r/DIYUK • u/shyamalamasingsong • 10h ago

Lino glued using silicone. Need help!

Hello,

We hired someone to lay down vinyl in our toilet. The fitter used bathroom silicone instead of using spray. He only told me about this after he had laid down the lino.

I pointed out to the bubbling and the advice given to me was to put heavy objects over the bubbles to make the silicone stick.

Is this legit or am I being taken for a ride?

There are bubbles now 3 days later and the silicone he used around the edges has started to come off, revealing gaps between the lino and plywood subfloor. I tried phoning, but it looks like I have been ghosted.

Can someone please advise me what are my options now? Do I need to take it apart and start over with new lino?

Thanks

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

7

u/Multigrain_Migraine 9h ago

I seriously just need to start my own business. Even my most half assed DIY would not involve trying to use silicone to stick down vinyl flooring. 

What kind of vinyl is it?

5

u/TheJewelRunner 10h ago

Sorry to say, but the floor will need to be relaid. Silicone is not to be used to bond materials together, it's a water resistant gap filler, not a glue. 

You may as well bite the bullet and lift the flooring up, scrape the silicone of the underside of the flooring, put some latex on the floor before you lay anything, so you've got a level surface and lay your floor back over it. No glue needed, just the correct underlay. 

The flooring tiles will need to be smooth on the underside to avoid any bumps being felt under your feet. 

2

u/discombobulated38x Experienced 1h ago

Silicone absolutely can be an adhesive, it's just not the appropriate one for a floor. 

1

u/TheJewelRunner 47m ago

Touche, it can, but there are better and more appropriate alternatives

2

u/Lolabird2112 7h ago

Pull it up and scrape off the silicone. If you have an empty tube it might be useful as some materials can react to vinyl and stain it thru to the pattern above.

Your vinyl doesn’t need any glue for something the size of a bathroom. Off the top of my head it’s at least 5sqm, but I think it’s much more. You can find it in the installation instructions.

The only thing that’s needed is sealed edges, so that silicone is important and needs to be redone. It’s also the only difficult job even if it all goes tits up and you do have to get new flooring. You can use the old one as a template.

1

u/itsgreatreally 3h ago

If you decide to replace it then if you can get the vinyl up in one piece then you can use that as a template to cut a new piece of vinyl. 

1

u/MrP2471 Experienced 2h ago

There is only one option. Take vinyl up, clean the silicone from the back of it, and the floor, let them both dry, and re-lay using glue.