Man Up=Floor Down

There is no website on laying vinyl floor tile that I have not read.

For tons of reasons (cost being #1), Wife and I decided to go with vinyl, self-adhesive floor tiles for our kitchen. The problem is that I have never installed any floor tiles before, so I was a little nervous about doing it alone. I definitely needed some help on this one.

The weekend looked like the perfect time to knock it out, but all the help I had lined up fell through at the last minute.

So now what? I had two options: Wait even longer or man up.

I manned up.
(This is where you go, "Ooooooo!")

Since my old 1949 kitchen walls are slightly banana shaped, it took me a long time (and a few phone calls with Father) to come up with a game plan for laying the tile. But believe me, it was worth it.

With levels, angles, measuring tape, and fishing line I plotted out the exact spot that the first tile would go. If this one had been off, the whole floor would have been off.

I cleaned the floor until it was completely dust free. Until you could eat off of it. Until you could "skate" across it in Father's white tube socks without making them dingy.

After sticking the first tile I worked through one quarter of the room at a time, laying them out as I went.

They stuck really well to the clean subfloor! It went much better than I thought it would, and cutting the tiles was a breeze with a razor knife.

I was careful to undercut the door jams when installing the subfloor, but there was not quite enough room to squeeze a tile under there, too. For the trickiest custom cut, I used a piece of paper as a template before cutting the vinyl tile.

Cut the tile according to the template and...

Booya! A great fit!

There were a lot of edge tiles that needed to be cut, and Wife came to the rescue!
As it turns out, she is an expert as measuring the tile, cutting it, and fitting it against the wall.

After all the vinyl tile was down and pressed to the floor, the finished product was REALLY NICE.

All I can say is, "Take THAT kitchen floor. Take THAT!"