor results from these DIY shop self adhesive tiles, so correct preperation is essential. Do the instructions say you can stick them to laminate?

From what I can gather online, most of the poor results people talk of online are due to poor preparation before laying the vinyl. As long as the subfloor is clean and reasonably level there shouldn't be a problem, but that's the issue with searching online. Who wrote the information? I was hoping some professionals here could give an opinion.

I reasoned that as the laminate floor currently down would provide a better surface to lay the vinyl than what's underneath it might work out.

Of course the other option is to rip out current laminate and lay vinyl planks on chipboard or similar.

Ok you are asking for professional advice.....

You have already had it - twice!

Crazydaze is an installer

I am a flooring retailer

....we both gave you the correct advice - NO!

sorry if its not what you want to hear, but you did ask

 

[ohoward]

No, in a lot of ways it IS what I wanted to hear as I wouldn't have been asking if I didn't have doubts.

The laminate that is down isn't ideal ie there is small but noticeable movement in certain areas and ridiculously large expansion gaps in certain spots but it is flush and even across the whole floor.

If the best option is to uplift, self level and screed the sub floor, fair play.

 

[lymmranger]

Good man

...and good luck - come back and let us know how you got on

 

[crazydaze]

It's not just that the laminate has some uneven areas that makes it unsuitable. You will have issues with the adhesive sticking to the surface of the laminate correctly, the surface of the laminate will not have 'key' fr the adhesive to adhere to. Also the laminate is designed to move - to expand and contract with humidity and temperature, so anything adhered to it will also move!

Uplifting, screeding and laying new floor is the sensible option but will not be cheap or easy to do properly, I would suggest that possibly laying a better quality laminate floor correctly/proffesionally will probably be cheaper than the vinyl tile option.

 

[womble69]

Would vinyl going on laminate provoke sweating between them?