PVC installation by yourself - experiences?

How realistic is it to lay PVC yourself in rooms < 18m² without prior experience, using adhesive tape? Plan: Lay it in, roughly cut it (leave about 5-10% at the edges, almost cut into the corners) weigh down half, fold up one side, work with adhesive strips from the middle to the outside. Finally cut the corners, trim the edges. Then do the other half. Decades ago I once laid a carpet like this, that was simple. But with PVC you probably see unevenness more. And the rooms are used by small children who sometimes push things across the floor (with child strength). Possible or will I regret it?

Possible

Of course, that is realistic. We live in times of Xoutube and hardware stores. Whether it is the right approach can be checked.

or will I regret it?

No idea. Do it right and well, then there is nothing to regret. And for the rest, there are rugs.

How realistic is it to install PVC yourself in rooms < 18m² without prior experience, using tape?

If you work carefully and put in the effort? No problem. If you want to be on the safe side? Click vinyl – it’s also plastic, but still easy to install. A cutter is enough.

PVC? What is that supposed to be.

It already fails at the description of the flooring used. A meaningful answer is only possible with a concrete indication of the conditions.

What substrate, what flooring, cheap or expensive, the backing material of the flooring, how thick is the coating.

Rental apartment or single-family house? How long is the flooring supposed to stay in place?

Basically, you should fully glue it. But then you have the problem when the flooring has to be removed again. There are backing materials like felt, jute, fiberglass or foam, flooring that expands, especially with underfloor heating, etc.

In my rental apartments, I also lay PVC floors without underfloor heating but with very smooth floors made of anhydrite screed. I do glue with Teroson adhesive, similar to Patex from the hardware store, somewhat in the middle and at the corners. I mostly use flooring with foam backing and not too high-quality PVC flooring. When someone moves out and the floor is damaged or dirty, new flooring goes in. It’s quick and cheap for me.

I don’t feel like removing adhesive residues for hours with a stripper to get the floor smooth again. And once the flooring has been laid for a few weeks, it stays put.

Measure your room, and then you can roughly pre-cut when buying. Plus 10 cm is more than enough. Then lay it in, one edge should fit. Then leave it lying for 2-3 days so the material adapts. You won’t have an edge cutter but you can also cut the other edges with a utility knife. Glue down two corners, press in the middle and glue there a bit, then glue the other corners. Done. The only important thing is to leave enough distance to the wall so nothing buckles. Use wide baseboards.

Of course, you can also fully glue it.

PVC? What is that supposed to be.

Everyone except you knows that. Polyvinyl chloride. Colloquially vinyl. Available as click but also as by the meter (then correspondingly soft). By the meter is the classic version for decades. Is that not available in the East?

Basically, it should be glued down fully.

No. Classic loose lay method for many PVC floors sold by the meter.

At that time, I lived in a cooperative apartment that was equipped with old linoleum floors, and in the kitchen and hallway I simply laid loose wood-look PVC on top. I only fixed it in places where there was a transition and at the wall with glued triangular strips that belonged to the baseboard. However, I had fewer square meters in one piece; the hallway was long and narrow, and in the kitchen I had to splice once in the middle because the width of the PVC roll was not enough for the entire room. I bought a thick PVC (>=4mm) because it seemed better suited to me for this type of installation than this thin stuff, which barely reaches 2mm. Until I moved out, I had no problems with it; it was there for almost 10 years and nothing moved or warped.