Laminate worn, soft vinyl replacement

[Harry Bloomfield]

The laminate I laid in our 3 x 6m kitchen is worn out long since and she wants to replace it with soft step/ Cushion floor type vinyl. When I laid the laminate originally, rather than lift the skirtings, I used quadrant pinned to the skirting to allow for the expansion/contraction of the laminate.

At the door end of the kitchen, there was a slight 'hillock' - where a wall was once positioned and removed, extending the kitchen area a little. I took the opportunity before laying the laminate, of smoothing off the worst of the concrete 'hillock' and the laminate and underlay successfully managed to hide it.

My plan is to leave the laminate down and add the vinyl over the top, it's quite smooth, no splits or holes, just a worn face pattern. I plan to remove the skirtings and put them back over the top of laminate and vinyl, then sand and repaint. Under cutting the architraves with a multi-tool.

Anything wrong with my plan? Does the vinyl need to be fixed in some way?

 

[crazydaze]

Vinyl can be loose laid on top, any design and or joints of the laminate may show through the vinyl at some point.

The correct way and manufacturers specs would be to remove the laminate and underlays, level the floor if required and fit direct to this.

You do not need to glue the vinyl down, loose lay is the prefered method and if you get some expansion at some point the vinyl can be eased.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The correct way and manufacturers specs would be to remove the laminate and underlays, level the floor if required and fit direct to this.

You do not need to glue the vinyl down, loose lay is the prefered method and if you get some expansion at some point the vinyl can be eased.

Thanks, it's down now, no joints needed, one piece. It looks OK, but I will say it is an awfully delicate material, very easily damaged or ripped by heavy furniture. I took all the skirting boards out, before fitting. I had fitted the laminate with the usual gap all round from the skirting, then added that horrible MDF quadrant strip to the skirting to hide the gap [1]. I filled up the now even wider gap between wall and laminate, with a combination of the removed quadrant + filler, to make a level surface for the vinyl - without which, the vinyl would have curled at the edges. The skirting boards had been fitted with 3" screws and brown plugs, so I used a hand metal detector to find and and mark them, hidden under decorators caulk. Whilst out, I gave the skirting boards a good sanding down outside. Once the vinyl was down, I refitted the skirting on top, trapping vinyl between skirting and where I had filled the gap.

I let SWMBO loose with a paint brush this morning, repainting the refitted skirting boards, so just waiting for them to dry.

[1] When I laminated the kitchen floor, years ago - I also did the bathroom and downstairs toilet with laminate, plus horrible the MDF quadrant strip. The laminate in both of these is fine, just the horrible curling MDF quadrant. I heard of a solution to this a few years ago, but had forgotten what it was. I have since worked out what it was....

17.5mm plastic quadrant strip, as used by double glazing installers. Rather than the concave of the MDF, it has a convex profile, but silly cheap in 5m lengths and completely moisture proof. From a company called Eurocell, with counters all over the country. I have that job to do next, I have the quadrant, I just need to source some SS pins to fix it.