How to lay vinyl & carpet floor tiles

These tasks may be tricky so will suit you if you're experienced in DIY, or simply love a challenge.

Please take a moment to read through our DIY safety tips, before you get started on any of our 'how to' guides.

What You'll Need:

It's easy to work out how many tiles you'll need. Start by multiplying the width of your room by the length to find the main area.
Then add or subtract the area of any bay windows, alcoves, chimney breasts or door thresholds.
Divide the area of the room by the area of a single tile, rounding up to the nearest whole number. Vinyl tiles vary in size but all Homebase carpet tiles are 50cm x 50cm - i.e. four tiles = 1m².
Add 5% to 10% and this is the number of tiles you should buy.
Check your tiles have the same batch number so they match. And, of course, make sure they're the right type of tile for the area you're covering.

Carpet tiles are ideal for bedrooms. Generally, vinyl and carpet tiles are all fine for living rooms, bathrooms and kitchens.
It's best not to put floor tiles in your conservatory - intense sunlight and temperature can make them fade and shrink.

On old floors, remove all previous floor coverings and any adhesives used to stick them down.
If you're putting tiles on floorboards, overlay the boards with hardboard, smooth side up. You shouldn't use timber treated with wood preservatives as a sub-floor, even if it's overlaid with hardboard.
If you're laying tiles over a concrete sub-floor it must be smooth, absolutely dry and have an integral damp-proof membrane.
Remember, new concrete floors can take up to six months to dry. And they have to be completely dried out before you can lay new tiles.
Prime all porous surfaces - including concrete, sand and cement screed, plywood, hardboard and chipboard - with a diluted solution of PVA. Follow manufacturer's instructions.

You shouldn't lay vinyl tiles over underfloor heating as they can lift or warp. Carpet tiles are fine up to a maximum floor temperature of 28^oC.

If your tiles aren't self-adhesive, buy the tile manufacturer's recommended adhesive.
You can stick carpet tiles down with a 'low tack' adhesive or double-sided tape so they can be lifted and replaced easily.

You'll achieve the best look for your floor if the tiles are centred in the doorway.
Ideally you want the tiles around the edge of your room to be equal in width on both sides or ends - i.e. avoid narrow strips at the edges and in doorways. The image shows where the tiles should stop in a doorway.

Avoid narrow strips at edges and doorways

Mark a chalk line down the centre of the room

Then, starting in the centre of the doorway, mark a second line at a 90-degree angle to the first line.

mark a second line at 90° to the first line

'Loose lay' tiles along these lines to see how the borders appear. If you end up with awkward narrow strips of tiles at the edge of the room, simply adjust the chalk lines to avoid this.

‘loose lay’ tiles along these lines to see how the borders appear

Start laying tiles in rows along your chalk line. Lay all the centre tiles first. Leave out the last full rows and the row of border tiles.

leave the last full row and border tiles

Don't put adhesive on the last full rows or borders until you've cut the border tiles and are ready to lay them.
Place each tile carefully - butting it firmly and squarely up to its neighbours. This should create good straight lines.
Don't slide the tiles as this can force adhesive into the joints and make a bad fit. Remove all excess adhesive with a damp rag before it goes hard (obviously you wouldn't do this for self-adhesive or carpet tiles).
If you're laying vinyl tiles, and the surfaces of adjacent tiles aren't level, you can usually even them out with a block of softwood and a hammer.

even out vinyl tiles using a softwood block and hammer

To cut your border tiles, loose lay a whole tile (marked A in the below image). Place another tile over it with its edge butting up to the wall.
Score the lower tile with a craft knife (marked A in the below image). You can bend a vinyl tile to break it. Otherwise use a safe blade to finish the cut. Always use a safe blade on carpet tiles.

score lower tile against “loose lain” tile on top to make a border tile

follow the same process for tiling around corners

With vinyl tiles, don't shape a tile to go round the architrave. It's actually easier to cut out a section at the bottom of the architrave itself. But with carpet tiles, make a cardboard template and cut the shape out of the tile.
With a hand saw and chisel, remove a section of architrave to the same depth as your tile and slot the tile underneath it.

saw out architrave and slot tile underneath

To fit vinyl or carpet tiles around pipes, you pierce a pipe-shaped hole in your tile that's slightly larger than the pipe itself.
To do this, make a cutter out of a scrap of pipe by sharpening the inside edge of one end with a file.
Mark the pipe's position on your border tile, then line up the cutter and hit it with a hammer.

use a tile cutter to help cut around pipes

Then make a single straight cut from the hole to the edge of the tile and fit it around the pipe.

Where your tiles finish in a doorway use a metal threshold strip to give a neat water-resistant edge. You can get threshold strips to suit surfaces that meet at equal or differing heights.
Measure the width of your door opening and cut the metal strips with a junior hacksaw. Then smooth the ends with a fine file. Screw the threshold strip into the floor.
To fix threshold strips into a solid floor, mark the screw holes. Use a masonry drill to bore holes to fit a wall plug and screw the strips to the floor.

To get the best overall look for your carpet tiles, lay them at right angles to each other. Arranging your tiles like this gives a checkerboard effect.

arrange your tiles in a checkerboard fashion for the best effect

Arrows on the reverse of the tiles indicate the way to lay them.
If you prefer a 'broadloom' carpet appearance, lay all your tiles pointing in the same direction.

When buying carpet tiles, get a few spares to replace any tiles that get damaged or worn.