Right chippy's I need help, I'm about to lay laminate flooring in my living room, With help from a mate, I have a suspended wooden foor ( ie Foor boards) and the floor boards are not in good shape, they have curled up so i have a bumpy floor not that you could notice with carpet and underlay down, My dad said to cover it with hard board first, but one of my mates said use ply if i can afford to or if Im going to use hard board soak it with a hose first and lay it wet and pin it down and let it dry out then it will be stretched out tight, cause it would be expanded when wet and will shrink when dryed out.

What do you guys think is the best option, I don't wanna lay a few hundred quids worth of flooring and find its all done shit in six months time cause the floor under it was crap.

any help would be much appreciated.

steve.

 

I'm no chippy but i would personally use ply, will pay fo itself in the finished appearance.

 

Im sure we used ply before laying our hard wood flooring, nailed it every 10 cm or so! (i.e. a fookin shit load of nails ) (nail gun!)

 

Before you start laying ply or hardboard over your existing floorboards ideally you should secure or fix any of the existing subfloors loose floorboards where necessary

You can use either ply or hardboard to level the subfloor they will both do the same job - please dont wet the hardboard or ply before its laid as all it will do is retain moisture as it is hygroscopic (like the laminate is) & then once your laminate is down the moisture will gradually raise upwards into the laminate causing the laminate to warp & bow @ the joints & also any moisture retained in the ply or hardboard could also lead to dampness in your existing subfloor leading to rotting of the original floor boards - believe me i have seen this happen far too many times when i used to handle all the diy complaints at my old place of work who provide flooring customer service for the majority of the uk's diy chains

Once the ply or hardboard has been fixed down a simple layer of 2mm foam underlay from somewhere like B&Q will suffice as underlay & the laminate can be laid on top

 

hi stevie, well you in luck, im a joiner and just joined today so hi all . how bad is the floor? tbh in personal experience if the floor is a little topsy turvy but not hurrendous then just use the "combi-floor" underlay, and in the places where its lower just put a 2nd 3rd or even 4th layer to get it all roughly level then lay your floor. you can also buy 12mm thick underlay, whcih looks like big green sheets, which you could use if the floor is terrible but its cost a bit more

 

like said you can use either, depending on how bad the floor is have you not looked at good quality underlays? i would deff not reccommend wetting it though (i am a chippy) the hard board etc may shrink once layed but the chances of your house being more damp than the timber yard etc is very low so would bet on it shrinking rather than expanding

 

laminate floor in your living room!!i would not bother,its horrible stuff,looks crap,sounds crap,very uncomfortable,a late 90's fade that should be aproached with caution!

carpet is your friend.

 

If the boards have curled where they meet and you couldnt notice through your carpet then your not gonna notice with the laminate down. If it does concern you though, instead of covering it hire an industrial floor sander and sand the high areas down.

 

or when you have the chance m8 take up the floorboards and check what insulation is under your floor.stick in some if required ,screw down the 3/4 ply[stops creaking] and lay your new floor on top.

 

Yes & after about 5 or 6 months of regular use of the floor in those areas the joints in the laminate flooring boards in that area will have flexed and moved so much under compression that the boards will seperate at the joints leaving a ridged/bowed effect

That sort of advice is as good as some people who tell customers that using carpet underlay with laminate flooring is a good idea as it offers "cushioning" when you walk on it & then few months down the line al the boards are parting @ the joints, chipping, etc as the joints have been badly damaged

 

I prop should have got better underlay looking at the floor now, but i've already bought it and the flooring (so no carpets going down TF rallyesport) I have thought about sanding it but trying to save money so don't really want to hire a sander, plus the room is already painted and that sounds a dusty job, theres no loose floor board's so i'm ok there,

And just to make things clear its side to side where the boards have curled making the gaps between the boards bigger , I know you wouldn't feel it once the floor's down but i want the floor to last and thought it mite allow the new flooring to move more and i'll be finding gaps between the planks in a few months time.

thanks for everyones help think i mite put some ply down to be safe,

 

to be honest mate if your only suffering from cupping floorboards just a decent underlay should see you right, if they were that bad you would have been tripping over them with carpet down lol

 

As mentioned before... just use fibre boards as your underlay. (green rectangular pads approx 30"x20") b&q are about the cheapest. dont get 'floors to go's' boards though as they are really thin.

Lee

 

Exactly what i though mate! Not a joiner that would work for me this lad!

 

Just use either 4mm or 6mm ply m8 problem sorted

 

doing my bathroom floor at the moment. i've laid all new tongue and groove floorboards screwed down with 2 screws per joist (i hate nails, think they're the lazy option) and then 18mm ply on top. but that's going to be tiled and i'm sparing no expense.

 

they do a T&G ply in 8x2 sheets which is great for this, tile straight on to it

 

LOL @ Nails the lazy option! Annular ringshanks go nowhere! Can have a floor down in no time with the paslode

 

Today i priced up some 4 mm ply to do the room and its gonna cost over £135 to do what i want, So as money is tight as this is my first house and only moved in 7 months ago, i went back to the drawing board (ie all you advice)

So as a lot of people said that a good underlay will do the job fine, i took my self off to B & Q to see what they had, and before i left i measured the amount of difference between the highest and lowest part of the floor boardv which is about 4mm max,

B&Q do a 6mm thick underlay, which said it can fill defections of 4 mm just what i needed each pack covered 6 sq meters and i needed enough to cover 31 sq m, they had a whole 2 packs

Off to a different B&Q tomorrow me thinks....