Well, I knew that I shouldn't do it, BUT I couldn't stand looking at the old stuff any longer and I got the self-stick Euro-Stone tiles on clearance very cheap! My thought was if it works for a couple of years great and if not I didn't have much money in it. I was very careful in cleaning the floor before hand and have had no problems with them not sticking. The scrap of vinyl was one idea that I had thought of- just not sure where I can get one without paying a lot. Another thought someone had given me was to use the really heavy roof felt- any thoughts on using that? My concern was how to secure it to the subflooring??? I would think it would need to be completely glued down - staples could work out of the subfloor and damage the tiles, maybe??

Couldn't you put some type of thick baseboard, wainscotting, built in benches or bookcases or a mixture of these to hide the unevenness of the wall and cover the tiles. I would square the room as best I could and get the vinyl tiles as close to the wall as possible and then decide on something to afix to the wall to hide the uneven edges. I think if the tiles are away from the wall they may tend to peel up and I think it would be more pleasing to the eye for them to go all the way to the wall. Do you have a picture you can show us? I used vinyl stone look tiles in my garden shop and some people have thought it was real stone. I put them as close to the wall as possible and then covered with baseboards (of course it was new construction and the walls are fairly straight). It was recommended to start in the middle of the room - but I laid mine out in a dry run and found that if I started at the entrance door with a full tile then only two walls had part of a tile and they are hidden with bookshelves, a counter and displays. Make sure the floor is perfectly clean before laying the self stick tiles. I used a sealer on my concrete floor beforehand too.

No, I have no pads under anything. Part of this is a 4 and half foot wide, very heavy traffic, long hallway, that goes back to bedrooms, and baths. The rest of it is kitchen, dining room, and family room combination (might call it a great room, not sure what it was called in the 70's when this house was built) I have moved the refrigerator and freezer around on it several times, since we are still working on this place, and probably will be for another year or two. I have moved the heavy very old dining room table and chair dozens of times, and the couch gets moved out a couple times a week, because of where the heating and cooling vents are installed, and it blows all the pet hair underneath it, and up by the baseboards. No, I dont have any separation, yet. In our old house, I did have one plank with a very slight separation where the ends meet. It was like it shrunk about 1/16 or so. I used some golden oak filler I had, and you had to look very hard to find it. I am undecided, yet, whether to continue this into my very long laundry/sewing area, and in to the bathroom beyond it, or if I would prefer the Eurostone vinyl tiles that I used in kitchen, and baths and laundry in our old house. This house has regular hardwood in all the bedrooms, and ceramic in other bath, so might be nice to have something a bit different than the wood look everywhere. We also have a grandaughter and great grandson living with us, and the walker is all over the floors, and highchair gets pulled across it all the time too.

OK....so here is what I WOULD DO: Pull the carpet and lino BOTH and FIND OUT what's underneath. Carpet hides the WORST subfloors (both in prep and in materials) on the planet. Builders KNOW they can mess up the subfloor because carpet will hide everything. So....once carpet and line are GONE...I would then choose an installation material BASED ON the subfloor material that is in place. Example, if you have PERFECT PLYWOOD (which is EXPENSIVE....so I HIGHLY DOUBT IT) then you can think about peel and stick vinyl (which will be cheap, cheerful and require replacement rather quickly = 5 - 7 years). If you have PERFECT CONCRETE SLAB (again...HIGHLY DOUBT IT) then you can think peel and stick. See above. Now back to reality. The chances are you have bad subfloors. As in laun or fibre board or OSB (oriented strand board = looks like the plywood has been made from potato chips). If this is your substrate, peel and stick will NOT STICK. That means you NEED TO LOOK at floating (click together). The price will go UP because of the price of the locking system (royalties, manufacturing machines are expensive, etc) but the INSTALLATION will be faster/easier. Or you have horrible concrete (lumpy, pitted, sloped, etc.) and you need SERIOUS repairs on the concrete. That type of repair isn't going to come cheap. And it is a gut-wrenching DIY project. And vinyl is great for dogs....but PLEASE WORK with a product that is NOT MATTE. We have dozens of threads with people CRYING over their matte finished vinyl....and HATING IT. And NO, the finish is not defective. Which makes them even MORE upset....because there is no warranty covering "angry". And just for fun, a rental unit will have a different life expectancy for flooring. Rental units have a 7 year life cycle for flooring. Yep. That's sever (7) years and the floors need replacing. So....choose what YOU LIKE today. Get it as tough as your budget can allow (high-end laminate in the living spaces + decent vinyl in kitchen/bath/laundry) and then realize it will only survive a few more years (2-4 years) as a rental floor. That's it. And LAMINATE (especially the high end one's) are EXTREMELY tough. They are STUPID-EASY/cheap to install as DIY and require LESS PREPARATION to the subfloors than vinyl. Because rental property is in your future, don't think anything beyond "seven years".