Recommended Uses: Bathroom, Kitchen, Laundry
Characteristics:
Sheet vinyl flooring has long been a favorite in homes for areas receiving heavy use such as the bathroom or kitchen. It is durable, affordable and comes in a large variety of styles such as geometric patterns and realistic wood, stone and ceramic looks. Vinyl flooring is easy to clean and maintain if it has urethane wear layer and is a great choice for bathroom flooring. Sheet vinyl floors can also last much longer than vinyl tile. The life of a sheet vinyl floor may range from 20 to 30 years depending on the quality of the vinyl flooring and quality of the installation, compared to 5 to 20 years for a vinyl tile floor.
Installation Difficulty: Advanced
Installation Method:
Depending on the vinyl flooring sheet backing, sheet vinyl flooring may be designed for use with either a modified loose lay installation method using acrylic double-faced tape under seams or installed by the full adhesive spread glue down method.
With felt backing use full-spread or perimeter adhesive; with fiberglass backing use loose-lay, modified loose-lay or full spread.
Full spread requires a trowel applied full spread adhesive where adhesive is spread across the entire underside of the floor before it is placed down for installation. Do not install over substrates such as OSB, Particleboard, or wafer-board panels, existing resilient tile floors that are below grade, existing cushion-backed vinyl flooring, carpet, hardwood flooring that has been installed directly over concrete.
Construction:
Sheet vinyl flooring typically comes in 6 foot and 12 foot rolls. The construction of sheet vinyl generally consists of these elements:
- Urethane or similar wear layer.
- Protective clear film layer for durability and protection from rips and tears.
- Printed and sometimes embossed design layer which can range from realistic looking natural materials to unique patterns.
- Felt or fiberglass backing layer providing structure, strength and durability.
