floormagic

A Kenneth J. Frango Company

Gouged Sheet Vinyl

Replacement Material

Make the vinyl patch as small as possible.

Secure the new vinyl sheet patch.

The sheet vinyl has been cut

Remove the sheet vinyl wear layer

Expose the backing

Scrape the backing away.

Time for glue.

Clean the seams

Apply the seam sealer.

floormagic

A kenneth J. Frango Company

Solving flooring problems for the people that make it to the people that use it...and everyone inbetween.

A careless appliance delivery person does a shimmy with the fridge and winds up tearing the wear layer on this sheet vinyl. This product made by Mannington Mills has a very realistic slate appearance.

It's very important to have extra material on hand for repairs. Make sure to consider this at the time of purchase. Its difficult to get a good material match at a later date. Most sheet vinyl can be undetectably patched/repaired as long as there is unused material available.

These squares repeat about every three feet in the width and length. We don't have a duplicate square available to replace the damaged ones, so we will make due.

That's the idea anyway. Though in this particular instance we don't have a pattern match so our seams will have to be made in what's called the grout lines. We need to replace two squares and the diamond. The rolled up painter's blue tape is a little trick that helps hold the material secure while the seams get cut. Don't go spreading this tip around. We know what happened to Bruce Lee after he divulged trade secrets. ;)

The piece of vinyl needs to be kept steady while both layers are cut through simultaneously. This is called double cutting.

Notice I use the tape along side the diamond. This is a reminder so I don't get carried away.

Simple as that. Hey I can't give all the trade secrets away.

Make a couple of cuts with a utility knife in the piece to be discarded and peel the vinyl wear layer away. Excuse the color of this picture. Its supposed to be gray not brown. Must be a weird angle or camera flash.

Once the vinyl wear layer is peeled away it exposes the felt backing that is adhered to; in this case a concrete substrate.

Using a sharp razor scraper, carefully remove the felt. By carefully I mean do not scrape up the edges of the vinyl that is to remain in place. If you do, the possibility of the vinyl repair failing is greatly increased.

I normally apply a thin layer of adhesive, in this case I used Capitol's Safe T 003 multi-purpose adhesive, formulated for adhering both specific types of carpet and felt backed shhet vinyl. I apply glue to both sides, the floor and the sheet vinyl. Then I let flash (moisture evaporation) until tacky. Sticks very well.

This is very important. Once the vinyl is carefully set in place I used the cleaner that comes with the seam sealer kit to prepare the seam so it may be chemically welded using the appropriate seam sealer.

This sealer is applied topically and actually welds the two pieces together, creating a moisture proof join. If the seams are not sealed or are not sealed properly they will eventually open, as moisture will find its way in and underneath. I used the blue tape as markers here because the seams are virtually invisible and otherwise I'd lose track of where the piece is inserted.

That's about it. On this repair I replaced a total of four squares. This being two of the four and there were two other tears that required one square each being replaced. The three patches took an hour and a half to insert and cost the customer $150.00.

Solving flooring problems for the people that make it to the people that use it...and everyone inbetween.