Stone-plastic flooring (also known as SPC, or Rigid vinyl plank) has a wide range of patterns to choose from, is hard-wearing and waterproof, formaldehyde-free and affordable, so more and more families are choosing it. In terms of ease of DIY, it is one of the less difficult of all flooring materials. It is easy to cut and does not need to be glued to the floor, and the majority of stone flooring is installed with a simple drop and lock method.
Removing the existing skirting
The tools used to remove the skirting are a hobby knife and a flat-ended pry bar. First use a hobby knife to make a cut in the gap between the top of the skirting and the wall, the aim is to cut through the sealant, otherwise the wall skin may be torn off. Then insert the flat-headed pry bar between the skirting and the wall and gently pry open the skirting. Pry at 20-30 cm intervals and the skirting can be removed completely and marked for later installation.
First lift the sliding door with both hands, the support bar at the bottom of the sliding door detaches from the bracket and slightly moves the bottom of the sliding door on the floor. Then press the spring lever at the top of the sliding door down and move it out of the slot.
It is important to repair the sound of the floor before installing a new floor, otherwise the creaking will increase over time after the new floor has been laid, but cannot be repaired without damage.
SPC stone flooring is well suited to be laid directly on top of an existing hard floor, such as laminate or solid wood flooring. If you are planning to install over an old floor, you will need to check the level of the old floor prior to installation. Check the level of the old floor with a level of at least 4 feet (1.2 metres) and if the old floor has excessive high areas, smooth them out with a grinder. If there are excessively low areas that do not meet the conditions for the installation of stone flooring, you will need to remove the old flooring.
If you intend to remove the old floor completely, you will need to level the floor. spc stone flooring requires a clean, dry and level floor, and each floor has specific level requirements in the instructions. If you are installing over concrete, you will need to use concrete filler to fill any low spots and potholes in the concrete floor and sand out any concrete protrusions.
Allow for expansion joints around the perimeter of the floor, usually 1/4". It is advisable to check your flooring instructions to find the specific requirements of the flooring you have bought.
The splice joints at the end of the floor should be staggered, if the joints are too close together it gives the impression that the floor is short and has splice joints everywhere. There are two things you need to know about flooring stitching, one is that the stitching should be a minimum of 8 feet (20cm) apart and no three rows of flooring should have less than 8 feet of stitching between them.
When you are fitting the door frame, make sure you cut off the bottom edge of the door frame and tuck the floor underneath the frame. It is best to use a Multi tool to cut the frame. You place a piece of discarded flooring on the edge of the door frame and place the blade of the Multi tool on the discarded flooring at the right height.
If the flooring is laid in one layer as a whole, the doorway does not need to be bridged, it just goes out flat. But if you are faced with a height difference or a different material, then you will need a T-mold. Bridging is applied where two different flooring materials are joined at the doorway. When installing the bridge, the flooring should not touch the other flooring, leaving a width of half an inch (13 mm) in between. This half-inch width is partly for the expansion joint and partly for the clips that hold the bridge.
If you are continuing to use the original skirting then you take out the previously bundled skirting, place the skirting in the right place according to the number and then start installing it with the compressor and nail gun. For skirting up to 1/2 inch thick, use 18GA 2 inch long nails. Find this beam while using the wood finder and nail with the nail gun, finding one beam nail in one position, 2 nails in each position.
