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I'm going to put new vinyl tiles on top of old sheet vinyl floor, in a laundry room. My wife wants to use what's called Luxury Vinyl Tiles, which have a rounded edge and are groutable. There are grouts like Fusion Pro which specifically mention vinyl tiles as a suitable tile type.

However, my fear is, that because the floor does not have a cement board on it, and it is prone to frequent vibrations from the washing machine, the grout will fail quite soon (will crack, become loose, etc.) Do these polymer-based grouts have some flex in them, or is grouting vinyl a totally bad idea?

I know I can install these tiles without any grout, but my wife prefers the grouted look.

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Answering my own question. Called Custom, they told us that even though these grouts are more flexible than concrete-based products, they still need a stiff subfloor like for a real ceramic tile, or the warranty will be void.

So yeah, groutable vinyl tile in my laundry room is it a bad idea.

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  • I have had sheet vinyl which attempts to look like grouted tiles (3-D texture and all) - I think that would be a much better approach.
    – Ecnerwal
    Commented Jan 10, 2016 at 14:08
  • @Ecnerwal: no, unfortunately not. We've tried those (thankfully in much less conspicuous place). The seam between tiles is in the middle of the fake "grout line", and even though we glued the tiles together real tight, over time some dirt gets into these seams, and they become visible black lines. It all screams "fake"... Wouldn't do that again.
    – haimg
    Commented Jan 10, 2016 at 15:25
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    NOT vinyl tile - sheet vinyl (no seam unless the room is more than 12 feet wide)
    – Ecnerwal
    Commented Jan 10, 2016 at 16:49
  • Oops, sorry missed that you said sheet vinyl. You're right, sheet vinyl is much better in every aspect except for ease of installation.
    – haimg
    Commented Jan 10, 2016 at 20:29
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I will do you one more to add to your answer. Taking a permanent solution like grout and putting something like vinyl next to it just seems like a terrible idea. First the vinyl is much more apt to get damaged or move than tile (think moving an appliance across this floor - the vinyl will move if the corner of a fridge pushes on it). So at that point why would it make sense to use vinyl instead of a stone or tile with grout? This seems more like a marketing technique than a viable solution.

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I have seen two vinyl grouted floors done and they are beautiful- if you do not bend down and touch it you would never know the benefit: it is warmer; when things drop they are not as likely to break, and if you follow the same steps as ceramic tile (clean flat floor or sub floor) it will last, and has!

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  • Welcome to StackExchange. I do not see an answer to the OP question in here. Perhaps you can edit this answer and address it.
    – SDsolar
    Commented Mar 16, 2017 at 5:41

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