OT/Laying sheet vinyl floor

I know this is off topic, but I also know this is the forum I use to get most of my answers. I bought a large piece (18ftx16ft) of sheet vinyl from a flooring store to put in the wife's kitchen. I put the original one down with glue many years ago. The salesman told me that this new one would be fine to "loose lay" with no glue. Most of it looks great but there area a couple of spots where it has lifted off of the floor just slightly. My question is has anyone ever tried to glue vinyl to vinyl. I am thinking that it might work if I scuff the old vinyl up some before applying the glue. The moral of the story here is the easy way is never the right way. Any thoughts appreciated.

with a lot of todays new sheet vinyl flooring it is not designed to be glued. it does free float. you can"t lay it over top of carpet but about any other type of hard surface such as wood or even existing vinyl you will be just fine. any seams would need to be glued to keep them from seperating but other than that, cut to fit, put your trim on the baseboard areas to hide any gaps, and enjoy your new floor!

Yeah, that is what the flooring salesman said. I am not sure what the problem is. I may have left it a little to long around the edges. It just has some wrinkles in it that are only noticeable in certain light. It is heavy and I thought it would be fine. I guess I will take the trim away and maybe re-evaluate next weekend.

How long has the old vinyl been there? Some of the older stuff has asbestos in it. You probably don't want to be sanding that stuff.

New vinyl may take a month to relax into flat. If the old vinyl is flat I think you are good to go. If there is any deformity in the old it will imprint into the new. Cement based floor leveler can make that work, or tacking down old vinyl. Jim

Pretty much what has already been mentioned. Trim if needed give it a few days to settle. I have used that four different times for different people and it lasted for years in each case,. The only problem I had was like you mentioned and it was a little tight and trimming solved that.

I've used the floating vinyl many times over the past 20 or so years. Works great if you have a basement or the floor temps remain constant. If floor is in a trailer or crawl that isn't heated, in the winter the vinyl will have wrinkles.

You don't want to nail it down at a doorway either. It needs to contract and expand. It's great for the DIY guy. Should remove old vinyl or water will get trapped between the two vinyls and it will get moldy smelling. Need to leave at least 1/4 inch at walls and cover gap with molding.

In a kitchen, don't sit the cabinets on it, again it needs to expand and contract. So when building a new kitchen, I have shims under cabinets and slid the flooring a few inches under cabinets.

No clue how to seam it together.

When I make a bathroom, I put the vinyl down before in install the shower, sinks and toilet. Need to let the vinyl set at room temp and flatten out before putting a shower over it. Because you weight it down, you may get a few bulges.

Upside is it isn't as likely to get damaged than the glued vinyl when objects are slid over it .

I like it better than the glued stuff. Very easy to remove and replace. Not that expensive, very thick too.
George

Thanks for all of the comments. I believe that I need to trim it a little more and I did staple it at the door seams. That is possibly part of the problem. Thanks!

I'd like to have a chat with the person that came up with the idea of perimeter glue and free floating vinyl. They are both BAD ideas! I've never done either but I've fixed floors that others have installed using those methods.
It's usually preferable to remove the existing vinyl and underlayment and start over, but you can lay vinyl over vinyl. Trowel embossing leveler over the existing vinyl. IMO the premixed embossing leveler is better than the stuff you have to mix. The glue the new vinyl down. Glue as in full spread not perimeter glue!
BTW I'm a remodeling contractor and do many vinyl floors a year.
My advice is to pull the staples and take the floor up. Trowel on some embossing leveler, then re-install the floor with glue.
The glue for some types of flooring (such as fiberglass backed) can get pretty pricey, but it's worth it to do things right the first time so you don't have to fix it later.