I installed click-lock luxury vinyl tile in a kitchen that was nearly 16′ square.  The tiles were about 12″ x 18″.  But I had to drill a hole in the center of the room to fish an electrical wire up and into the center island.  I had recorded the rough location of the wire buried beneath the vinyl and subfloor, and figured that the hole, though not on center, was going to end up under the island.  In fact, it was under the island. But to my horror I had not remembered that there is a 4″ overhang on floor cabinets and the hole ended up under the kick-plate, totally visible!  After considering lots of options, including building out the kick plate, I figured that the best idea was to replace the tile and drill the hole in a better place.

Removing the offending tile was easy enough with a multi-tool.  I cut a 1″ strip across the shorter dimension and easily pried it out with a chisel, then coaxed the remaining tile towards the center, away from the locks on the right and left, to free the ends from their tab locks.  Then I simply cut those pieces in the other direction and they were free to be pop right out.  But when installing the new one, I figured that I would need to trim the locking tabs on at least two sides.  What I came up with was a great way to preserve the locks on three sides.  I simply bent the tile over a 1/2″ piece of copper pipe.  That allowed me to slip the tabs into place on opposing sides.  Once I was satisfied that they’d remain lined up, I carefully removed the pipe and the tile fell right into place. I felt it was far better to have three sides locked than the two sides I’d have typically ended up with.