Can You Put Rubber Floor Covering on Walls?

Measuring the Space

• The first step to installing rubber floor coverings on walls is the same as the first step to installing the floor coverings on floors: Measure both the height and the width of the wall space to determine how many rubber tiles you'll need to cover the surface. Rubber floor coverings generally come in tiles of roughly 20 inches square, so that’s a good figure to use when trying to determine the number of tiles that you need for the space.

Laying out Tiles

• When installing tiles on a floor, you usually "dry-lay" rubber floor coverings before gluing the tiles down with adhesive. You cannot dry-lay the tiles first when you're installing rubber tiles to a wall. What you can do is recreate the wall space on the floor so you can lay the tiles out and determine the best placement. Accomplish this by making a masking tape outline on the floor the same size as the wall, then laying tiles out inside of it. When laying the tiles out, start in the center and allow tiles to hang over all of the taped edges. You'll see where the outer rows of tiles must be cut.

Cutting Tiles

• Since rubber floor tiles have jutting edge pieces that leave gaps around the wall if left intact at the wall perimeter, you should generally remove the edge pieces from the tiles that line the outside of the wall. One way to easily do this is to trace a line along the top tiles in your wall layout where they touch the tape line on the floor and then cut the tiles along this line. Cut rubber tiles by running a utility knife lightly along the line over and over again until you finally get through the entire tile.

Adhesive

• Use a tile adhesive that expressly states that it is designed for use with rubber tiles. Spread the tile adhesive over the top section of the wall and begin pressing the cut tiles from the top of your tile layout into the tiles adhesive. Continue adding adhesive and tiles to the wall, fitting the locking edges of each tile together as you lay the tiles. Gently wipe up any tile adhesive that squeezes up through the tile seams.