Laying Vinyl Peel & Stick Flooring

How to Lay Vinyl Peel and Stick Flooring

Hello! Welcome to another craft closet (and wine cellar/cat poop cave/general storage closet) update. Make sure to check out the last two updates: I shared before pics and inspiration first, and then I shared some awesome under-the-stairs shelving build plans. 

Today I’m talking about how to lay vinyl peel-and-stick flooring! Did that warrant an exclamation point? I don’t know, maybe I’m just to a point in my life where vinyl peel-and-stick flooring gets me that excited.

Vinyl peel-and-stick flooring is the perfect solution for this space. It’s just a closet, but the unfinished, constantly dirty concrete floor was driving me nuts. And I didn’t want to paint it. 🙂

So I went to Lowe’s one Friday night (party animal, I am) and wandered around the flooring area to see if there were any good options. I originally didn’t want to do a peel-and-stick option because I thought it wouldn’t adhere very well to the bare concrete flooring, and I was worried about it popping up on the future. But when I saw the price (.99 cents/sq ft), I decided to give it a try.

I went with this simple gray color, which is supposed to be a faux concrete. So I’m covering real concrete with faux vinyl concrete, I know, I know…

Here’s what I used:

(Affiliate links below; read more about those here)

• 18-in x 18-in Aspen Gray Faux Concrete Peel-and-Stick Vinyl Tile (here from Lowe’s)
• Ruler or yard stick
• A utility knife of something with a sharp single blade (like this)

And here’s how to lay vinyl peel and stick flooring.

(Do not use any tools without proper training, precautions, and supervision. Read my full terms of use here.)

Step 1: Our floor was unfinished concrete that just never seemed to get un-dusty, but I swept it up as much as I could.

Step 2: I picked the 18in x 18in tile because two of them together fit the majority the closet’s floor without any cutting. I started by peeling the backs off of each tile and laying them carefully onto the floor. Yes, that’s it, I peeled and stuck. A novel idea for peel-and-stick tile.

Step 3: Once I had covered almost all of the floor, I had to figure out how to cut the smaller pieces to fit the sides.

First I tried to use heavy duty scissors, but that was a huge failure. If you look in the smaller piece below, you can see the ragged edge. (And Blanche being nosey.)

I ended up using a utility knife with a brand new single blade on it. (Thanks for the tip, Alyssa!) First I used a yard stick to draw a line on the tile along where I needed to cut. Then I kept the yard stick in place as I ran the utility knife along the line…over…and over…and over.

I probably did it 20-25 times before I had cut about halfway through. At this point I was able to just snap the tile along the line and get a super clean edge. It worked perfectly!

Now for my honest opinion…

• The pieces didn’t seem that sticky when I first peeled off the backing. Also, for about 48 hours after laying them, they made a bit of a “crunchy” sound when you walked on them. I figured that was just due to the uneven floor and that the sound went away as the tiles settled. It did go away…no crunching noises now.
• They’ve been down for about two months and we haven’t had any issues.
• I love the vinyl peel-and-stick option and think it’s the PERFECT solution for the craft closet/cat poop cave. It’s actually probably way too much for the poop cave, but I just couldn’t stand that unfinished concrete floor. This is very easy to sweep or wipe up and looks a million times better than what we had before.

Blanche wants to make sure you check back next week to see the completely finished space..and don’t forget, I’m participating in a BIG DecoArt giveaway that you don’t want to miss if you love paint 🙂

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