Self adhesive vinyl and other plastic tiles
Planning to lay vinyl tiles

There is a wide choice of plain or patterned coloured designs available for vinyl tiles.

The choice of colour and/or design is a personal matter, but there are a couple of other variations which you can consider, but remember that the flooring will be permanent once laid so it pays to think carefully before doing anything spectacular:

• Just because tiles are generally square does not mean you have to line up the edges parallel with the walls in a square room, another option is to have the tile edges at 45 degrees to the wall lines. This can give a relatively plain room, a bit of added character. But don't use any other angle of alignment unless you are really adventurous.
  
  
• You can mix colours (or even patterns) by buying different pack of tiles. Mixing colours is fairly straightforward although don't use too many different colours and choose the colours to match or complement each other (see our colour wheel).
  You can arrange mix colours evenly (every other tile in a row being a different colour) or have a different colour tile every (say) 3rd tile. You can also use different colours as a border around the edge of a room or as an inserted pattern.
  Patterned tiles can be mixed in a similar manner although it is often best to have either the same basic pattern of different colours or different patterns with similar colours.
  Avoid mixing different bold patterns. If you choose to mix patterns or colours, try to repeat the pattern over the whole area - if you try to have a random mixture you will find people try to work out a pattern.
  Try to only mix tiles from the same manufacturer and of the same size.

It is best to actually draw out a plan of the room to work out the number of tiles you require, don't rely on straight conversion of room area divided by individual tile area.

It is very unlikely that:

• Any two adjacent walls will be at right angles
• Any two opposite walls will be parallel
• The distance between any two opposite walls will be equal to an exact number of floor tiles.

Look at the various sizes of tile, the most common sizes are 300 mm and 305 mm (12 inch) square - they are different sizes, not just the same packaged differently.

Try to keep to a single size unless you want to insert a narrow border or you are very adventurous.

When buying packets of tiles, always check that all boxes have the same batch number to ensure that the colour tints are the same on all tiles. Make sure that you purchase sufficient packs to complete the job, and allow for a few additional tiles for waste and future repair.

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Floor preparation - Calculate the number of tiles - Setting out - Laying the vinyl tiles - After care