How do I fix LVT or vinyl tiles that are lifting at the edges?

A vinyl tile that curls is telling you about the bond underneath it. Sticking it back down with more of the same adhesive addresses the symptom and repeats the failure.

What you'll need

• A hot air gun or a hairdryer
• A scraper
• The correct flooring adhesive
• A seam roller or a heavy roller
• White spirit or adhesive remover
• Weights

Step by step

1. Lift the tile completely.Warm it with a hot air gun on low and ease it up with a scraper. You need to see the whole underside and the whole bed of adhesive.
2. Read the adhesive.Powdery and dusty means the substrate was not primed and the adhesive has taken the surface with it. Still tacky means it never cured or was overloaded. Clean and released means heat or the wrong product.
3. Check for moisture.A dark patch of screed under the tile, or a musty smell, means damp. Tape a polythene square down for 48 hours before doing any repair.
4. Check the heat.Tiles in direct sun through a patio door, or over an underfloor heating loop, get much hotter than the rest. Standard adhesives soften above their service temperature.
5. Scrape the old adhesive back.Both the floor and the tile. New adhesive over old is a weak bond, and old ridges hold the tile proud.
6. Prime the substrate.On a porous screed or a levelling compound, primer is what stops the slab drinking the water out of the adhesive before it can grab.
7. Use the right adhesive.Acrylic pressure-sensitive for most LVT; a high-temperature or two-part adhesive over underfloor heating or in conservatories. The tin states the service temperature.
8. Respect the open time.Most flooring adhesives need to be spread and then left until they are tacky rather than wet. Laying into wet adhesive is one of the most common causes of edge lifting.
9. Roll it properly.A seam roller along the edges and a heavy roller over the tile. Hand pressure alone does not achieve the transfer the adhesive needs.
10. Weight it while it sets.Books, a bag of sand, anything flat and heavy. Twenty-four hours before traffic and 72 hours before washing the floor.
11. Look at the neighbours.If several tiles in one area are lifting, the cause is regional — damp, heat or preparation — and repairing one at a time is going to be a long project.

Tips

• Keep spare tiles from the original job. Colour batches change and a replacement tile from a new box rarely matches exactly.
• Tiles lifting in a line usually follow an underfloor heating pipe or a joint in the substrate. The pattern is the diagnosis.
• Do not wash the floor for at least three days after a repair. Water at the edge of a fresh bond undoes it.

Common mistakes

• Sticking a curled tile back with general-purpose adhesive — Flooring adhesives are formulated for the plasticisers in vinyl and for the service temperature of a floor. General adhesives either fail to grip vinyl at all or soften under heat, and the tile lifts again within months.
• Laying into wet adhesive — Pressure-sensitive flooring adhesives develop their grab as the water leaves them. Laid too soon, the tile floats on a wet film, the edges relieve first, and the tile curls as the adhesive cures unevenly.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask