Vinyl FlooringSo Many Choices!With vinyl flooring you can design a floor that suits your personality, style and budget!
Vinyl copes well with moisture and is easy to clean, making it an ideal floor covering for kitchens, bathrooms, laundry and utility rooms. FeaturesAvailable in floor tile or sheets, a wide range of colors & patterns, strips & borders, simulations of every kind of wood or hard floors of stone and prices to suit any budget!
Vinyl varies in thickness from 10-30 mils (mils=thousandths of an inch). Thinner sheet vinyl is 10-15 mils and will wear quickly in high-traffic areas. Longer-wearing sheet vinyl is 25-30 mils and more expensive... you expected that, right? Tiles provide greater flexibility to be creative if mixing colors and motifs, plus they are easier to install and tend to be more economical if standard sheet sizes do not fit your floor area.
Most brands are pre-finished with Polyurethane and do not require waxing. Some tiles are self-adhesive, but are usually of poor quality and not recommended. Tiles can be bought in an array of square sizes to suit/fit the room. Sheets give better protection against spills than tile, are quicker and less messy to install if it is a simply shaped room, but can be more difficult to fit at the edges.
Cleaning & MaintainingTalk about easy to clean, many have built-in soil inhibitors to prevent staining! To remove abrasive particles, sweep regularly with a soft broom. For mopping use a Water diluted dish washing detergent (1/4 cup per/gal of water) and a damp sponge mop. That's it! Vinyl floor enhancers (like a wax) are available and if applied every few months it will keep the vinyl surface looking like new. To remove any build up of dirt and floor enhancer use a stripping product recommended for vinyl once a year or so.
The EnvironmentThe bad news is vinyl floors may not be so friendly to you. They can be toxic for some people and present an environmental issue for all.... Made from PVC (polyvinyl chloride), vinyl flooring is not biodegradable and when discarded it is hauled to land-fills and waste dumps, sitting there creating harm to our environment. No, hazardous materials used for manufacturing are released into our environment. Manufacturers of vinyl floor-coverings are always looking for better ways to utilize waste vinyl from manufacturing, or discarded by consumers, that is safe for the environment...
InstallationMany do-it-yourselfers prefer vinyl over other types of resilient floor-coverings because it can be fairly easy to install. Floor tiles are preferred over sheets because they are far easier to handle. Sheet vinyl takes great skill to install... Nearly all problems related to vinyl, sheets or tiles, are from improper installation. NOTE: If the underlayment or adhesive doesn't meet approval standards for laying vinyl flooring, you are going to have problems... Be certain they do before moving forward with your installation... you'll be glad you did! Sheets of vinyl with a thickness of 25-30 mils can be difficult to handle for the unskilled. Sheets or tiles should be kept on-site in a warm room at least 24 hours before installing. If in doubt about your skill level, call an honest, professional floor installer to get the answers you need before you take on the task. It never hurts to ask..... Enjoy! back to Flooring Home... from Vinyl Flooring |
