Hiding A Tear in Vinyl Flooring

Ya  just never know when you’re gonna need to improvise…I recently was asked what to do about some ugly rips / tears in a piece of vinyl flooring. Luckily, it ran close to an existing piece of carpet trim so I was able to hide it quite nicely.

Don’t want to guess how the rips appeared…

This pic shows the original carpet trim that was used. (The rip is there but may be hard to see.)

I ended up using trim that was designed for use with laminate floors. It fit nicely over the old trim so I didn’t have to remove it and it hid the ugly rip we wanted to hide.

• In order to get nice mitered corners – it cuts nicely with a small chop-saw with a carbide blade.
• When you measure, make sure you allow for the width of the piece it will but up to.
• When you drill the holes for the fasteners, ream them out just a little. (Be careful not to break the drill bit, like I did – twice..)
• If you get the hole too big, you can put some adhesive caulk in the hole first before you install the fasteners..Then you’ll need to plan on putting some weight on top of the trim piece until the caulking dries.
• MAKE SURE  the holes are deep enough for the fastener to go all the way down in.
• Insert the fasteners into the slots in the back of the trim BEFORE you put them into the drilled holes. (The heads of the fasteners are square and if they twist going into the drilled holes, you’ll have a really hard time getting them lined up to go into the slot in the trim.
• You’ll need to be sure to push STRAIT DOWN on the fasteners, (Have the pressure directly over each one as you do it.) They are flexible and like to bend the wrong way..

 

• You’ll need to be sure to push STRAIT DOWN on the fasteners, (Have the pressure directly over each one as you do it.) They are flexible and like to bend the wrong way..