Secrets of laying a laminate on a wooden floor

Laying a laminate on a wooden floor is performed if necessary to hide the defects of the old boardwalk, and if desired, simply update the interior.

According to experts, the old wooden floor is better to dismantle completely.

After that, to level the roughing base, perform a concrete screed under the laminate.

But since this process will require additional costs that can exceed the cost of the laminate, you can lay the product directly on a wooden base, as well as using plywood or osb as a substrate.

Consider the first and second way of installing a laminate on a wooden floor with all the details.

Preparing a wooden base for laying a laminate without plywood

In order to lay the laminate directly on a wooden floor,it is necessary to make sure of a satisfactory condition of the surface:

• First, when walking, floorboards should not sag and creak;
• Secondly, there should be no slots between the boards, and the tree itself should not have plots affected by rot;
• Third, the horizontality of the substrate should be close to the ideal, that is, not to have elevations over 2 mm.

If the wooden floor creaks under your feet or some of its floorboards bend, then the problem areas are repaired by screwing the boards with screws or nailing the lags.

Sometimes it is required to repair and strengthen the lags themselves, which "walk" when loaded. To do this, install logs or bricks under the lags.

The floorboards can creak because of rubbing against each other to exclude gnashing between them, graphite or talc is covered in the slot. Put open gaps.

Further, in order to fully verify the normal state of the wood, it is necessary to remove the old paint layer with your own hands. The type of tree should be approximated to the natural shade throughout the plane.

If in some places the floors of the boards have a doubtful appearance, they are recommended to be tested for strength with an awl.

The second way to reveal rotten or frayed floorboards is tapping a floor with a hammer. At the same time, tapping on holistic healthy wood will be audible loudly and distinctly.

While muffled sound will be a serious reason for replacing old wooden elements with new ones.

Despite the fact that the rotten boards are still strong, they still need to be replaced with their own hands, as the rot can eventually spread to healthy parts.

If the room where the laminate is being laid is permanently high, then it is recommended that the floors be inspected for fungus or mold.

To prevent their appearance in the future will allow treatment with antiseptic composition and waterproofing of the wooden base.

When detecting hollows in the form of grooves on the floorboards, it is necessary to apply a bioprotective compound for the treatment of wood flooring, since their presence indicates the contamination of the material with woodworms.

Uneven wooden floor must be leveled, the differences in its surface may be 1.5-2 mm / 1m2.

The way to determine, so uneven flooring, is to apply the building level.

In the absence of the indicated measuring device, a two-meter bar and a spirit level can be used.

With non-critical height differences, the uneven floor can be leveled using a grinder, or with your own hands using a plane.

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The second way is too long, the cicleval technique copes with the task in a faster and more efficient manner.

The main thing, before leveling the floor for the subsequent laying of the laminate, do not forget to drown deeper the hats of the nails above the surface, which can cause the grinding equipment to fail.

If the old wooden floor is too uneven and grinding can not solve the alignment problem, there is another way to make it as horizontal as possible - by pouring.

True, this technology is not entirely suitable for wooden flooring, but it is still used in some cases.

Filling of a wooden base for laying a laminate is carried out by using a bulk screed, but not a self-leveling mixture, which is not used for wood.

To align the wooden floor use compounds with fiberglass, due to which the materials are firmly interlocked with each other.

Unlike standard solutions, the glass fiber mixture thickens and cools faster.

But before pouring, a waterproofing in the form of a dense polyethylene film is laid on the wooden base.

Waterproofing is arranged on the floor in such a way that its edges can be fixed on the walls along the perimeter of the room.

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The film pieces overlap each other, with an allowance of 15-20 cm, the joints are glued with building tape.

Below is a video on the subject of leveling a wooden floor with a screed for laying a laminate, which will complement the above material.

Leveling of a wooden floor with plywood for a laminate

The technology of leveling a wooden floor using plywood or osb is low-cost, but at the same time, an effective way to make the base base ideal for laying a laminate.

To find out which substrate will be better for a laminate - osb or plywood, it is necessary to compare the technical characteristics of both products.

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Veneer sheets and osb slabs - similar in quality materials: the products are easy to process, have a strong structure and a relatively high moisture resistance.

At the same time, osb slabs are cheaper than plywood, but the appearance of the products does not allow them to be used for finishing the finished floor.

Despite this, the Osb is gradually replacing the plywood product from the construction market.

After all, the behavior of plywood in the course of operation is difficult to guess, which can not be said about osb plates, which do not have the property of delamination under atmospheric and mechanical action.

In addition, the modulus of elasticity in bending, compression and stretching in plates of OSB is an order of magnitude higher than that of plywood.

Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that the osb plates are the most suitable products that will not only level the uneven floor, but also extend its life.

Rules for laying OSB slabs on the wooden base

The basic rules for laying osb boards on a wooden floor: the use of materials with certain parameters is used as a substrate for a laminate.

For example, for a laminate with a thickness of 7 mm, it is not worth buying plates more than 2 mm thick, for a thicker finishing coat 8-9 mm - the optimum substrate thickness is 3 mm.

A thicker substrate will slightly sag when pressed, resulting in the laminate joints being deformed.

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Mounting of the OSB boards on a wooden base is performed by screwing them with screws or nailing with rods of a certain length.

The distance between the fasteners is calculated by multiplying the available plate thickness by 2.5.

Between the plates it is necessary to leave 5 mm technological clearances, which are subsequently filled with mounting foam.

The waterproofing, which excludes the formation of condensate destroying the structure of the wood, is provided under the substrate without fail.

The uneven transition at the joints of the plates is leveled with epoxy putty.

Laying laminate

The rules for laying a laminate on the substrate and without it, just on a wooden leveled base are no different. Laying of lamellas is recommended to start from the far corner of the room.

In this case, it is necessary to ensure that the elements of the future floor lie horizontally, and their locks snap tightly.

Since the laminate belongs to the category of floating floors, it is necessary to lay it with technological gaps of 7-10 mm.

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This size of the clearances is sufficient to allow the laminate to freely "swim" when changing temperatures, that is, to shrink and expand.

It is possible to make the seam seams invisible thanks to the technology of laying the lamellas uncontrolled, with a slight displacement of each row.

In addition, the laminate floor elements can be laid with a Christmas tree and with the use of other patterns, although in this case it is worth to prepare for a larger consumption of the material.

After laying the first row of the laminate is completed, the second row is assembled according to the same principle.

In the process of using "podbivku" in the form of a special wooden beam, which will allow the elements to be laid tightly to each other.

For the purpose of qualitatively laying the last row of lamellas, clamps are used.

At the end of the article, we recommend you to view the thematic video material.