today we're going to talk about how to replace a luxury vinyl tile first of all I want to talk about luxury vinyl tile a little bit it's a very popular item it is a product that is made out of vinyl it has a very durable coating on the surface sometimes including aluminum oxide for scratch resistance and durability some have Scotch Guard stain resistance vinyl tile is warmer than ceramic tile and it's softer it's got a little more resiliency to it so it's a little easier to stand on what I'm going to show you today is how to replace a vinyl tile in case you would happen to scratch one in this particular instance somebody pulled the stove out and there was some grit underneath it and it caused some scratches we need to gather our materials you saw the list of recommended materials and tools needed to perform this task so just take a sharp utility knife and follow the edge of the tile making sure not to cut all the way through it grout and into the under floor underlayment beneath this grout is an acrylic grout which is common for vinyl tile it is a soft grout always stays soft it's not like a regular ceramic tile grout which is of a cement a base which is you know almost impossible to cut with utility knife so you just cut her on the edges so that you're free to grow and then you apply heat to the tile the entire tile has to be heated it has to be very warm to the touch now in this demonstration I shorten the amount of time that it took to heat it but it's actually it's actually about seven or eight minutes of constant feeding in order to get it warm enough to release from the underlayment so once your tile is heated up to a point where it's very soft and flexible you can go ahead and start prying on one of the corners be careful not to leverage yourself off of one of the adjacent tiles which could result in damage you use your spatula you work it back and forth and very carefully pull the tile up a little at a time sometimes you may have to apply more heat but you don't want to rush it you need to have patience otherwise you can do damage to the underlayment the underlayment is a product that's rolled out to cover the floor the joints are taped together with packaged tape and the adhesive is applied to this applied to this this under lament and then it results in a floating a floating floor you've one thing nice about that is someday down the road when it's time to replace your floor it comes out a lot easier floating floors are better in climates where you have extreme temperature ranges it's just it's the way to go now as you can see I had to apply some additional heat I got to a point where I wasn't feeling that flexibility and it was not releasing properly so like I said just take your time if you have to apply more heat do it just run your fingers down along the edge very carefully I'm gonna I'm gonna give it a little bit of a twist and a little pull and there she is I've got the first tile out now that I have the first tile off I'm going to go ahead and repeat that process on two remaining tiles as you can see the tile that I'm approaching at this point extends underneath the cabinet so it does have a small cutout on it which is not going to be a problem so now that the tiles are removed you will need to take the knife and go around the edge of the remaining tiles to clean up any grout that is left what I like to do is come down from the top with the knife in between the grout and the existing tile and make a cut then I take the knife and lay it on its side and I cut it underneath the grout because that grout is actually adhered to the underlayment by that adhesive so that will release that so once the residual grout is removed from the edges you want to clean off the surface the best that you can this paper will have a tendency to flake a little bit so what I like to do is take my hand just kind of slide it across the top and release any flakes that might be left remaining now I'm going to apply adhesive the adhesive for luxury vinyl tile is a releasable adhesive it's very pliable when it comes out of the bucket kind of creamy very wet the adhesive is crawl down at the surface using a trowel with a tooth size recommended by the manufacturer normally it's about 1/32 of an inch gap by 1/32 of an inch in length so it's a very thin layer I'm a kept adhesive the adhesive then needs to be aired out for a certain time period usually 2530 minutes depending upon the climate once the adhesive turns from a creamy tone to a clear or a transparent look it is ready for a tile good test is apply your finger to the adhesive and if there is no transfer of adhesive to your finger it means it's set to go if you put your finger up to it and you get adhesive on your finger that means that it's still too wet what will happen is your tiles will slide around and you're installing them and it won't cure properly and it will not be releasable if you set your childhood wet this adhesive is a very strong adhesive it's very tacky however when it is still in the wet form it's pretty easy to clean off of surfaces if it does cure that it takes a little more work to get it off but it still is removable just use a damp rag and rub it back and forth so it comes off if you get it on your fingers it's a little tougher to get off sometimes I'll use a little mineral spirits when you're short on time it doesn't hurt use a heat gun to advance the drying process of the abuse I just would suggest not concentrating too much heat to it just kind of wave around keep up keep a little more of the distance away from the dead visa van and just kind of wave it fast like this so that you don't get too warm in one spot a fan works good too if you have a fan just throw a fan on that'll speed up the process the surface is now ready for tile putting the tiles in are actually probably the easiest part of the old job just make sure you have them lined up use your eye to maintain proper grout line on each side just kind of press them into place probably won't hurt to have a roller on and I think the manufacturer recommends hand rolling it I usually can just press it in with my hands and make sure I get good coverage that way this last tile the one that goes underneath the cabinet's has to have a little cutout on it so what I did is I used the tile that I pulled out and I use that as a template to make my cuts just saves a little time little measuring time and so now I'll just pop that last tile into place my tiles are all lined up this particular tile has a little bit of a flow to it so I try to turn every other tile want to keep that same pattern going I don't want my prepare to stand out like a sore thumb and then you just kind of work the edges down we're on the right side there I've kind of got a little bit about feels like a little bit of a high spot there I have to work that down and apply a little heat to that but then eventually everything fit into place now we're ready for the final stage applying to grow this grout as I said is an acrylic grout it comes free mix in the bucket it has a little bit of a sandy texture to it emulates regular ceramic tile grout you just take your float just work it in you want to make sure you get it squeezed into the grout lines real good if you don't then you could end up with some voids sometimes air will try and squeeze out and it'll leave a little bit of an air pocket or a little bubble in the ground that's a place where dirt will collect so you want to really seal it up good cleanup of the grout is done with a sponge the key here is to make sure that your sponge is not too wet wring it out really good you just want it to be slightly damp too much water will will cause the grout to break down and it takes away a lot of the the properties it will not perform the way it is intended to if it's too wet it also makes the cleanup process a lot harder if you get it too wet because you're just pushing grout material around the tile what I like to do is I like to give it an initial wipe down like I just did what I'm doing right now is I'm going over to the sink to rinse out my sponge typically what I would do is I'd have a bucket full of water like a five-gallon bucket of water but I just did go diagonal across the tile and I just get one swipe per side of the sponge if you try to do too much again you're just spreading ghrelin on the surface go out a slow speed so that you can give the grout the sponge the opportunity to absorb the grout this process took me about 40 minutes so that concludes this do-it-yourself lesson rocking you buy more crafters located in Onalaska Wisconsin our web site address is www.jfn.co.jp/toho