When gluing down to a plywood or OSB sub floor, many are tempted not to use an underlayment. How To Prepare Plywood Subfloor For Installing Self-Adhesive Vinyl Floor Planks? As any regular reader of this blog will know, if you’re laying a new wood floor over an old plank sub floor, there are several things you need to take into consideration. Subfloor preparation can range from sanding, scraping, leveling, filling low spots or installing a whole new subfloor. When it comes to subfloors that go down on top of the floor joists between the joists and the finish material, plywood is the preferred choice. removing/replacing the subfloor would be a giant PITA and I'm looking for a better solution. I am replacing the wood floors in my 1920 home. Hi Jim, since you are going to use laminate which is I assume 7mm & Up- you should use minimum ply of 12mm. One layer is laid, and the second layer is stapled or glued perpendicularly or diagonally over the top. How do I attach this hygrometer to the wall? Thanks for the comment. In this application method, the glue takes the place of your subfloor, nail, and glue of the previous method. Another option I'm looking into is leveling the floor with thinset or something similar, then screwing on the new panels for dimensional stability. Do not sand vinyl flooring – it may contain asbestos. I would like to update flooring on my second floor rental apt ( I live below). The first is to lay two layers of 3/8-inch plywood over the slab without fastening or gluing them to the slab. More about flooring installation. 04-23-2006, 01:09 PM. Should I use 1/2" or 5/8" plywood as a subfloor over my car plank. Before you install bamboo over plywood, the subfloor must be clean and level. What kind of finished floor are you putting on top. If you have a crawl spoace, remove the whole floor and stand on the dirt to woprk. For a nail-down installation of 6.5" wide engineered hardwood, 9/16" thick, tongue-and-groove, over underlayment approved for nail-down into a OSB subfloor (the underlayment makes the upstairs floor quieter), an installer suggested glue-assist in the grooves to reduce the likelihood of squeaking. Prep your subfloor so that it is clean, dry and level within 3/16-inch change per 10 feet. Why do house builders use drywall/sheetrock? Your help is greatly appreciated. 04-23-2006, 01:09 PM. 5/8" subfloor is the bare minimum for this new floor, and I don't like that. Staple/screw and glue (with urethane adhesive) the second layer to the first layer on a 12” interior grid pattern (6” on the perimeter). Schluter Ditra is one popular brand of a membrane. Over a wood subfloor, do not use an impermeable vapor retarder material with a perm rating of .7 or less, such as 6 mil polyethylene film or other polymer materials, as it may trap moisture on or in the wood subfloor. Engineered flooring can be installed over a dry concrete subfloor. The first is to lay two layers of 3/8-inch plywood over the slab without fastening or gluing them to the slab. Likely fir; Unknown if current subfloor is glued to joists. Gluing Plywood To Concrete. Do not sand vinyl flooring – it may contain asbestos. Also the surface while looking smooth does have some noticeable sanding undulations that you can feel if you slide your hand over the surface. I'd like to glue down 3/8" subfloor plywood to level and strengthen it. Improper spacing. This is done by introducing glue to the nailing process. If you need to choose a sheet like OSB, PLY or other than Ply normally consider better as it more stable. You don't need to glue underlayment down to a plywood subfloor because the plies of plywood have to be dry before they can be successfully glued together. All houses have subfloors. No Glue, Feroz. If your concrete subfloor was just poured, you’ll need to allow it to properly cure for a minimum of 60 days before your luxury vinyl flooring installation begins. There has also been rough patching done in various spots. Thanks for the info. The instructions are written for covering an existing flooring material, so they don't address preparation of the subfloor. If you follow these general guidelines, you shouldn’t go wrong when installing your new wood flooring, but if you’d like specific help for your project, simply get in touch. A full glue down installation is quite different from blind nail and glue. Like plywood subfloor, OSB subflooring typically comes with a tongue-and-groove edge and is installed with the end joints staggered. When gluing over a concrete slab, it is important to take proper moisture readings. Again, you can find an article debating the pros and cons of each method here. When it comes to laying your new boards over the old, there will be no scope for negotiation when it comes to direction ie. plywood; existing vinyl floors; structural plank subfloors; concrete and heated floors. Direct Gluing Vinyl Sheet and Tile to OSB SubfloorsInstalling a glue down vinyl floor (sheet or tile) directly over Oriented Strand Board (OSB) Subflooring has become a hot topic for me of lately. When you fix the ply to the old floor, you should avoid fixing it to the joists. Once your ply is neatly in place, you’ll have a great surface on which to install your new floor. Right now, I have 3/4 TG hardwood, which is not in the best shape, over a 2.5" wide x 3/4" inch think plank subfloor, which runs perpendicular to the joists (2x10, 16 oc). The simplest way to visualize this process is to picture a paint being applied to a wall, as the glue is applied to the subfloor before the boards are set in place. Lastly, are dichromate (yellow zinc-ish) screws appropriate for this application? What would be the minimum thickness of plywood that I should use, and as I understand it, I should not screw the new floor to the floor joists (?). Since the nails are 1.75″ long, that’s about 0.75″ of nail to dig into the plywood subfloor, which is great. As well as the transition the other guy mentioned. Gluing plywood to a plank subfloor is pretty much a waste of time and glue.