Hi all I have a new build - concrete, on top of which is 4mm of foam, and then floated 22mm tongue and groove HI LOAD chipboard. In two rooms one of the chipboard boards has notable damage to the corner - perhaps 8mm deep, and 40mm round from the corner. Also some boards are almost 1mm higher than their adjoining board. And I have some gaps at the bottom edge of boards of 1mm or 1.5mm running the width - which is about 50cm. The boards flex notably when stepping on their edges or on them in general. I don't see or feel this, but when you see someone else step, you can see it. Also the floor seems to sag in the middle by up to 8mm or so, as the skirting has a much larger gap in the middle. What would suitable prep of this floor be for QuickStep Livyn Pulse Click? So click vinyl which is floated on the recommened 1mm underlay. Do I need to fill the gaps, and what compound should I use, given the subfloor is chipboard, and floated? And flexes when stepped on. Is it a good or bad idea to shave the edges of boards with a horizontal blade where one board is higher than the other? Or is the chipboard treated, and removing any surface a bad idea? Thanks very much
Hi there...... Firstly who floated the chipboard on 4mm foam..... Sounds odd!!!! Would normally be on kings pan or equivalent.... If there is lots of movement you won't get rid of it and the click floor will follow this and break up. I'd be removing the lot and using a latex screed onto the sound concrete
It's a new build flat by Crest Nicholson. It's for sound insulation I believe. Seems to be a standard way to do it. Bathrooms have 5.5mm ply on top, latex and then Amtico installed. That's standard as part of the build. I decided to get the floor for the rest of the flat done myself. So if I went down to the concrete I'd be 26mm lower than the current subfloor. And the bathrooms are around 8mm higher than the subfloor. I guess I could get 5.5mm ply fixed all over too, to create a better sub floor? I'm considering laminate now, and not sure if that'll work better or worse than click vinyl with the current subfloor. The click vinyl is obviously a lot more flexible. I've already had some put down (but it's getting removed as it's defective), and it feels perfectly fine and solid. If I go down the laminte route, I'd rather avoid ply on top if possible, as otherwise it'll raise my floor too high for the doors - and the front door has a fire seal etc, so I'd need to create a matt well etc - raising the door isn't an option.
Well you have answered your own question....... Laminate is the same concept as click vinyl..... Basically if your floors moving and has high and low spots then it WILL break up and crack on joins....... Plain high spots off on joints then minimum 5.5mm plywood preferably sp101 or if you can't get it damn good far eastern not Chinese........ Go down the glued down LVT route of you ask me......... I personally don't fit laminate or click together floors as most end users see it as a cheap option and therefor are not prepared to pay for floor prep required. Plenty of fixings on the joins and screw don't nail!!!!!! They will pop out if you have a lot of movement. If it's not flat and sound your basically asking to fit what is a rigid and straight product to a floor with movement!!!!!!!!!! Yes your floor will still move but overlay and stagger your plywood so the joints don't fall on joints of the chipboard...... Hope that helps
Thanks, very helpful. Much appreciated. If I go down the ply route I'll have read up on some guidance, but should I remove skirtings first and then fix the ply with an expansion gap? The bathrooms just have the ply flush to the skirting, latex, then LVT glued on top and mastic to seal. As per my other post here: http://theflooringforum.com/threads/lvt-recommendations-natural-wood-without-ticks.15501/ I'd like to avoid glue down. When I was using a fitter I still didn't go glue down because I liked the QuickStep Livyn Pulse best, which is currently only available as click. And if I'm fitting it myself now, then the click product is definitely preferable as I'm a novice and I'm not expecting myself to be able handle the requisite sub floor prep and adhesion to the standard required. Gluing LVT is a professional job, and hard to get right from what I can tell. I raised ply with my fitter and he said straight down for the click vinyl would be fine, and he'd seen much worse subfloors. Some say chipboard and the subfloor I have is junk, and others seem to take the other stance and say it'll be no problem. Personally I tend to worry about the subfloor etc. and am cautious about people saying it's no problem. But yeah, I can see how laminate won't work - as it's a stiff product, so could break as you say. But ply with laminate would make the floor too high. So if ply is necessary for laminate, then laminate is out. But the click vinyl is flexible, so can move with subfloor movement. Isn't that okay as others have said? If not, then I can ply, as the product is much thinner and I have room for that. Total height will only be around 11.5mm. Front door has 15mm clearance from the chipboard. Thanks
Ply to the skirtings you will be fine...... In all honesty glue down I find easier than click....... Just loose lay 3 rows do the cuts mark with a pen glue to line and glue then fit
Can't say I've ever seen chipboard on a underlay over a slab on any crest site I have worked on and I do a lot of their sites, seems abit backwards if you ask me and not the usual way, can't see how a 3/4mm underlay will make any kind of impact on the sound insulation.
So would ply on top actually help reduce movement of the subfloor at all? Or would it just be to get a better surface finish? If it doesn't help with movement I don't see it being of much benefit for floating laminate or click vinyl installation...
Oh my word ...... Crack on with your click or laminate. A floating floor system on top of a floor you describe as uneven and already floating. UNLESS ITS FLAT THE LAMINATE OR CLICK WILL MOVE AND BREAK
Still waiting to be refunded for my current defective flooring, so nothing I can do for now, other than prep. The click was pretty solid down however, so didn't seem to be an issue at all.
