Home Depot Allure Floor Tiles. Easy to lay

After long deliberation and reading dozens of reviews, i decided to go with these new style of vinyl floor tiles for two rooms in my home. I am presently a single mum and so it was very important that these be something i could lay by myself. I wanted a product which was going to be durable, waterproof, pleasant to look at and not cost me the earth to either buy or lay. I kept finding myself tempted to just get carpet but i am SO glad i did not. This floor has exceeded my expectations. I checked out the home depot video for installation as well as a you tube video of somebody laying this floor. It certainly looked and sounded quite straight forward. However, i was not going to be easily sold. I did my homework. Before the tiles arrived, i purchased a knife and blades. I ordered some double sided tape from home depot at the same time as the tiles. This arrived first and so i was all prepared. I already owned a straight edge which i used for drafting patterns in sewing. My bathroom floor was already prepared and so it only needed a quick sweep and mop before laying the new floor. The den needed a little bit more prep. It was an old tile which had been covered in carpet. I ripped the carpet up and then had to use some floor filler to smooth out a few of the larger gaps in the tiles. I am glad i did this, but in actual fact these tiles would probably have laid well without that work. They are very flexible and yet also very strong.

The instructions tell you to lay some double sided tape down to secure the first line. I had already gleaned this tip from the you tube video and other reviews. You need to make sure you leave about an 8mm gap between the edge of the tile and the wall to permit for tile expansion. Also, before laying the tile it is very important to just let it rest in the room for at least two days, so it can adjust to the climate of that room. I expect this is especially important if you live in a very cold climate. I am in the deep south of the USA and so i imagine the tiles were at full expansion when they arrived. But i did leave them for three days before laying, to be on the safe side. This also permits the glue to be at it’s stickiest. If the tiles are freezing cold from the outdoor temp and you try and lay them straight away the glue may not stick so well. Again, in the climate i live in, this was hardly going to be an issue. The first line of tile is the most important. It will determine the entire rest of the room. So take your time. I cannot say mine was a perfect straight line (i eyeballed it, as i do my sewing, rather than making precise measurements) but the finished job does not draw my eyes to any obvious crookedness, so it is more than liveable with for my standards. You could of course choose to make chalk lines and measure with exactness.

The tiles really do cut and snap as easily as the product description states they will. Some reviews had said they found it hard to cut and snap and used tens upon tens of blades. I did not find this an issue. I used only three blades for the bathroom and the den in totality. I ‘could’ have used more blades and made it easier for myself. The sharper the blade the better. With a brand new blade, only one or two cuts are required before the tile will snap. The duller the blade, the more cuts are needed. I ran out of blades and did not want to trek out for more so suffered the dullness a little. The closer the cut is the the edge of the tile, the more tricky it is to do and not ruin it. You can set any kind of pattern you like. I chose a pattern that would create the least wastage of tiles. But you could lay these in a diagonal manner for a more designer look if wastage was not an issue, and you had the time and desire to set proper chalk lines etc. I went for the easiest method possible. :) These tiles come in a wood look as well as a ceramic tile look. In the bathroom i staggered the tiles very minimally (see photo) to ensure i had plenty of tile left for the den. As it happened i ended up with two full boxes left over, so could have been less cautious. Better to get to take some back, than have to wait for more to come before you can complete the job. ;)

The boxes of tiles are heavy. And even one strip of tile starts to feel quite heavy after a few hours of working. My back suffered a little. When i laid the bathroom floor i did not wear knee protectors. The next day i suffered for that. I have never laid any kind of floor before and so i was learning from experience. I bought some padded knee protectors for $10 before laying the den floor and was very glad of them. Next time i would wear jeans and put the pads over them. I wore them with shorts (it was hot, sweaty, work here in Louisiana, air conditioning or not) and they cut into the backs of my legs a bit and caused mucho sweating. But at least my knees were not groaning in agony the next day, and i was very smug about that.

The hardest part was the marking and cutting, to fit around doors and toilets etc. This is what took the time. The bathroom was finished in 3 hours and the den in five. (If you raise the toilet with some wood pieces or something, you can slide the tile underneath and then lower the toilet back down onto it. This does away with needing to make such precise cuts. I was expecting the toilet to be the worst part, but doing it that way, it was actually very easy. The doorways were the hardest parts. You can’t hide the cuts so easily there.) I did both when my kids were in bed. Sticking the tiles together is easy. The closer you can get to a 45 degree angle the better it will be a snug fit. The first line is actually the hardest to achieve this due to the wall. I did not remove the entire baseboard in the den and i guess this made it harder. I had to slip the tile under the baseboard a tiny amount and so it was impossible to get any kind of angle on that line. I managed to get a good fit despite this. I doubt you could lay this floor and have perfect seams entirely. The imperfections are hardly noticeable though and if you were bothered, you could get some grout to match the color and fill in any cracks. I have to actually search for the imperfections now, so i doubt anybody else would see them at all. If you have some tricky parts to cut, i suggest you make a pattern first with paper (use the paper that is inbetween the tiles) and then trace it onto the tile. Also, if you are a sewer, or know anybody who makes their own patterns, please do not throw away the paper which is inbetween each tile. It serves as excellent pattern paper.

Since becoming a single parent i have discovered a whole variety of new skills i never envisioned i would need. This one is not one i wish to repeat in the next year or so. As satisfied as i am with the result, i would not want to make a job out of this. ;) But if there are any other single mums out there (or single dads) be assured that this is a job which you CAN do when the kids are sleeping, and it will look good. Thanks to Home Depot for a very good product. And it comes with a 25 (i think) year warranty. This floor is going to look good for a long time to come. It is easy to keep clean. No problem with water. They advertise it as being able to withstand a flood! And best of all it looks really pretty. One visitor asked me if i had grouted the tiles. So although if you were to stand next to some genuine ceramic tiles and compare them, you would easily see the difference, when you are only looking at these and don’t know they are vinyl, you really could be fooled at a quick glance.

They say to roll the seams when you have finished the floor. You can hire a seam roller to do this. I did not. I weighted each row of tile as i was laying the floor, walked all over it numerous times using my heels to put pressure on the seams and then my daughter kindly jumped all over the floor with her jumping ball thingy. I reckon those things combined did the trick. The floors have been down a couple of weeks now, and i imagine i would have seen problems by this time, had the seams not properly adhered.