Vinyl flooring - the bathroom with all the related stuff

Ok, finally got to the bathroom floors.

A main few details summarized:

1. vinyl flooring; no seams
2. underlayment (~ 1/4")
3. screw down underlayment
4. #6 & #8 zinc coated screws - 3/4-1" 
5.  Roll on adhesive at the recommendation of the flooring store (Flex-Tech); 1 quart just covered both bathrooms
6. 3/8" nap roller

Then the miscellaneous things - expected and unexpected:

1. waxless toilet seals; needed to use 2 stacked in master bathroom and one high in spare bathroom.  I saw these in Lowes and decided to give them a try.  I like them but I do have a little concern that if a hard plunge is ever needed they might blow out - wax could as well I suppose.  Time will tell.
2. New compression style toilet supply valves.  I went for the 1/4" ball valves instead of the multi-turn gate(?) valve that was there.
3. New supply valve cover/flanges
4. 4-in-1 plumbers tool; worked nicer than the random piece of sandpaper I would have used.
5. Some decent type of solid straight edge.  I had a 4' x 3"x 1/4" aluminum bar which helped me at times.
6. A decent number of clamps in a few styles (C, F style mainly) and sizes.
7. hammer / punch to remove door pins
8. Oscillatting tool (saw) to undercut the door jamb
9. pry bars to remove base molding and/or shoe molding
10. screw drivers to remove things like tower bars / toilet paper holders to get them out of the way
11. caulk and caulk gun
12. paper towels (used quite a few cleaning up caulk as I went along)
13. shoe/base molding; multiple stains (having to mix different ones to match the existing molding around the doors).

 I decided on vinyl flooring because the kids tend to track water like crazy and I was able to do it without seams.  I did both bathrooms in the same vinyl mainly because it was more cost effective since the material came in a 12 foot wide sheet which reduced my waste a bit because of the dimensions I needed.

I had decided to use underlayment because I didn't feel the existing surface was smooth enough; and there are many nails that refuse to sink further even with a punch and large hammer.  I screwed it down to prevent heads from raising.  This took more than I expected - I ended up using over a box of 100 in each bathroom.  The master bath was worse since I was covering up new and old plywood where subfloor had been replaced due to a water leak. 

The process I used for this project was to create a paper template of the floor with all obstacles removed.  I used a roll of brown garden paper (same stuff is probably available at paint stores or construction supply places) - around 30" wide in a 300 foot plus roll.  I made cutouts for the toilet and vent.  I taped multiple runs of it together to produce the entire floor plan.  I then taped the template to sheets of underlayment and marked/cutout the matching shape.  I used a jigsaw which worked fine - relatively fast and low physical effort but I probably would have been more accurate doing repeated deep scribes with a utility knife but it would have been a lot slower.  The took one and a partial sheet of underlayment per bathroom.  I tried to keep the new seams from laying on the old seams.  I ended up taking a coarse rasp I got from my dad to remove many of the splinters from the jigsaw cuts - the cuts were pretty rough looking.

Once I had the underlayment cut to match; I tested the layout to verify I got it right and tweaked it as needed.  I then laid the vinyl in the driveway (carefully) and put the underlayment over it.  I was then able to cut the vinyl to the desired size/shape.  I had made a few notes on the plywood to follow as well; like leaving a little extra length for the door jambs where I undercut the jamb so extra vinyl would go under it for a proper clean/finished look.

The roll-on adhesive was totally new to me.  We did the master bath first and it was interesting. You have to let the adhesive dry to the point of just being tacky before laying the vinyl.  It stays tacky for 24 hours or so though.  I made the choice (mistake?) to do the master bath in one go - went in rolled the glue, waited for 60-90 minutes and then awkwardly laid the vinyl in with the wife's help.  My son wandered in as she was trying to go from a step stool in the doorway to the window sill to standing/sitting on the sink where she could hold the far end of the vinyl for me.  He shook his head and wandered back out - apparently we were site that was too scary to watch.  When we did the spare bathroom, I did it in 3 separate stages starting from the far end (thanks to the prompt by my sweetie pie wife :)  ).  This was much easier.

Below is a pic of the spare bathroom in progress.  The first 2 sections had been laid; here I think the the adhesive was at the tacky point and ready for the vinyl.  I did have to get from the doorway to the bathtub to do this section but it wasn't too bad. 

Below is the fully laid vinyl with the toilet in place.  I still have to stain/cut some new base/shoe molding the bathrooms.  I only salvaged the base molding in the spare bath - left it in place.  In the master I remove base/shoe before doing any work.

  

Overall, this wasn't too hard and turned out pretty well so far.  I am still reserving judgement on the adhesive.  It was really nice that I was able to lift and move the vinyl a bit to adjust it as I worked but I am not sure how it will hold over time.  The glue indicated that no large roller should be used (like 75 lbs+) which I was a little surprised by.  We mainly worked out little bubbles by hand and foot. Hopefully I wont end up dragging out the molding work.

[Update 2015/04/22] Sigh, just got around to caulking the spare bathroom.  Realize I didn't trim along the bathtub very well - ended up with a pretty large caulk bead to take care of it.  Take lots of care on that and don't hurry if you try it.  I have some spare vinyl - I may ponder slicing in a bit someday to allow me to shrink the caulk bead.  It isn't terrible but I am somewhat overly perfectionistic at times.  Did I mention that I wish someone would write a book - "Caulking for dummies".