We're redecorating our daughters bedroom in a couple of weeks.

The cheapo old carpet is due to be replaced with floorig board effect lino. Make-up and hair resistance so easier to keep clean.

Never having fitted lino in bedroom before, the web guidance seems to be...

1. Fit 6mm plywood wall to wall
2. Acclimatise the lino in the room for 24hrs befor fitting
3. Fit the lino and stick down with adhesive or double sided tape

Questions:
1. Anyone fitted it before and is the 6mm plywood necessary?
2. My logic says remove the skirting boards and fit it wall to wall - yes/no?
3. Adhesive or double sided tape - necessary and recommendations?

Thanks people

[Edited on 25-7-24 by nick205]

Really depends on the sub floor...

If its a smooth concrete slab or smooth well jointed chipboard you might get away with out the ply.

If you have floorboards or the surface isn't smooth - then ply is the only option. You will want a decent nail tac gun so you can put hundreds of fixings in. If you don't the plywood will bounce against the sub floor and annoy you! If you use screws, fill the screw heads or you will see them printed through on the flooring.


I would only stick the flooring around the edge and in the doorway area where you get high traffic. most of the rest of the room will have furniture?! Be careful dragging furniture around or you will tear the flooring.


Up to you re skirtings - I wouldn't take it off as it might be more hassle than its worth. Fit the ply with a 1-2mm gap around the edges, lay the flooring and cut with a hooked knife blade so the flooring lays flat against the skirting. Once glued down run a thin bead of silicone to make it look tidy.

Sub-floor is sheets of 4' x 8' ply. Not brilliantly smooth, OK with underlay and carpet. I think 6mm ply wood well tacked down wood gived a smooth enough finish and make it last longer. A squeaky one needs screwing down anyway to stop the annoyance!

Skirting - bit lazy, but inclined to leave it there and fit it with it in place.

Sticking - double sided tape round the edges and doorway sounds good to me. Bed, desk and wardrobe will cover a lot of it!

Ive never had great success with double sided tape. Any dust it just peels off.

Get a can of spray adhesive. Much better

You can get vinyl laminate these days that would clean well but be far more durable than lino. I fit it all the time on jobs. Dead easy.

Lino is likely to get ripped when moving furnature etc around. Unless you get the mega expensive commercial stuff.
I used laminate in eldest daughters befroom as she was embarking on an art course which was likely to be messy. But I have used stick down vinyl planks and LVT elsewhere, seems very durable.
As to sticking down, spray contact adhesive is the stuff to use.

Noted

1. Vinyl laminate rather than lino. Cleanability and durability is what we're after for our daughter (now into make-up and not that careful with it!).
2. Spray adhesive rather than double sided tape. Used this when fabricating my kit car dash and boot panels.

Thanks people.

I've used the stuff for high traffic areas (hallways) and in the hallway where there's a ladder that frequently gets dragged across it for loft access. It's down in one of the bedrooms (wood effect, looks absolutely wood-like) and the garage floor has a jigsaw pattern vinyl laid straight on top of level, smooth concrete. It doesn't tear, cleans well and it's all wunderbar.
Hallway under the loft was carefully screeded concrete, with the vinyl straight on top. Bedroom is simply wood block on bitumen on porous 'concrete', all pretty 1920's state of the art, vinyl simply went over the top. Carpets just rotted out, attracting all sorts of insects and nasties. Yes, it's a bit 'bumpy', but it's also a compliant material. Warm in winter, which is nice.
It just tends to sit well, no glue, it just sits, well.


https://www.onlinecarpets.co.uk/products/puzzle-jigsaw-050-candy-vinyl-flooring

Think about any wiring or other changes you might (or the rooms occupant) need in the near future and run those under the floorboards before you stick the ply and lino down. In my experience:

More power sockets.
TV aerial point (and cable run to roof mounted digital aerial).
Ethernet socket running to router.
Another Ethernet socket for smart TV.
Another power socket.

Then you could go ahead and lay the ply and then the lino.....

Have you considered vinyl planks at all? I was looking at them in B&Q myself last week

Weekend visit to a flooring shop.

Was recommended to fit thicker grade vinyl flooring over thinner.
1. Resists reaing (furniture moving etc)
2. Resists furniture imprints better
More expensive though £££

4-6mm plywood was recommended over the sub-floor.
1. Smoother surface aids bonding
2. Smoother surface shows less imperfections through the vinyl
Expected cost.


@ Paul_Arion
Hadn't considered this, but it's certainly an option. Thanks for the suggestion.

We have this in one of the bedrooms for years, can't say I'd recommend it. Cold as hell in the winter, going to be replacing it with a nice carpet. Carpet tiles are a nice cheap option for kids bedrooms, if they spill stuff on them they can be swapped out and very easy to lay and little wastage.