How to lay linoleum on a concrete floor: lay, lay, lay, laying linoleum on concrete, what to lay linoleum on

Linoleum is one of the popular flooring. It has a large assortment of color options and a styling method that is understandable even to a beginner. In order for linoleum to serve as long as possible in perfect condition, it must be laid in compliance with the installation technology. Laying this type of material can be done with your own hands. Read on about how to correctly lay linoleum on a concrete base.

How to lay linoleum on a concrete floor

Concrete is recognized as the best base for laying linoleum coatings. In the process of the work itself, they use the method of fastening the material to glue, double-sided tape or use simple pressing with the help of a plinth. It must be understood that the thinner the material, the more critical it is to treat the quality of the surface on which it will be placed. The air temperature in the room should not be lower than 18 degrees, and humidity not more than 68%.

REFERENCE. On a perfectly smooth surface, the coating will last up to 30 years, and on an uneven support - 5 times less.

Laying linoleum on a concrete floor - algorithm

Having studied the above information, you will understand how to lay the flooring yourself. Before starting work, the necessary devices should be prepared:

special glue mixture;
building mixtures;
primer;
cold welding;
roulette;
moisture meter;
adhesive tape (double and masking);
a vacuum cleaner;
baseboards with mounts;
knife or cutter;
felt-tip pen;
putty knife;
roller;
brushes.

Foundation preparation

Preliminary work is one of the most important stages in the process of linoleum flooring. The floor surface must fully comply with the required characteristics. Consider the main ones:

Purity. The presence of dirt, sand, debris and other small objects is unacceptable.
Humidity not more than 4%. The surface must be dry. This indicator is checked using a special device - a hydrometer.
Evenness. The maximum allowable difference should be no more than 2 mm for every 2 cm of area. There should not be even the most minor flaws.
Strength. To strengthen the base, it is recommended to use reinforcing mixtures, reinforcing fabric and other materials.
Monolithicity. All cracks should be removed one week before the laying of the material.

There are various ways to make a surface ideal for further work. In this case, the technology will depend on the condition of the concrete, as well as on the need to install a thermal element and sound insulation, which must be put in advance.

ATTENTION. Linoleum is an elastic coating and in case of defects on a concrete base it can quickly break.

Dismantling the old coating

The old flooring is removed. They tear it with a spatula and clean it with pieces. If something cannot be removed, it is advisable to use a metal skin and thoroughly clean a difficult area. Next, you should start cleaning the surface from debris. Carefully sweep the floor and vacuum it. After cleaning, it is important to check the surface and evaluate its quality. It is also worth considering whether in the future it is necessary to lay some foundation under linoleum.

Fixing existing defects

If concrete has cracks, bumps, bumps and height differences, then it must be leveled. If fungus or mold is detected, but this problem should be resolved first. The floor must be washed, treated with an antiseptic solution, and then thoroughly dried. To seal cracks, you can independently prepare a solution of the following materials:

1 part of cement M400-M500;
6 parts of sand;
1 part of water.

First, cement and sand are mixed together, and then the liquid is gradually poured. In a well-polished recesses, the resulting composition is applied with a spatula. Then leave the floor to dry for about a day. Larger irregularities can be covered with foam. Tubercles with a large difference in height are knocked down with a hammer to the level of the screed.

Smoothing the concrete floor can be done using special mixtures. You will also need a trowel, a building level and a metal profile. You can use the polymer composition, which can be purchased at any hypermarket.

IMPORTANT. Defects such as dents and cracks can not only damage the linoleum, but also significantly degrade sound and heat insulation performance.

Screed

Working with a screed is the most complex and time-consuming process. Before starting work, you should outline a reference plane for alignment. To do this, draw a horizontal line on one of the walls and continue work, moving along the walls in a perpendicular direction. The result should be a smooth surface on the walls.

Then on the floor we find an area of 50x50 cm and fill it with a solution and align it well. At the end of the work with a spatula, you can finally level the surface. It can take several days to fill the floor with a cement screed, since the base should harden.

Laying linoleum

A waterproofing material such as polyethylene can be laid on top of concrete. This will increase sound insulation performance, as well as insulate the supporting part. Sections of polyethylene should be overlapped so that they overlap each other by 25 cm. On the wall of the captivity should go about 5 cm.

Linoleum should be placed on the floor, going to the walls of about 8 cm. To speed up the process of work, it is recommended to draw a linoleum laying plan in advance, since work in non-standard sizes can be complicated. Using a felt-tip pen and a centimeter, it is easy to transfer the resulting drawing to the material. At the end of the work, excess linoleum near the walls should be cut so that a small gap of about 1 cm remains between the wall and the edge. This gap is necessary in case the material expands due to high temperature.

What to glue

You can lay linoleum without gluing. In this embodiment, it is easy to fix it with double-sided tape along the baseboard and at the entrance. To do this, unscrew the edges and fix the adhesive tape on them, and then iron the canvas and remove the protective layer. In the case of glue, the following recommendations must be observed:

First, twist the formation to half the length.
The floor is treated with adhesive mortar according to the recommendations on the packaging.
At the joining point, on both sides, a strip of approximately 35 cm without glue is left.
Then they mark a certain time and straighten the linoleum again, carefully pressing it.
When gluing linoleum, it is advisable to have a special pressure roller. It squeezes air well, providing strong bonding.
Next, the second side is glued in the same way.
At the end of the work, plinths are fixed.

ATTENTION. The roller can be replaced with a regular plastic trowel used for wallpaper bonding. Also for this purpose use a board wrapped in felt or felt.

Joint sealing

If several pieces of material were used in the process, then the joints formed between them must be repaired. One of the simple and reliable options is the fastening of a metal strip. This is what happens when two different color materials are combined at the door. However, in the center of the room, this method will not always be appropriate, because the bar will stand out, which is unaesthetic.

It is more rational to buy the so-called cold welding. Follow a certain sequence of actions:

First, remove excess material in the joint area. To do this, it is better to cut through both parts at a time. In this case, the connection will be imperceptible.
Next, you need to unscrew the non-glued parts along the seam, apply glue to them and allow to dry.
They glue the place of joining with a wide adhesive tape and cut it along the joint.
Then open the glue and set the nozzle on the tube.
The needle is inserted at the beginning of the suture and pressed on the tube until a spot of glue appears on the tape.
Carefully guide the needle along the cut so that the amount of glue mass is the same.
After 15 minutes, the adhesive tape along with the glue residue can be removed.

Subject to the above technology, the docking will be practically invisible. After a couple of hours after the end of work, you can begin to fully use linoleum and begin to walk on it.

The most acceptable is linoleum flooring on a cement floor. In the end result, no matter how sophisticated and expensive the material the appearance of the floor covering is purchased, it will depend on the quality of the work performed. Therefore, the question of studying the technology of linoleum flooring should be taken seriously. Subject to all the rules, a real design project will be obtained. We hope that this article will be useful and will help in the process of laying linoleum on a concrete floor.