I'm going to be finishing off my basement, but wanted to know... Is there anything wrong with placing the vinyl flooring down on the cement before framing the interior walls? I will be putting in a bathroom, and covering the floor in the laundry and utility rooms. Currently, they're all one room. The question is - is it necessary to put the framing up first? It would be so much easier to just roll the whole floor out at one time.
Thanks - Patrick

 

There's nothing wrong in doing it your way. In fact that's the way I'd do it. It's easier and faster. The only problem I see is if you make a mistake where you want a wall to be. You know the old saying, measure twice, cut once. Once you put down the floor, you have to very careful with planning the room layout.

 

One of the reasons that flooring is usually done last is because it is easily damaged in the construction process. Between the framing and the electrical and the drywall and the painting, there's going to be a lot of opportunity to mess up your new floor. If you're going to hire out any of this work (e.g., drywall), most drywallers don't like to fuss over protecting the floor, and will probably charge you more for their trouble. And if you're as clumsy as I am, you'll probably drop a lot of tools during the framing process. Painting will also go many times faster if you don't have to worry about the floor.

I guess it's a "pay me now or pay me later" choice. Buy some top quality canvas tarps to protect your new flooring from the construction.

 

Boy, if it were me, I would think that making a few more cuts in the vinal flooring after your framing was up would far out weigh the hassle of protecting that floor. As John said, the ease in painting would make your time up! You will dammage the floor if you frame after install!

 

So you guys have shown me the light. Maybe. There are just SO many things I'll have to cut around. I'm going to attach a rough sketch of my the 'to be tiled' floorspace...
Sink toilet and shower on the bottom (l-r)
Utility closet top left, Washer/Dryer top right. the whole floor is 10'x12' so there isn't a lot of room to maneuver. Red lines indicate walls to be built - plus the entire perimeter which is not shown. Also, door inside the bathroom are bifold vented doors. two sets in front of the w/d.
By placing the vinyl before building all those walls and placing all the fixtures, it would be MUCH easier. But yeah, i'dhave to compromise on the painting and be careful when framing.

it's a tough decision.

 

My image didn't attach, aparently only 1k is acceptable.
http://www.geocities.com/pdh1276/bath.jpg
go there for the image, if you're interested.
The border is missing. Imagine a red line around the whole thing. red thing on the bottom is the door to enter the bathroom.

 

if that doesn't work - try this...

http://www.geocities.com/pdh1276/index.html

 

On a previous job which involved building and finishing walls on finished flooring.,,,, I layed out a thick mill plastic ,,,,,,,built on top of it,,,,,,mud, sand, primed and paint.......I then cut the plastic at the base of the walls before installing the base molding and doors.....

 

P-H, Re-arrange your work order a little bit. Install the vinyl in the middle of the job before trim work. Frame the walls, do the electrical, run rough plumbing to the fixture locations, hang the drywall, paint the walls, even do the ceiling. Then put in the vinyl. This way the cutting does not have to be exact because base and shoe moldings will cover anywhere from 1/2" to 5/8" around the perimeter, the toilet base covers a much bigger area than just the flange, the sink base covers a large area, the trim around doorways comes out around 1/2". Your cutting gets alot easier when you take into account all these items that can cover possible mistakes. A 1/2" too short along one wall gets covered up by the base & shoe moldings.

I did my basement bathroom in tile. While dry fitting the tiles I dropped one breaking off a large corner. I simply used that tile on the area that is under my sink base. It will never be seen, nor in the larger scope of things matter to anyone.

Good Luck. Mike.