How to Install Self-Stick Laminate Tile

Tiling a floor can be complicated and expensive if you mortar down ceramic, or spread your own adhesive to lay vinyl tiles. A simpler method is to lay self-stick laminate tiles, which come in all kinds of colors and styles and are easier to install than just about any other type of floor. It's a modest form of flooring, and probably not appropriate for a formal living room or dining room, but for utility rooms and kids' playrooms, it's an easy, inexpensive choice.

• 1

  Pry off the floor trim from around the room with your hammer and prybar. Don't break it. Set it aside.

• 2

  Clean the floor completely with floor cleaner and a mop. Let it dry.

• 3

  Divide the floor into four equal quadrants, using a chalk snapline to lay two perpendicular lines over the floor, intersecting at the center. Use a square to ensure that the lines are 90 degrees off each other at the intersection.

• 4

  Pull the wax-paper backing off one self-stick laminate tile. Press it immediately to the floor at the intersection, so it's bordered on two adjacent sides by the two lines. Press it firmly to the surface with the palms of both hands to ensure it's completely down.

• 5

  Lay the next tiles off the first one, pulling the paper off the backs of them, butting the edges tightly together and then dropping the rest of the tile to the surface.

• 6

  Work your way out from the middle of the room toward the walls in all directions, along the lines in a grid pattern. Lay as many full tiles as will fit in the room, leaving the floor open near the walls where full tiles won't fit.

• 7

  Measure each space near the walls, from the edge of the last tile to the wall. Mark out the measurement on a tile, subtracting ¼ inch from it. Cut each tile at the mark by laying your square along the line, then cutting alongside the square with your razor knife, then bending the tile until it breaks at the line. Set the tiles with the cut sides facing the walls, leaving a ¼-inch space there.

• 8

  Re-install your floor trim around the room, using your hammer and trim nails. The trim will cover the ¼-inch spaces at the walls.