Installing Vinyl Luxury Tile

My wife and I, along with some help with friends installed Congoleum Triversa Vinyl Luxury Tile 4 feet long by 9 inches wide in our 13 foot * 10 foot kitchen. We have several wall floor cabinets, an island, dishwasher, stove, fridge and door ways to work around. It looks great now, but there were a few things the installation guide and video don’t prepare you for.

The video shows a pristine perfectly square room. With a few light taps, it slides into position. This was not the case, but we found a few adaptions that worked for us.

Here’s a more in-depth installation video .

Installation Brochures

Make sure you have some good helpers!

“Tapping” the pieces together

After some frustrations that the tapping wasn’t working, I hit some pretty hard to get them to slide and latch securely. It damaged the latching mechanism, so I had to stop that. We used a scrap piece and hit that one to avoid anymore damage.

1. Push long side into the piece already laid down with a slight edge. Get it snug by lifting it slightly and pushing it in.
2. Push it down to the floor
3. Use a scrap piece as a guide to slide it in (see official instructions)
4. Grab a different scrap piece, lock it in and use the rubber tapper and give that some good hits.

• It will slide down and make a tight fit.

We started the first row with 1/3 length, second with 2/3 and third row with a full length. Then we used a long level to keep them lined up (our cutting didn’t always get an exact 1/4 inch space, so we kept checking and adjusting).

We also cut 1 inch off so that our row on the other end would be 8 inches as well. This was suggested in the installation video as well.

Time Expectations

We had a couple hours of prep work to remove trim, make sure the floor was clean (I had old carpet that needed removing and scrapping off the bottom deteriorated black stuff, fixing a section that had holes from an old island, running to get tools, research, etc).

I spent 1 to 5:30 with a friend to only get three 13 foot rows done. This row was a lot of cutting for a register, sliding door, cabinets and a door thresh hold.

I took a day off and worked from 8 to 5 with a friend and my wife. We were able to finish the rest of the kitchen. There are only a few door pieces and transitions left to put down. Then trim back on and quarter round around the cabinets.

Having three worked well, 2 installing and 1 cutting or 1 measuring and marking.

Expect a lot of time to measure (2x with someone double checking when needed), mark and cut.

Tool suggestions

• Invest in some knee pads, you’ll be thankful for them after a few minutes
• Circular saw and/or table saw
  • The video shows to score it and snap it, but we found it easier to cut with the saw
  • These were essential to cutting the plank to a narrow length and around obstacles
• Multi-puropse oscillating tool for cutting small corners or register holes. Here’s a Dewalt example at Lowes
• Buy the rubber tapper and pull bar. I got both for about $17 at Menards
• 1/4 inch spacers are important to have. You’ll need enough for each side. I bought a pack at Menards for $3 after I didn’t find the right wood scrap sizes
• Hammer, utility knife, long level for a straight edge, speed square, measuring tapes, pencils
• sliders to help move appliances without damaging floors
  • we had some slliders , but I also used some thin plywood and felt on the bottom

This was our experience. It wasn’t as smooth as the installation information, but it turned out well. I’m glad I didn’t give up after the first day!!