How to Cut Vinyl Flooring Around a Toilet

A quick and easy method for upgrading the looks of a bathroom is to install vinyl flooring. There are a variety of types of vinyl flooring. If you are looking for tips and tricks to install vinyl flooring around your toilet, I will walk you through several methods with differing types of vinyl flooring.

How to Cut Peel-and-Stick Vinyl Flooring Around a Toilet

Peel and stick vinyl flooring is one of the easiest types of vinyl flooring to install. Essentially you are applying big stickers to your bathroom subfloor or even laying the peel and stick on top of existing flooring.

Peel and stick vinyl flooring has the advantage of being extremely flexible and thin. It can somewhat contour to the surface upon which it is being laid. These characteristics help me when I am “tiling” around irregular shapes such as a toilet-bowl base.

Custom fitting peel and stick vinyl around toilets or other irregular shapes should be the last step of your bathroom flooring remodel. Lay out and install all of the whole-piece peel and stick vinyl that you can before attempting to work around your toilet.

The tools you will need to complete the project are similar to those you needed to lay the pick and seal down properly in the first place.

Tools and Material:

• Peel and stick vinyl
• Tile spacers (use the same spacing within the rest of the bathroom)
• Newspaper
• Marker
• Scissors
• Tape

Method:

To begin this project you must create templates of your peel and stick vinyl.

Creating Peel and Stick Vinyl Templates

1. With all of the full sheets of peel and stick vinyl laid down that is possible, look around your toilet.
2. Evaluate how many pieces of peel and stick vinyl you would need to fill in the area if the toilet were not there.
3. Create templates for each piece of peel and stick vinyl you would need to finish the space if the toilet were not there.
4. Create the template by not removing the adhesive protector on the peel and stick vinyl, then laying a piece of the peel and sticking the vinyl on a piece of newspaper.
5. Using your marker, trace around the peel and stick vinyl.
6. Cut the outline from the newspaper. Ensure that the newspaper template matches exactly with the peel and stick vinyl.
7. Make as many templates as necessary.

Installing Peel and Stick Templates

1. Place the template down as though they were pieces of your peel and stick vinyl.
2. Where possible, tape the edges where the templates meet the existing peel and stick vinyl.
3. With the template secured in place with tape, crease the newspaper template around the base of the toilet. Alternately, use your marker to trace around the edge of the toilet on top of the template.
4. Lay down the template tiles around the toilet. Use either the crease or the mark method to determine the necessary trimming to be done to your yet-to-be-laid peel and stick vinyl.
5. Carefully remove the newspaper templates. Using a sharp knife to cut the taped connection between newspaper templates and the in situ peel and stick vinyl may be helpful.
6. Use scissors to either cut the line traced with a marker around the base of the toilet or to cut along the creases in the template.

Tip: If you are working with small peel and stick vinyl, it may be necessary to number your templates. Number the templates will make recreating your toilet cutout easier.

Using Your Templates to Size and Trim Your Peel and Stick Vinyl

1. Without removing the adhesive protector, lay down as many pieces of peel and stick vinyl as would be necessary to tile around your toilet.
2. Ensure that you use the same spacing as was used in the bathroom between you peel and stick vinyl tiles.
3. Apply tape to the edges of your peel and stick vinyl so that the spacing can not be thrown off.
4. Place your newspaper template on top of your peel and stick vinyl ensuring that all outside edges match. Tape the edges of the template to the peel and stick vinyl for accuracy if necessary. 
5. Trace the interior outline of the toilet base on the peel and stick vinyl.
6. Remove the newspaper template.
7. Similar to cutting vinyl siding, use kitchen shears or heavy-duty scissors to cut your peel and stick vinyl along the toilet base outline.

Installing the Trimmed Peel and Stick Vinyl

1. While keeping the same spacing between tiles, remove the adhesive protector on your peel and stick vinyl tile.
2. Lay the trimmed peel and stick tiles around your toilet. If you are attaching vinyl onto wood, make sure you spend extra time pressing on the tile to fasten.
3. After all peel and stick tiles are installed, pull a ruler across the surface of the tiles to remove any trapped air bubbles.

How to Cut Vinyl Plank Flooring Around a Toilet

Modern plank vinyl flooring looks impressively like wood and has the water-resistant properties of vinyl. Trimming your plank vinyl flooring to fit around your toilet is similar to the method for trimming peel and stick vinyl flooring.

You don’t want to install laminate flooring in your bathroom, because this is less resistant to water than vinyl. The good news is cutting vinyl planks is easier than cutting laminate flooring.

Lay as much flooring as possible before working to cut irregular pieces to fit around the base of your toilet. You will need to create a template, then cut planks to size, and finally, install the trimmed vinyl planks.

Tools and Materials:

• Plank vinyl flooring
• Tile spacers
• Newspaper
• Marker
• Scissors
• Tape
• Jigsaw
• Optional: Miter saw

Method:

Let’s break down the method into its constituent parts.

Creating a Toilet-base Template for Vinyl Plank Flooring

1. Create a template by laying a newspaper on the subfloor around your toilet. Align the straight edges of your vinyl planks with the straight edges of the newspaper
2. Tape the newspaper in place and tape any overlapping sheets of newspaper together.
3. Trace around the base of the toilet on top of the newspaper.
4. Remove the template and cut out the marked toilet base outline.

Using Template to Cut Vinyl Planks to Size

1. Lay out vinyl plank flooring in the shape that would fit into the unfinished area around and under the toilet.
2. Tape your template to the vinyl flooring.
3. Use your marker to outline the toilet base.
4. Use a basic miter saw to create any necessary perpendicular cuts in your vinyl planks.
5. Use a jigsaw to cut the rounded shape of your toilet base into the vinyl planks.
6. Install vinyl planks around your toilet.

Tip: Be sure that you only use your miter saw and jigsaw in a safe location while wearing appropriate personal protection equipment. Both saws should cut easily through your vinyl. Take your time and think through each cut before you make it.

How to Cut Vinyl Floor Sheeting Around a Toilet

Vinyl flooring is increasingly falling out of favor, but it can provide a seamless vapor barrier between the humidity of your bathroom and your subfloor. Vinyl floor sheeting also tends to be less expensive than both peel and stick vinyl and vinyl planks.

If your toilet is already in place, I do not recommend installing vinyl floor sheeting. With a toilet already installed, a line from the wall to the back of the toilet base must be cut into the vinyl sheeting.

Moisture tends to collect under and around toilets. This cut seam in the flooring undercuts vinyl floor sheeting’s main appeal: being a seamless vapor barrier.

If you do opt to install vinyl sheeting around your toilet, follow these instructions:

• Cut out vinyl sheeting that exactly fits the floor space of your bathroom.
• Then, create a template using the newspaper as described to locate the exact location of the base of your toilet. 
• Lay down your newspaper from the corner of the bathroom nearest the toilet, then work around the base of the toilet.
• Transfer that template to your sheeting.
• Cut the shortest possible line from the edge of the toilet-base hole to the outside edge of your sheeting.

Install your sheeting by laying down the adhesive and working from the interior of the bathroom towards the door.

Conclusion

Successfully installing vinyl flooring around your toilet comes down to making an accurate template. A template will allow you to transfer the shape of your toilet base to a flooring mock-up outside of the bathroom. Be patient and accurate. You can cut vinyl flooring to fit around your toilet.