Pros and Cons of Using Vinyl Flooring for Shiplap

Pros and Cons of Using Vinyl Flooring for Shiplap

My vision for the nursery is a classic neutral vintage inspired space and I knew shiplap would be the perfect accent wall to compliment what I had planned. I also loved that it wasn’t something that the child would outgrow too quickly like the adorable wallpaper I considered. You can see the nursery mood board HERE.

So first, let’s just put this out there.. I am not handy. I’m crafty, but not handy! Because of that, this project was very intimidating and I was trying to find the cheapest and easiest way to make it happen. My original plan was to use plywood cut down into strips like I kept seeing a lot of bloggers use but then my friend Rachel from RachelElizabethCreates shared hers on Instagram using peel and stick vinyl flooring and that sounded so much easier to me. Thank you Rachel for answering my million questions! I know she’s working on a blog post with a tutorial and I’ll come back and link it when it’s live! 

So that’s what I did, I used this flooring. I did this entire wall by myself and it was the first time I’d ever used a nail gun or caulked so I learned a lot along the way! So if I can do this, so can anyone else!

There are so many ways out there to do a faux shiplap wall so I wanted to share some of the Pros and Cons of using the Vinyl Flooring vs any type of wood material.

Pros:

Hello – it’s Peel and Stick! – Since I was doing this by myself it was great that I could get it into place and it would stay long enough to grab my nail gun and secure it. It also was forgiving so if you didn’t have the spacing just perfect you could easily adjust it before nailing it.

Easy to Cut: I am comfortable using a radial saw but that’s about it as far as saws go. It was great that I could cut the vinyl pieces using a utility knife instead of different saws.

Affordable: This is relatively inexpensive. It’s probably not as cheap as the plywood would have been but the cost is about $1 per square foot which is pretty affordable for an accent wall.

 

Cons:

Trouble Securing with Nail Gun: There were several places where the nails went straight through the vinyl into the wall which meant there wasn’t anything securing it to the wall and they would eventually fall. I tried to turn my regulated pressure down and adding more nails into each board. Certain areas of the wall had more problems with this, I never figured out why. It’s possible that the nail gun staples instead of the finishing nails may would have prevented this problem, I’m not sure. Hindsight It might be a good idea to use liquid nails if you decide to use the vinyl flooring.

Paint: The thought never crossed my mind that vinyl would require special paint. I used the Kilz Latex Multi-Surface Primer that my friend Lauren used to prime her lenoleum floors before painting. For the record the top coat is Benjamin Moore White Dove. 

Darker than raw wood: Because the vinyl was so dark it took two coats of primer and also two coats of paint to get full coverage

So, overall it was a success! My hope is if you’re considering doing some shiplap that you find those pros and cons helpful! I probably spent around $75-ish for the vinyl flooring for this one wall and I was able to do it all by myself which would not have been possible with wood!

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