I had a company (whose name will not be mentioned unless they refuse to fix the job) install a new vinyl floor. I'll spare all the ugly details except the one that's relevant to this question which is the fact that a few parts of the vinyl don't appear to have been glued to the floor. In one spot, there is an area measuring at about two feet in diameter where the floor is lifted up like a bubble and can be pressed down. It doesn't do this across the entire floor which tells me that the adhesive application was effective beneath most of the floor.
It's obvious that the vinyl is going to have to be torn up so that adhesive can be properly applied to areas where the application was faulty. First off, won't tearing the vinyl from the adhesive damage or misshape the vinyl? Won't applying additional adhesive potentially cause the floor to be lumpy and uneven in spots?
I am asking in the event that this company tells me they will just pull up the existing vinyl to apply new adhesive instead of redoing the entire floor (underlayment, adhesive, and vinyl). I just want to be prepared with a few counter-arguments should they try to get cheap with with me.
Best Answer
The bubble doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't glued, but rather that air became trapped under the vinyl while it was being put down - which means that the people putting it down didn't do it properly.
When installing vinyl, it should be unrolled slowly, with even pressure being applied along the length of the floor as it's being unrolled (slow, tedious work) and then when it's down a floor roller should be used over the entire floor, working from the center to the edges, to push air out.
Big bubbles means this wasn't done - it was put down in a hurry. If the adhesive has set up already, it is almost impossible that they'll be able to pull it up again w/o destroying the vinyl.
The underlayment won't need removal, but the existing vinyl will need to be removed and the underlayment cleaned and scraped smooth before the replacement is applied.