How to Install LVT Flooring

Luxury Vinyl Tiles have become increasingly popular due to their durability, versatility, and beautiful aesthetics. Whether you’re completely renovating your home or giving it a quick refresh, LVT Flooring offers a practical solution. With the help of our resident DIY expert, Craig Phillips, we’re here to answer the question of how to install LVT flooring, walking you through the essential steps in ensuring a flawless finish.

You Will Need:

Your chosen LVT Flooring planks
Rubber Mallet
Measuring Tape
Marker Pen
6mm packers
Preferred method of cutting (E.g. guillotine, Stanley knife and straight edge, handsaw, circular saw)
Silicone sealant
All-purpose adhesive

1 – Prepare the Planks and Your Floor

You may find a slight colour variation between the packs of LVT you receive. To combat this, open up all your packages and mix the planks around so the colours are distributed throughout your flooring.

Man kneeling on a wooden subfloor while arranging planks of varying grey tones for flooring installation, ensuring even distribution of colour.

Take time before getting started to ensure your current is suitable for application. Give it a sweep or a vacuum to free it from any dust or debris, perfect for your planks to be placed on top!

A man sweeping a wooden subfloor with a wide brush, preparing the surface for flooring. Behind them a textured wall insulation creates geometric patterned backdrop.

2 – Start Laying the LVT Planks

Start from the furthest corner of your room and work your way along the straight wall. Lay your first plank in the corner of the room, up against both the straight edges of the walls. We started with an offcut from a previous job, to ensure a varied layout. Do a dry run of the first row of planks to ensure you are happy with the layout and cut pieces.

The image shows a close up view of a corner of a room where the first plank of grey LVT flooring has been laid down on a wooden chipboard subfloor, marking the beginning of a flooring installation.

Place your second plank short edge to short edge, up against the wall, and lock into place using a rubber mallet across the joint.

Man kneeling on the floor, gently tapping a dark LVT floor plank into place with a rubber mallet near a windowed wall with a wood finish.

Continue placing your planks along the wall until you come to your final piece.

A man crouched over, carefully placing a long, dark plank of LVT flooring along the first row adjacent to a wall, under a set of windows. The room is partially completed with insulation visible on the opposing wall.

When it comes to the end of your first row, the chances are you will need to cut a plank to fit into the gap. We strongly advise allowing room for an expansion gap against the walls, to allow your floors to expand over time. We are using a 6mm expansion gap. When measuring for your cut piece to slot into the end of your first row, add 12mm to what you’re cutting away, so you can slide the floor along slightly and ensure a 6mm gap at either end.

3 – Cut Pieces

We’re using a guillotine to cut our planks, but there is a variety of ways you can cut yours. This includes a guillotine, a Stanley knife with a straight edge to score and snap, a handsaw or circular saw etc. Just whatever you feel comfortable with!

A man is shown using a laminate flooring cutter to trim a grey plank to size. They are focused on the task, pressing down on the cutters handle to make a precise cut, with the backdrop of an insulated wall behind them.

Measure the amount you need to cut away, adding your 12mm expansion joint. Bear in mind most LVT Flooring has a clever interlocking system, so the edge that is cut will have to be placed against the wall, otherwise, your flooring won’t lock into place.

Make a mark where you need to cut, and use your preferred method to do so.

4 – Lay your Second Row

To begin your second row of LVT, we would advise using the offcut from your last row to avoid waste and ensure an even layout. Clip into position and use your rubber mallet to lock it into your first row.

The image shows a close up of hands carefully placing a laminate flooring plank at the start of the second row against the wall, ensuring proper alignment and fit for the continuation of the floor installation.

Lay the rest of your second row, locking it into place by tapping your rubber mallet along the joints.

A man kneeling on a wooden subfloor, actively laying grey LVT planks in the second row of a room that features a windowed wall. Flooring tools visible in the background, indicating an ongoing installation process.

Repeat this along your third row.

5 – Create your Expansion Gap

Once you have your third row laid, you will be able to easily lift and slide the flooring away from the wall, so there is 6mm from the wall to the flooring. This is your expansion gap. place your 6mm packers in the gaps between the wall and the planks to ensure this gap is even all the way around.

A man kneeling and placing spacers along the wall to maintain a gap while installing a row of dark LVT flooring, ensuring the planks are correctly aligned against a wall with windows.

6 – Continue Your Rows

Once your packers are in place and you have your expansion gap, you can continue placing your LVT flooring down in rows, using your rubber mallet to lock it into place.

A man kneeling on a subfloor surrounded by various shaded grey LVT planks mid-installation. They have a rubber mallet to snuggly fit the planks together.

7 – Cuts Along the Way

You may find you need to make cuts along the way while laying your flooring. To do this, just ensure you measure correctly, accommodating your expansion back, and only cut edges that are going to be up against the wall, to ensure you can still lock your floor into place. For longer cuts, you may find a guillotine might not cut it. To combat this, use a saw that you are comfortable with and cut along your measurements. Remember, measure twice and cut once!

The image captures a close up of a circular saw cutting through an LVT plank, with sawdust particles scattered in the air, highlighting the action of the cut.

8 – Finishing Up!

Once all your planks are laid and locked into place, you can begin removing your 6mm packers from your expansion gaps. Use small amounts of silicone sealant all around the edges of the flooring, to lock into place and ensure it doesn’t twist or turn over time. Don’t seal the entirety of the flooring, as you need to ensure there is still space for the flooring to expand should it need to do so.

The image shows a person kneeling and applying sealant to the edge of LVT floor plank. They are focused on the task, with a caulk gun in hand against a backdrop of vertical wood panelling.

9 – Covering the Expansion Joint

To cover your expansion joint you have a few options. You can use a scotia bead to cover over it, ensuring you attach this to the wall with your adhesive rather than to the floor, to allow the floor space to expand.

A close-up of a hand pressing a dark scotia beading into place along the junction where the grey laminate flooring meets the vertical wood panelling, covering the expansion gap as part of the flooring installation process.

For our project, we’re using planks cut lengthways to attach to the wall, covering the expansion joint, and acting as a skirting board to protect the walls.

The image captures hands carefully fitting a skirting board to cover the expansion gap between a dark laminate floor, as part of the finishing touches in a flooring installation project.

Once your skirting is fixed into place, you can use silicone to disguise the joint between the plank on the wall and the plank on the floor.

In the image, a man is shown applying silicone sealant along the edge where an LVT floor meets the vertical wall panelling, using a caulk gun for a precise finish as part of the final steps in floor installation.

Let us know how you got on in laying your LVT Flooring, we’d love to see pictures too! Tag us over on Instagram, @Tilemountainuk. Check out our YouTube video ‘How to Install LVT Flooring‘ with Craig Phillips!