Matt, thanks for the reply. I cant take up the ply in the kitchen as I have already istalled th kitchen base units over the top. I'm thinking the best way to go is screw down the ply as well so the screws are biting with the floor boards rather than the staples, so then there shouldnt be any movement, then put a decent screed (thinking 2-3mm?) over the whole lot, ie the 700 you mentioned... Anyway lucky I stumbled on this forum before i stapled the rest of the ply downstairs. Mind me asking why the 121 (acrylic) rather than the neoprene 131...? I am using PS adhesive, thought 131 would be good with that? As for daves reply, i am not trying to steal your business or devalue your trade, as I explained i am doing a self build. unfortunately I would not be able to afford to pay a professional to come in and do it, got the tiles end of line stock, and fit myself, yes i bought the stuff without doing my homework and didnt think the subfloor prep would be so involved, but I'm confident i will get a decent end result, with the help of forums such as this. I didnt realise this forum was only for pro floor fitters, didnt see that in the small print when i signed up! Anyway advice taken, and thanks
The guy is brave I must say, attempting all that on his first attempt....with a feature strip Unless this is going to be a new 'hobby' of yours in fitting lvt then id just go with a pro and let them sort it instead of a course! You stand to lose a lot of money if you attempt this and bugger it up... "a decent end result" ? Id want a pukka end result. Have you ever screeded before? You may need to account for a 'rubbing down' machine as using a block on feather when its rock solid is a soul destroyer especially the size of your install. Its not just for Pro installer on here, We're not trying to put you down, its friendly advice so that you dont have to go down the route of ripping the whole lot out and starting again causing major expense that you have already said you cant afford. The thing is you never find that many stories on the net about 'Diy'er ****s his floor up' or 'I wish I listened to the pro's' because they dont want to eat humble pie and broadcast it' Trust us though, we have seen our fair share of bodge jobs that us pro's have had to put right and especially jobs that we have seen that look total ****e yet the customer is over the moon with it. Do it once, Do it right!
Cheers. No never screeded before, might get someone in to do this, got a plasterer mate who can screed...and no i hadnt accounted for a rubbing down machine, this is getting more and more £££ by the day!! right ive got 1500 screws left to screw in
I'm not saying that your trying to steal our work, but if we posted on how to fit lvts we'd be doing ourselves out of a job. Its like diyer's fitting their own laminate flooring which at one point nearly killed it for floor layers but there is a marked difference between a diy job and a professional laminate floor fitters job. I don't have a problem explaining what materials need to be used to fit a perfect floor or advice on different lvts or common problems which can arise with poor floor preparation. My problem would be with doing a step by step guide on how to do prepare and fit it.
I wouldn't use a plasterer to screed a floor. They plaster walls. Leave flooring products to flooring installers.
Cause plastering is like screeding. NOT!!! Never seen a plasterer use a pin leveller or even a spiked roller to aerate plaster.
I had my ceiling plastered the other week and it looks like he did use a spiked roller!! Shocking bit of work....
I decided to bite my lip on the plasterer doing the screeding bit because it may come across like im picking fault with everything the OP mentions, some dont look at it like its friendly advice. Dont know about you guys but I get asked all the time if I can do the plastering as well when im working at a customers home. when I tell them I cant plaster they come across surprised...why? Because im putting a 3mm float on the deck, will a 3mm float stick to the wall then!!!
Its alright pick away hopefully your comments and my posts will be of use to someone at some point, I'm sure most would-be DIYers have been put off by now anyway! I actually had more confidence in my mate doing a good job, than a local floorer i dont know, because he has done it before and hes a perfectionist, plus im in west cornwall and specialist floor fitters are a bit thin on the ground here! But anyway ive decided against doing a screed anyway, by the time i bought 7 plus bags of stopgap 700, paid my mate would end up adding ££'s that i dont have. So, in the kitchen im overboarding another layer of 6mm ply, laid opp direction, 30x4 reisser screws to go right through both sheets of ply and well into the floorboards, 150mm centres, 100 on edges. Yes i should have done this in the first place, its time consuming and soul destroying to do it twice but the cheapest option i have! And for the lounge where i mentioned the high spot, i measured it today its about 3mm high over 2m, so fairly minimal, i may be able to sand a bit off and live with that. Screwed half living room and hall today, should finish living room and downstairs loo tomorrow and start 2nd layer in kitchen... Then feather over the whole lot, sand, prime, and lay! Should be finished by christmas lol One question, matt said to use p121 rather than p131, having read the manufactures data sheet i cant really see why i cant use the p131 over the stopgap 500? Or was this for the 700 screed....? Am using PS F46 adhesive to glue the tiles Any more comments welcome, i'm expecting more "get a professional to do it" etc and it is sound advice except, personally im not going to follow it. As for the comment about DIYers laying laminate, ive done 2 laminate floors which IMO were nigh on perfect, laminate is a p.o.p. compared to the prep required for LVT!!!
Where your using the F46 is there any direct sunlight on the lvt? Seriously i hope the job goes well for you and you sound like a perfectionist so it would be good to see the finished result, maybe a career change would be in order if floor fitters are thin on the ground in West Cornwall. please post pics.
Make sure your ply has had time to acclimatize and better off using sp101 if you can get it.. We've all had the ply from builders merchants and even wood yards and they may delaminate.. (not saying they will, just saying they may). I did a bathroom and put F46 down, turned around and the ply just lifted the first layer straight off... , Just scrape it off then put some feather edge down... I'll see if I can find you a link for that thread, should have pics too..
There may be some direct sunlight on the LVT through the french doors in kitchen/dining room, but it faces NW so only really late afternoon sun....cheers will post completed pics, may wait until ive done the skirtings/archs etc too and everything decorated
My local builders merchants has just got some Malaysian ply in as kept having trouble and complaints about the Chinese ply off joiners. The Malaysian looks just like SP101. Used it a few timed and its solid stuff.
S***! Was wondering about the quality of the ply im using, the first lot from travis looked like better ply, ie pink coloured with several layers, but it had ripples down the middle you could feel, so i took it back, got 2nd lot from jewsons which was dead smooth but basically looked yellow, seemed like one chunk of wood in the middle with thin layer stuck on either side. 2 of the bits were actually delaminated already so i have put them aside to exchange. I guess as im now screwing it, the screw heads will keep the top layer from delaminating...? I'm using an impact driver but have been making sure i dont drive the screws below the top layer for this reason. Have already done half the lounge with this ply, but think i will make it my mission tomorrow to try and get the sp101 for the rest and for the 2nd layer in kitchen. Thanks that might be the best bit of advice yet! I just assumed thats what ply was like nowadays!
Id just go with the F48 all over for the sake of it. No point in mix matching your adhesives. Anywhere where there is direct sunlight will need an HT (high temperature) adhesive. So your whole downstairs is timber floor? Have a door planer handy also. Laminate may be easier than the prep for Lvt but fitting Lvt is a whole different ball game. If you do go ahead and fit the Lvt yourself then id leave the skirts/architraves till last, it'll save you heaps of time with your cuts etc. You still having a border/feature strip?
Yep definitely fitting the skirtings and archs after laying the floor to avoid cuts! Whole downstairs is timber floor boards. Did i not read PS is alright up to 27 degrees, or is it the sunlight itself rather than the heat?? Not sure about the feature strips yet i have 18" square ceramic sable tiles for the kitchen so was going to go for a pale concrete grout effect.
27 degrees is the max temp before the tiles themselves start to be effected, sunlight via a window will kick up more than that on a sunny day, good luck on your project because your probably gonna need it I know its not something id attempt as a layman, way to many things that can go wrong. With HT addy you will need to get a 70kg roller too, have fun
131 dries like a rubber on the surface, applying glue to it can cause it to come away and also working on top of it installing a floor it dont like. 121 wont do this, as a product like lvt contains plasticizers a acrylic product is the best product to use. As for you plywood, what grade you using ? you should be using a interior dried product to around a 8-10% moisture content ideally with a class 3 exterior grade bond strength. Just like SP101 as suggested above. Make sure you check your subfloor moisture content so you can acclimatise the plywood to within 4% other wise you will get ply lines showing through 6 months down the line even if you use a skim coat. Ideally you could do with a equilibrium chart to check the rooms RH and temp so you can cross reference to give you the correct acclimatised moisture readings you should be getting. as for adhesive, most HT can only really go up to 28c. PS adhesives can actually go a lot higher than a HT adhesive. There is a lot of science behind this tho that you learn on a FloorSkills course of how, why etc. Basically the stuff that manufacturers dont want you to know.
