Can I Use Grout in Between Linoleum Squares?

Linoleum Squares

• The linoleum squares you purchase for your home or office floors are meant to be installed in a specific way. Linoleum is a plastic-based material, which means it is flexible. It is meant to be installed with glue adhesives rather than a cement-based mortar, such as what ceramic tile is installed with. The squares naturally flex with the movement of the house and are meant to spread throughout the entire floor.

How Linoleum Works

• Most ceramic tile installations are meant to be finished with grout joints between each individual tile that are filled with a cement-based grout after the installation is done. Linoleum is meant to be installed tight to the other pieces. This means that each individual piece should butt up against the piece adjacent to it. Linoleum is manufactured and cut down to square, which means there shouldn’t be any gaps between the pieces, only nice, straight butt joints.

Purpose of Grout Joints

• The purpose of grout joints in tile installations is to provide movement for the ceramic tile and the cement-based mortar the tile is installed with. Grout fills the voids between the tiles, and is also colored with pigments to add to your overall aesthetic while at the same time helping hold the installation together. However, linoleum does not need joints, and including them will void the warranty on any linoleum you install.

Thickness of the Tiles

• Above and beyond the simple fact that you should never grout linoleum is the reality that the product just isn’t designed with grout in mind. You need a depth of at least an eighth of an inch for concrete to form up without cracking, and even then only in an eighth inch wide grout joint. Wider grout joints are deeper as larger tiles require more thinset mortar, which means more grout is needed the larger the joint is. Linoleum tiles are paper thin and the grout would crack out within days if used with this flexible, thin material.