Vinyl and Linoleum Flooring - aligning self stick vinyl tile

I am getting ready to lay 12" X 12" self stick vinyl tile in the kitchen of a rental home. How can I make sure the edges all line up correctly? I've seen some floors where I don't think any two tiles are aligned.

I did this w/ help from my dad and uncle on a our kitchen which aslo has a laundry room and kitchen nook. It took 250+ sq ft of tile to do it. Looks great! Love the tiles.

So what you need to do is first get a chalk line, if you don't have that a big T - square should work. You wanna measure the longest distance from north and south and the longest distance from east to west and mark the halfway point of each measurement!! (EX. IF YOUR ROOM IS SAY 30' WIDE X 25'LONG, YOU WOULD MARK 15' FOR THE WIDE AND 10' FOR THE LONG) Then take your chalk like and stretch it over each mark,(doesn't have to be the whole 30' or whatever) and snap it. Then you take your first tile and put a the corner of the tile right on one of the right angles that you made w/ the chalk line. Then just keep going til its done.

What kind of tile do you have? Does it have a pattern? Mine did and it turned out great. Just take your time!! I also added a dab of liquid nail to each corner and center of each tile. None have come up and it has been 3 yrs! Had a hell of a time getting one up when I scraped it moving the fridge.

Here is a pic of the floor I laid. I replaced asbestos 9x9 tile!! They were tearing our socks when we first bought the house!!

<a href="http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s126/cplank00/Kitchen%20remodel/?action=view&current=e07f.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s126/cplank00/Kitchen%20remodel/e07f.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

GOOD LUCK

Ive seen that it would be even better to get these to stick if you put down some adhesive below laying the self stick tiles. My question is how do you see the chalk lines if you put this stuff down?

You just do one set of chalk lines. One going north and south and one going east and west. Then you take your first tile and lay it in the 90 degree of the chalk lines. Its hard to describe I guess. You don't make like 30 chalk lines. Just 2 like I said above to get the exact center of the room. Then work outwards. If you have a main focal point or entrance to the room, then you can start there so you have full pieces.

Also some of these have arrows on the back and if you lay one w/ the arrow facing a certain direction, then you have to do that for all of them.

But I will be putting down new underlayment, and probably putting some extra adhesive down just for added insurance the tiles will hold. How to I do the chalk line thing with adhesive on the luan? Thanks.

Strike your chalk lines then spray them with hairspray or use a straight edge and run over them with a permanent marker. The Armstrong flooring adhesive is milky and you can see through it if your just putting down a thin coat as in this application.

Remember that your going to start at an intersection of the lines anyway. Once you lay a half dozen or so tiles the line won't matter any more - the tiles will set the line.

Thank you Rivethead. One more question please.
When measuring the centers, I have a big tub, shower, and sink layout/cabinets, of course, as everyone does. Do I take these obstructions into account when taping for the chalklines?
Or do I start measuring where the tub actually ends, shower etc? Im quite confused about this. Wish I new how to post a pic on here and I could describe this better. I just dont know weather to pretend the stuffs not there, and run my tape wall to wall. Hope I explained this right. Help?

I understand what you are saying! But it is wording it on here that is hard. You wanna find the center of the room. So you take and measure each direction and mark it each time. Now, most likely these marks will not be next to each other b/c you wanna measure from wall to wall. That being said you need the longest distance possible in each direction. You don't wanna measure from say your vanity to your tub or tub to wall. You wanna measure from wall to wall.

When I we did this my marks were about 3 ft away. So I used a t square to help get the marks right next to each other, then we snapped the chalk line.

Hope I explained it well enough. If not maybe rivet can word it better. If you want just start laying them from the doorway out. That way you don't have a 1x12 piece there. I should have done this in my bathroom. I have a 4"x12" piece right where the transition strip is.