About Fiberglass Glueless Flooring

Function

• Rather than using glue, glueless fiberglass flooring uses adhesive strips. Vinyl strips or tiles that bear a composite fiberglass top layer have glue strips on their bottom sides. This allows you to situate the flooring pieces together and take off the tape covering the adhesive strips before connecting the pieces to the subfloor. Glueless fiberglass flooring is becoming more widely used even as glueless laminate flooring -- flooring that has sections that join using grooves and tongues instead of glue -- remains most prevalent.

Installation Information

• Placing glueless fiberglass flooring over current flooring such as vinyl is possible. In fact, leaving existing vinyl flooring in place is expedient because many of these old floors contain asbestos, a cancer-causing substance. When placing glueless fiberglass flooring over wooden planks or on vinyl that is severely broken down, however, place ¼-inch plywood on top of the old flooring. This creates a smooth surface on which to attach your fiberglass flooring.

Installation Over Carpet

• If you plan to lay glueless fiberglass flooring in an area that currently contains carpet, you need to first remove the carpet by pulling up a corner of the carpet using pliers and disengaging it from the tack strips underneath. The tack strips also must be removed using a pry bar. In addition, remove all dirt and debris from the subfloor using a vacuum cleaner and mop so your glueless fiberglass flooring’s adhesive strips will attach to the subfloor successfully.

Advantages

• The benefit of glueless fiberglass flooring, which is made out of a synthetic material, is that it is easy to maintain and durable. This type of flooring additionally resists water better than does linoleum flooring, which has natural materials. As a result, glueless fiberglass flooring is indicated in moist areas such as kitchens and bathrooms as well as on top of concrete. The many styles of this flooring match the décor of different rooms in your home as well.