I needed to install a floor covering in a new kitchen. The area is 4mX6.5m , the material is a pvc surface with a felt-like fibre backing, and very heavy. The problem: 1. Only about 2 cm clearance between the room width and the covering material. 2. The rolled up lino was not a perfect cylinder,that is, it was very slightly spiralled, so that the width of the roll was greater than the width of the room. 3. The end was not cut perfectly square. The effect of all this was that in unrolling the material it wound up climbing up the walls, some kinks in it, and total exasperation. The material weighed as much as I do, and even on a smooth MDF under-layer, completely unbudgeable. And then a light came on. I connected the hose of the shop vac to the blowing end instead of the sucking end, and with one extension tube on it, pushed it under the lino towards the centre of the room, and turned it on. It didn't float the whole thing like a magic carpet,(my imagined outcome), but it did create a pretty big bubble in the middle of the floor. With a big push broom, (I used a yard broom), I could move this bubble around, and with a little perseverance it all came flat, even borders at the sides, and just the ends to trim.
I expect that this an old trick, used by floor covering guys for years, but if it isn't, I pass it on.
I expect that this an old trick, used by floor covering guys for years, but if it isn't, I pass it on.