5 Essential Tools for Tiling, Flooring, Vinyl tiling

It is crucial to have some essential DIY flooring tools just in case you need to do the minor fixing for the floor. At this time, there are many popular flooring materials with more features such as a locking mechanism for DIY floor installation.

Tile flooring is available in different textures, colors, thicknesses, and sizes to give an appealing look. We install tiles mostly for the bathroom and kitchen. On the other hand, working with vinyl flooring means that you could choose sheet vinyl or luxury vinyl.

Whether it is wood flooring, floor tiles, laminates, vinyl, or carpeting, investing your money in essential tools give you wide opportunities. Having the right DIY flooring tools before doing flooring installation could ease your time. Also, it helps you reduce any mistakes. Here are the essential tools to support you set the installation.

Tape Measure

The reason why you need tape measure is that it helps you take the correct measurement in a DIY flooring plan. It is useful to establish space. Thus, it makes your task easier to find the quantity of flooring material for the area.  Moreover, tape measure helps you take accurate measurements, and therefore you could make cuts of the correct lengths and width.

If you like doing DIY a lot, a tape measure is a must.  It is a handy and inexpensive tool with many uses, such as building, repairing, and maintaining your home. When you want to buy it, it is important to use your time for finding more information about the durability and accuracy of the device.

Contour Gauge

Just like other tools, contour gauge is also one of the best tools for tiling with many options available on the market. The function of this tool is to duplicate any shape. It could be pipes, zigzagging tiles, woodcuts, and others.

Thankfully, it is very simple to use for installing tiles. Once you press it to the object, you will get the shape. After that, you could transfer it to the tile you want to cut. The best tip is to transfer the shape on the cardboard first. This way will help you get the first copy. Use a marker to get the tracing and use the cardboard over and over to get the contour on the tiles before cutting.

By doing this, you don’t have to use the tool again and again to get the same corner or angle. Hence, you could save your time and effort, as well.

You will get a lot of options if you go to the market to find this tool, especially for the length options. You could find it from 5-inch to 20-inch. Commonly, it is easy to find it with a length of about 10-ich. This length is enough to help you complete the common construction work.

But, you could purchase a joinable contour gauge, in case you need to increase the length of this tool by attaching another one to it. For example, if you buy two contour gauges and both of them have 10-inch, then you will get a 20-inch tool to use at once, due to their joinable feature. This sounds much better instead of buying a single contour gauge 20-inch since it could be difficult to use in a narrow and small space.

Another thing that you may want to consider when it comes to contour gauge selection is the locking pad. A contour gauge with a lock is highly a wise choice to tighten the pins when you have copied the contour. We actually encourage you to buy this model. This is important to prevent the pins/teeth from sliding. By no sliding, the duplication will be reliably accurate and you copy the contour properly. If you work for others, your clients will be happy with your work.

Leveling Tools

It is an essential tool to adjust the flooring surface properly. It helps you check whether the surface is horizontal or not. When it comes to the options, there are two choices available for flooring installation:

4ft Level – Essential tool to check the level for concrete or tile flooring

Carpenter’s Level – Useful to check the level of your flooring surfaces if you are working with wood, luxury vinyl, laminates, engineered hardwood, and bamboo flooring

Utility Knife

Buying a sharp and well-designed utility knife is important for cutting your vinyl flooring into any sizes you need. Make sure that you use a heavy-duty utility knife. It helps you make a straight cut. Anytime you have a problem to make straight cross-cuts, you could use the edge of the square. It helps you guide the knife for cutting.

Using a utility knife to cut vinyl flooring is easy. First, score the wear-layer and then bend them, and they snap. If you wonder when you should use this tool, it depends on the type of vinyl plank you purchased. Some brands have a thicker design than others. If you don’t want to deal with chipping, then an electric handsaw could be the alternative.

Notched Trowel

Next, a notched trowel could help you spread a layer of tile adhesive. At least, you must have one notched float since the trowel is available in various dimensions. This trowel could straight on two sides, and then notched on the other so you could spread the adhesive on the floor surface thoroughly.

Of course, a notched trowel is different from a regular trowel, since it has notches. The rule to buy a notched trowel for tiling depends on the size of the tiles you are working with. You could follow the guide below:

Tiles to install	Best notched trowel
small format tiles (maximum 10x10cm)	3-4.5mm
Small tiles (10×10-30x30cm)	6mm
Large tiles (20×20-30x30cm)	8mm
Floor tiles (30×30-40x40cm)	10mm
Large tiles (40x40cm+)	12-20mm

Bottom Line

By using the right tools and steps, you could install most tiling material efficiently, yet some need the input of a professional. If you want to buy the tools above, make sure that you do deep research to find the best product.

For example, if you have no idea when you have to choose a metal or plastic contour gauge, think about what you need.  If you are being under work on a small DIY project and the accuracy is not the main point, then it is more than enough to have the plastic version. However, if you are using this tool for big projects, then investing your money in a metal one is a great consideration.

Since you are doing DIY, make sure that you do the installation extra carefully. A little simple mistake can cause an irreversible loss. Just in case you are working in a large or complex flooring installation, we recommend you to find a professional flooring contractor. This way will help you finish the job more professionally and securely.