Interlocking Floor Installation & Maintenance

Installation

The i-tile has been designed as a "loose laid" or "floating floor" and is meant for indoor use only. This means that in many applications, adhesive is only required where direct sunlight falls onto the floor or where there are heavy rolling loads, such as pallet jacks moving over the floor. Gluing down high traffic passageways is useful in pro-longing the useful life of the floor.

When installing your interlocking floors, two types of adhesives are recommended depending on the application and environment. Either carpet and vinyl acrylic adhesive or the stronger two part polyurethane type. These can be bought from your local hardware store. If using an adhesive then please read the manufacturer’s instructions carefully

For passage ways the acrylic should suffice but in direct sunlight or heavy moving load areas, the polyurethane is the better option.

We do NOT recommend the use of contact adhesive as this is solvent based and if not applied correctly can damage the tile.

Before you start installing the flooring we recommend that the tiles be kept in the room for 18 hours to acclimatize to the room temperature.

When this is done you can start installing the floor at the centre of the room and work around expanding from this centre point. This will help to keep the floor "square".

When you get to the walls you will need to trim the tiles using a sharp Stanley knife. A Steel T-square is recommended to cut against so that you can make a straight cut.

A 5mm gap should be left between the wall and the tile as well as any fixed items. This will allow the floor to expand and contract due to temperature variations. This gap can be filled with black silicon or a wooden skirting board.

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Maintenance

To get the most out of your vinyl floors they must be well maintained. This can be achieved by regular vacuuming or sweeping and then cleaning with a neutral ph detergent using a micro fibre mop.

It is advisable to use a limited amount of water together with the two bucket system whereby one disposes of the dirty water separately.

To maintain the shine in the floor as well as aid in the cleaning one can, if desired apply an acrylic floor sealer. Depending on the traffic on the floor this sealing procedure might need to be repeated. You can get all the details from floor seal manufacturers.

With any floor it is always good to have an entrance mat that will catch most of the dirt.