How to Install Peel & Stick Tile Flooring

Hi friends!

Okay, so I’ve left you hanging and really need to update you on our laundry room and give you a more in-depth process of how we installed these peel and stick tile flooring. You can see the quick, nitty-gritty how-to here.

To say I am OBSESSED with these floors is an understatement. They are really awesome quality. Honestly, I don’t know what I was expecting, but I wasn’t thinking they would be vinyl. I was thinking they would be more rubbery and flexible, but it’s not and they feel like great quality! Very impressed with them and I can’t get over how they look in my laundry room. These definitely transformed the space! 

Install was really pretty easy. The hardest part was figuring out the cuts next to the wall. So, I’ll list a step-by-step process of what we did!

1. The first thing we did was remove the quarter round from the baseboard. If you don’t have this, your choices would either to remove the baseboard, or to bring the tile to the baseboard and then add quarter round for a more finished look. There is no wrong way, it’s just what you prefer! I highly recommend this step, though, because you don’t want to butt it right up against the baseboard or wall. You want there to be a gap to allow for some expansion. Honestly, I would love to replace all the baseboards in our home with something more modern, but we were looking for a very budget friendly option for this makeover. And, although there are different ways to replace baseboards more affordably, this just wasn’t something we were looking to do at this time. When removing the baseboard and/or quarter round, make sure use use a utlity or Exacto knife to break the seam of caulk and then use some type of tool that has a flat head to wedge at the spot where you cut. Then, you can use a hammer to gently tap against this to get it started and slowly pull it away from the wall. It worked very well for us without damaging any areas or breaking the quarter round.

2. After this, we vacuumed the floors and then I used warm, soapy water to clean the existing tiles. 

3. Next, we installed it according to the directions that came with the tiles, which recommend starting from the middle of the room. I personally think this is the best way to do it, unless you might have a larger open space where this butts up to another type of flooring. Then, you might want it to start it against the other flooring and work your way across. we found the middle of the floor and marked it. Once this was marked, we made sure the angle of our tile flooring was at 45 degrees. This would probably be pretty easy if you have a 360 laser level, but we don’t. My husband is much more math minded than I am, so he helped with this. I was just eyeballing it 😆, but my husband made an “X” at an actual 45 degree angle so that I could match up the corners of the new tiles to it.

4. I went ahead and took out all the pieces from the first box and laid them out in the pattern that seemed best to me, since some pieces have more veining than others. Once we had the correct angle and the general pattern, it was really easy. I picked a piece from the box to start with and then stuck it down at the corner of the “X”. I made sure to press firmly on all of the edges. Each piece of tile comes with a paper backing on it that has arrows. When installing, we made sure all the arrows were facing the same direction so that the pattern would look intentional, but not identical. 

5. Then, I continued to work out in one direction alternating the color of the tiles and making sure that each tile was butted up to the tile next to it and in line before pressing down. These tiles are sticky so you want to make sure it’s well lined up before pressing it down. I would recommend doing one row and then the next rather than doing the 4 tiles around it so that you can make sure there are no alignment imperfections.

6. Once we got to the tile was going to meet the wall, it got a little trickier, but still very doable! There are probably 101 different ways to do it, but my husband was point person on this. He just used a ruler to measure the space from the wall to the tile we would be placing it against, and he measured it in multiple places (since not all walls are even). Then, he measured it on the tile and drew a line with pencil on the paper backing. We used the utility knife to cut from the back, and then bent it to snap it. You have to use a little bit of force to do this. We found that for the smaller cuts it was easier to use a sharp pair of scissors to cut it. IMPORTANT NOTE: Don’t throw away your extra pieces that you cut from the tiles. We used multiple of them for other edge pieces, but we had to pay attention to the arrows to make sure they worked with the others. But this definitely helped limit the amount of tiles we needed. Otherwise, we would have had to buy more than the 10%  extra that we recommended.

7. After all the tiles were installed, we put the quarter round back on using our nail gun and 1 1/2″ nails. 

8. Then, I did the finishing work. I used paintable wood filler for the nail holes and and paintable caulk to seal the seam. Then, we painted the trim the same white color (this is also something we will probably re-do down the line because our paint is a VERY creamy white, which we don’t personally like for the trim. Just another project for down the line.

And that was it! Our floors look beautiful and I absolutely LOVE them. Seriously, every time I walk into that room I can’t believe how good they look!

What do you think? Is this something you would be willing to try in your home? Such an easy, affordable upgrade! 

One question I have gotten on social media is if the tiles dip where the existing grout lines are. And, my honest answer is no! I can’t feel that at all. However, I will say there are a couple of *slight* imperfections in the tile flooring below it where it is not level. I wouldn’t have ever known it except for this project. That being said, I think they were in inconspicuous areas and I haven’t noticed it since putting our laundry room back together. However, IF you have very uneven or not smooth flooring, these are not for you!

Speak soon, friends!