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Self-Adhesive Vinyl Tiles Review Pros and Cons

Evaluate Self-Adhesive Vinyl Tiles Review Pros and Cons To Meet Your Need

by Dylan Johnson

Self-Adhesive Vinyl Tiles – When it comes to flooring, you must experience a great confusion to determine which you will take for your home.

Here we come with self-adhesive vinyl tiles pros and cons to allow you evaluate whether this flooring really meets you needs and expectation.

Self-adhesive vinyl tiles are defined as a thin flooring material added with the adhesive backing. They come with a wide variety of colors, patterns and levels of durability.

In this regards, self-adhesive vinyl tiles are the solutions due to their easy care and maintenance, making them best for bathrooms, kitchens, kid’s rooms and hallways.

Often, self-adhesive vinyl tiles installed in a rental apartment are easy to remove when the residency is over.

Noticeably, this removal will not cause any damage to the subfloor. Apart from the easy and quick installation, vinyl tiles have some drawbacks that you might not know.

In this article, you will be directed to understand deeply about the self-adhesive vinyl tiles cost, maintenance, design, installation, comparisons of vinyl floor and vinyl sheet, top brands and the conclusion whether self-adhesive vinyl tiles are right for you or not.

Which flooring type will be the best for DIY options?

If you are wondering whether or not a self-adhesive vinyl tile is the best for DIY options, convince yourself that this flooring type is not only expensive but also durable, quick to install, easy to remove and replace.

These are the vinyl tiles characteristics that are also the reasons why people prefer choosing the flooring.

While there are some pros of the vinyl tiles, there are also some drawbacks including the needs of flawless underlayment, the unrecyclable materials, the toxic glues and the fact that water can still seep through the edges.

Read Also: What You Need To Know About Vinyl Flooring That Looks Like Wood

Cost of Self Adhesive Vinyl Tiles Flooring

In this self-adhesive vinyl tiles pros and cons review, we list the cost as the first thing to present since cost is one of the most sensitive aspect of a flooring products.

In this case, self-adhesive vinyl tiles can be very much affordable. You can definitely expect to pay as little as a few cents for the cheapest price of this flooring per square foot.

You can even pay up to couple of dollars to purchase a premium flooring product per square foot.

Generally, the price of attractive self-adhesive vinyl tiles is ranging for a few cents to one dollar per square foot.

For vinyl composition tiles (VCT), the products are vary, ranging from the one made from vinyl plastic and mixed with synthetic fillers and binders to the ones with a print layer coated by a clear layer.

Let’s take an example. A 144-square foot room which is 12 x 12 feet will require you to pay $144 on average. That is for the mid-range quality of peel-and-stick vinyl tile flooring.

Maintenance and Repair

No worry of removing and replacing the self-adhesive vinyl tiles since it requires no professional assistance.

In removing the vinyl, you will just need to replace the underlayment. In this case, you are involving a repair process to the subfloor.

Due to the fact that self-adhesive vinyl tile is prone to “unsticking”, many of the professional flooring installers are unwilling to use it.

However, if they are hired to install the flooring, they must apply an additional full-spread adhesive to underlayment before installing the vinyl tiles.

Design Of Self-Adhesive Vinyl Tile

Self-adhesive vinyl tiles is purely constructed from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) along with the compounds to add the characteristics to the flooring such as the colors, hardness, flexibility and sheen.

Some fine minerals are even added to the vinyl flooring materials to give textures and natural stone look to the flooring.

In relation to this self-adhesive vinyl tile, luxury vinyl flooring is a new form designed and manufactured along with layer of flexible vinyl tile attached to the additional backing layer to provide the flooring with a semi-rigid nature.

Luxury vinyl flooring as well as the self-adhesive vinyl tile comes with the same vinyl layer, print layer and wear layer like you can just find in standard vinyl sheet or tile.

This luxury vinyl flooring is usually manufactured in planks along with a “click-lock” feature, making it be the competitor to laminate flooring.

Installation of Self-Adhesive Vinyl Tile Floors

The review of self-adhesive vinyl tiles pros and cons also includes the information of installation which is the main point discussed in this article.

In fact, the biggest benefit of vinyl flooring lies in its easy installation at which self-adhesive technique comes into play.

Truly, self-adhesive vinyl tiles can be directly connected to the underlayment and smooth subfloor.

The basic installation includes several steps to follow.

First, you can simply peel away and taking out the paper backing.

Secondly, locate the vinyl tiles on the floor.

Next, press them down to connect in place against the underlayment.

In the manufacturing process, a layer of adhesive will be applied to the bottom part of each tile and covered using the protective paper backing.

During the installation, the role of underlayment is very important to successfully apply the peel-and-stick vinyl tile.

This will makes the floor perfectly installed due to the smooth and clean result of installation.

Keep in mind that the wet, grainy or dusty floors may not enable the tiles to stick well.

If you notice that the underlayment is not as solid as it should be, the peel-and-stick vinyl tiles will often loose over time.

In this case, the glue used must be strong enough to hold the tiles. However, the stronger the glue, the more toxic it will be and the more gases will emit.

A new flooring is also common to lay directly over the old vinyl flooring though it depends on the recommendations of the manufacturers and the conditions of the old existing flooring.

In this case, laminate and hardwood flooring are the two flooring types which are usually directly laid over an old vinyl floors.

Nowadays, self-adhesive vinyl tiles are designed to be easily removed.

Typically, either an installer or a homeowner need only to pry the tiles up using the putty knife.

Vinyl Floor Tiles Vs. Vinyl Sheet Flooring

Popularly, both self-adhesive tiles and sheet vinyl are produced similarly with the same wear.

They are the standard types of vinyl flooring you can consider installing in your home.

They also share the same advantages such as the easy cleaning and the ability to resemble the stone and wood look.

However, there are some key differences that makes each of them perform better than the other one.

Peel-and-stick vinyl floor is available in 9 x 9 inches or 12 x 12 inches while the sheets come with the size of 6-feet or 12-sheet wide rolls.

This is one of the reasons why most DIYers choose the vinyl tile since they can manage their time well and their low budget for the installation. Instead, sheet vinyl has more expensive price.

Unfortunately, vinyl tile comes with the more seams, allowing the water to seep down and the floors get damaged especially if you install it in the bathrooms and kitchens.

However, once you find a damaged tile, you can easily remove and replace it.

Popular Brands of Self-Adhesive Vinyl Floor Tiles

To explore more about self-adhesive vinyl tiles pros and cons, it is necessary to know the popular brands of self-adhesive vinyl floor tiles.

Some of the top and recommended brands are Armstrong, TrafficMaster and FloorPops.

Armstrong is a leader of vinyl flooring that offers a wide range of price point, from peel-and-stick to luxury vinyl planks.

TrafficMaster offers not only vinyl tile but also sheet vinyl.

They are available in most of Home Depot Stores. TrafficMaster is popularly known as a bargain vinyl tile maker.

FloorPops is the company that is also a division of Wallpops.

This company is popular with its bold, graphic and many kinds of contemporary vinyl tiles design.

Read Also: Consider Luxury Vinyl Flooring Top Manufacturers To Choose The Best Flooring

Are You Sure That Self-Adhesive Vinyl Tile Is The Right Choice?

Basically, vinyl is a flexible flooring material completed with the expected features to stand out the high traffic of footsteps.

Vinyl tile is made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and synthetic plastic, requiring you to check out the environmental impact dealing with the manufacturing process.

Some of the characteristics of self-adhesive vinyl tiles are:

Comfortable

Vinyl tile flooring is comfortable underfoot, making it perfect for your home areas with the high traffic of footsteps, pets and kids.

Color safe

Due to the multiple layers used in constructing the flooring material, vinyl tiles will remain its true color for years to come.

This is much of advantage especially for some high traffic areas like mudrooms and entryways.

Furthermore, self-adhesive vinyl tile is reliable when it comes to colors. However, it can fade overtime and need such replacement.

Noise buffer

in relation to comfort, self-adhesive vinyl tile is able to reduce the foot traffic noise through the sound absorption.

To have a soundless surface of walking, you must choose the higher quality of vinyl flooring tiles.

Stain and water resistant

Vinyl flooring tiles are often used in a home area with the high level of moisture such as bathrooms and kitchens.

In general, vinyl tile is easy to clean and resistant to stain. Spills can also be wiped up easily. However, too much moisture can affect the flooring performance.

Environmental concern

In these modern days, the standard vinyl flooring tiles are strict since they are usually staying in landfills while it needs centuries to decompose. Vinyl is also constructed from chlorine. Vinyl disposal will cause harm to the environment.

Moreover, the low-quality of vinyl can emit the gas containing a small amount of toxic Volatile Organic Chemical (VOC) particles.