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Vinyl tiling - quick advice needed


Jude1234

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So my builder arranged for the tiler to start on Tuesday.  I met with him yesterday and he said that normally the floor is fitted prior to him tiling, which hasn't been done (and I wasn't aware of).  For the bathrooms we wanted the LVT so I need to buy it today so that it can be fitted tomorrow. Which means a trip to the sheds, any recommendations for B&Q vs Wickes?  Also what underlay do I need?   It is just a normal floor boarding, no UFH or screed etc.

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It is an ensuite, new build, only the shower tray is fitted but the toilet and sink are wall mounted.  I was hoping to get the flooring laid tomorrow before he returns on Tuesday is that too optimistic? 

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So your tiler is coming to do walls and you need the floors to be done tomorrow before he starts? You intend to lay LVT on the floors? Who is doing that? What has to be laid on the floor in order to fit LVT on top? Sounds a bit rushed in all honesty. Can the tiler be put back? Does LVT definitely need to be fitted before wall tiles? You’ll need some way of covering it safely before the wall tiling starts. 

 

 

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When we had Kardean type tiles laid in a previous house, the chipboard floor was prepped by screwing down ply, screws every 100mm, then all the joins filled and feathered to create as flat and level a surface as possible. In our case the Kardean fitters did that work.

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Yes it is all of a rush. I was going to get a joiner to fit tomorrow. However is it absolutely necessary to do it that way round? I could give the tiler the option to delay so the floor can be laid or go ahead and the floor will be fitted later

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Even if you do get it done in a hurry tomorrow won’t you want to leave 24 hours before you have people, tools and stepladders all over it? Seems a recipe for disaster having someone doing heavy work there the instant they are laid? 

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1 hour ago, Jude1234 said:

Yes it is all of a rush. I was going to get a joiner to fit tomorrow. However is it absolutely necessary to do it that way round? I could give the tiler the option to delay so the floor can be laid or go ahead and the floor will be fitted later

 

Hold your horses, Fanny Blankers-Koen!  ?

 

Aren't you driving this bus now?

 

If there are no cost penalties to you in delaying or other BFO (eg contractual and you pay anyway) reason for doing so, then tell them to delay. Do not "offer an option" - you are the client, you now hold the swagger-stick, you are the project manager, so you decide what is going to happen.

 

Then step back and do some reflection about your priorities - assuming that it is still all about cost savings as per last week.

 

Why do you need an ensuite now, and to pay for it, now?

 

Is there not going to be a family bathroom? Can you not put the ensuite in 2 years after you have moved. Delaying it will probably save you about 3-4k from this year's spend, that you will have more easily available in 2019 or 2021. At the very least it would be a little risky to go full steam ahead with this spend if you have not completed  the evaluation and costing out we were talking about on the other thread. Is that 3-4k better applied somewhere else eg filling the hole that it will leave in the bank account? At least delay to think about it once you know the size of the hole you have to fill, not before. (*)

 

If you are planning to save say £30-£60k on your (guessing) £350-£450k project (or whatever the number is), then this is the sort of thought you need to entertain.

 

If you have to go ahead, then I see no reasons (plumbers such as @Nickfromwales  may contradict me from a high tower of authority) for not doing the walls first. That is how I normally do it, in my case to avoid the risk of gunk or droppages ruining my nice new floor). If they must do it, then you could tell the tiler to leave 25-30mm at the bottom for eg a subfloor and tiles, or plywood and roll vinyl. 

 

Buying from what the sheds have in is the most expensive way - out of time, quality and cost you can only have two. And if your time is limited to "today", and your quality to LVL tiles, then you will get clobbered on cost and the limited selection may mean you do not get what you want. And I think good LVL is £25-£40 per sqm. Take off the time constraint and you will get your desired choice at perhaps 30-50% saving, or may discover something at £10 per sqm that is just as good, or put roll vinyl at <£10 per sqm down for the first N years.

 

Ferdinand

 

(*) It will also signal to your builder that you are deadly serious about the cost-savings.

Edited by Ferdinand
Quadruple Dutch
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1 hour ago, Stones said:

When we had Kardean type tiles laid in a previous house, the chipboard floor was prepped by screwing down ply, screws every 100mm, then all the joins filled and feathered to create as flat and level a surface as possible. In our case the Kardean fitters did that work.

 

If it i a bathroom, a couple of coats of waterproofing would not go amiss too.

Edited by Ferdinand
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1 hour ago, Ferdinand said:

If you have to go ahead, then I see no reasons (plumbers such as @Nickfromwales  may contradict me from a high tower of authority) for not doing the walls first. That is how I normally do it, in my case to avoid the risk of gunk or droppages ruining my nice new floor). If they must do it, then you could tell the tiler to leave 25-30mm at the bottom for eg a subfloor and tiles, or plywood and roll vinyl. 

Absolutely the right advice. You CANNOT fit the floor and then tile onto it if its anything other than tiles IMO. The LVT will have a limited lifespan, compared to the tiles, so will likely be the first thing that needs replacing eg long before the room needs re-tiling. Apply the brakes and take stock of whats going on ;) 

3 hours ago, Jude1234 said:

It is just a normal floor boarding, no UFH or screed etc.

Does that mean the floor is just P5 or floorboards? Has it been ply'd? You really dont want an underlay in a bathroom so the floor should be prepped a-la @Stones earlier post.

Measure twice, cut once :) 

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On 09/09/2018 at 14:07, Nickfromwales said:

Absolutely the right advice. You CANNOT fit the floor and then tile onto it if its anything other than tiles IMO. The LVT will have a limited lifespan, compared to the tiles, so will likely be the first thing that needs replacing eg long before the room needs re-tiling. 

 

LVT are more durable than they sound. Quickstep do a Uniclic version of LVT with a 20 or 25 year guarantee, but the normal cost is £32 per sqm or so. I was playing tag with B&Q for 3 months with their sales at half that when I was looking for the Little Brown Bungalow when they were replacing Quick Step with their own much inferior range.

 

I think they have an underlay similar to laminate floor.

 

In the end I spotted a sale lot of 25 year guarantee Uniclic laminate where B&Q had reduced to about £8 per sqm on a final sale, but somebody had left the leading 1 off the 14.00 price tag, so the were on the computer at £4 for almost 2 sqm packs. So I went for those instead. Still my best deal ever except for free. I got about 25sqm which was enough for kitchen, hall and bathroom with 4 sqm left over wear and tear or water leak repairs.

 

IIRC even the Quick Step Basic Plus underlay ... £2-2.50 per sqm ... includes a dampproof membrane joined at the edge of the roll with adhesive strips.

 

Ferdinand

 

 

Edited by Ferdinand
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5 hours ago, Jude1234 said:

So my builder arranged for the tiler to start on Tuesday.  I met with him yesterday and he said that normally the floor is fitted prior to him tiling, which hasn't been done (and I wasn't aware of).  For the bathrooms we wanted the LVT so I need to buy it today so that it can be fitted tomorrow. Which means a trip to the sheds, any recommendations for B&Q vs Wickes?  Also what underlay do I need?   It is just a normal floor boarding, no UFH or screed etc.

I would be a little concerned that your tiler doesn’t realise that the floor covering always goes down after the wall tiles 

even if he was ceramic tiling the floor It would go down afterwards

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57 minutes ago, nod said:

I would be a little concerned that your tiler doesn’t realise that the floor covering always goes down after the wall tiles 

even if he was ceramic tiling the floor It would go down afterwards

With tiles i always tile the floor fist. that way your not looking down at the grout line. Never done it any other way TBH.

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The builder had told the tiler that the floor was to be tiled even though I had said a few times that we wanted LVT ( even telling him which one from Howdens so he could order it?). I have told him that the floor will be put in last.

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14 minutes ago, Jude1234 said:

The builder had told the tiler that the floor was to be tiled even though I had said a few times that we wanted LVT ( even telling him which one from Howdens so he could order it?). I have told him that the floor will be put in last.

 

You have enough different opinions on this thread that you are inevitably going to ignore most of us ?.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just resurrecting this thread to get your opinions on LVT.

 

I can see online that Karndean is about £20 sqm inc VAT.  I only need about 9 sqm in total but factor in underlay and delivery etc it would be good to get something cheaper.  I have seen this at Wickes which is £11.39 sqm on clearance (not sure what it was before)  https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Cetona-Oak-Luxury-Vinyl-Flooring-Tiles---1-756m2-Pack/p/153407

 

Can anyone beat that for price/quality? I am looking for oak plank effect

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2 hours ago, Jude1234 said:

I went ahead and bought it.  It was £25 sqm but is being discontinued.  They had enough packs (6) in my local store.  It has a 25 year guarentee so happy with my £11.39 sqm bargain

 

Sounds good. Just check that you have enough left over for minor repairs - eg if the shower overflows or the loo pipe leaks or the little darlings wee on it and for some reason you do not find out for a couple of days (have I mis-estimated the age of the little darlings?).

 

I imagine a big repair would be replace-in-toto.

 

Ferdinand

Edited by Ferdinand
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2 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

the little darlings wee on it and for some reason you do not find out for a couple of days (have I mis-estimated the age of the little darlings?).

 

They are big 'darlings' but their aim is still a bit dodgy?  There was a pack with a slight broken corner on one plank so I got that pack for £10 to keep as spares. 

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