Fix Vinyl Floor Tiles Lifting or Peeling Up

Transcript

LESLIE: Ruth from New York, what’s going on at your money pit?

RUTH: Well, I have a little problem with my tile on my floor. I had them down about 20 years and they are beginning to lift up in some places. Now, I’m not really planning on staying here much longer and I would like to protect anyone from falling over them meanwhile. How can I get them to stay down? I had them repaired twice already and it cost me quite a bit of money. I would like to be able to do something with it myself. Is there anything that you know of that I could do?

LESLIE: Is the entire tile popping up or are you just seeing it sort of protruding in a corner? Does it seem like …?

RUTH: No, just some of them are coming up in the corners.

LESLIE: Are they ceramic tiles or vinyl tiles? I’m sorry.

RUTH: Vinyl, vinyl.

TOM: You know, vinyl tiles don’t have a lot of adhesive on the back of them and if the underside gets a bit dirty or if there’s moisture that gets in there it is certainly going to pop up. When you repair them are you using a tile cement? Are you using a vinyl cement or what kind of an adhesive are you using?

RUTH: I didn’t repair them myself.

TOM: OK.

RUTH: The place that I bought them came in and repaired them with professional, you know, glue or something.

TOM: (overlapping voices) Mm-hmm. And they keep coming up still? Yeah. You know, it sounds like there is some reason that they are not sticking. Now, whether that’s dirt; whether that’s moisture; whether it’s an uneven floor, if it’s cleaned up correctly and the right kind of cement is used – the right kind of vinyl tile adhesive is used – that should definitely not be happening to you.

RUTH: But he wants about $500 to repair it.

TOM: Definitely not worth $500 to repair a vinyl floor. You could put that money towards a new floor and get a lot more value out of it.

RUTH: Is there anything I could do just to keep it down now for a few more months?

TOM: You know, I don’t think you need to have a pro come in to do this. You could go to the hardware store and pick up some vinyl tile adhesive. Are these vinyl tiles intact? The whole thing’s coming up?

RUTH: Yeah, the corners mostly.

TOM: Well, but is the whole tile separating as well or is it just the corner?

RUTH: Well, they’re separating from each other?

TOM: OK, but the tile’s loose? So you can lift it and get glue underneath it?

RUTH: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

TOM: OK. Alright, so here’s what you should do. Lift up the tile; make sure you clean it as much as you possibly can; get it very, very dry. Then get a trowel; put on some vinyl tile adhesive; press it down into place and weight it with something so it’s heavy and it sticks.

RUTH: Mm-hmm.

TOM: And then you’re going to have to wait probably 24 hours and that ought to do a good job of making sure it doesn’t come up again.

RUTH: Mm-hmm. OK. Thank you very much.

TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.