For those who have decided to choose linoleum as a floor covering, you need to know that the service life of the coating depends on the quality preparation of the base. Therefore, preparation of the foundation should be given Special attention. Plywood under linoleum as a leveling material is ideal option. Let's consider its advantages and disadvantages and styling features.
To understand what kind of plywood is needed for a floor under linoleum, you need to understand what tasks are set for it. Typically, it helps solve the following problems:
- Leveling the base;
- Insulation and sound insulation;
- Raising the floor level.
But leveling with plywood is only possible with small differences in height (up to 5 mm). Otherwise, a concrete screed is used.
Before laying, we eliminate height differences
In addition to leveling, plywood retains heat well and protects against noise. In addition, installation costs are negligible.
Functions
This material copes well with the tasks of leveling any base at a low cost. When laying plywood to level the floor, the load when moving across it is distributed evenly. This is due to the fact that human weight falls on a whole sheet of plywood, and not on one or two boards of a wooden floor when laid under linoleum.
By spending a little more on leveling, you can save a lot more money on future repairs.
This material does an excellent job of leveling any surface. The advantages include:
- Low price;
- Load distribution on the floor;
- Hides all unevenness, defects and holes in the floor;
- Durable and wear-resistant material;
- Excellent heat and sound insulation;
- No squeaks.
It cannot be said that this building coating is problem-free and that working with it is a pleasure. It also has the disadvantages listed below.
Plywood, which is laid on the floor under linoleum, like other materials, has disadvantages:
- Under the influence of moisture and chemical substances may become deformed;
- There is a high probability of mold, fungi, and insects;
- The presence in some types of glue that releases toxic substances;
- High flammability of the material;
- Characteristic changes in characteristics (expansion, compression) with fluctuations in microclimate.
Special underlay for flat floors Some imperfections can be eliminated by applying to the coating special means depending on the problem that needs to be solved. To avoid mold, you need to know how to treat plywood under linoleum. Typically, antifungal solutions are used for this, which are applied to the surface with a brush. Moisture-resistant material is used against exposure to moisture. To reduce flammability wood material treated with fire retardants.
When choosing plywood for leveling, you need to focus on parameters such as thickness, moisture resistance and formaldehyde content in the wood material.
A detailed encyclopedia about wood, all its types, classes and division by type of wood.
To level the floor under linoleum, plywood at least 12-16 mm thick is required. In terms of moisture resistance, preference should be given to medium moisture resistance (FC) and increased moisture resistance (FSF).
Before hammering in nails, the nails are inserted into place Based on the presence of formaldehyde in the composition, it is divided into classes E1 (10 mg per 100 g of wood) and E2 (10-30 mg per 100 g of wood). For apartments and residential buildings choose E1.
For flooring under linoleum the best option There will be FC birch plywood with a layer thickness of 12-16 mm, class E1.
When laying flooring in an apartment, give preference to PVC linoleum. What parameters should you pay attention to when looking for linoleum for flooring? Depending on the type of room, semi-commercial material (kitchen, corridor) or household material (bedroom) is selected.
Choosing a coating for plywood is not so easy Also pay attention to the softness and elasticity of the coating. Choose linoleum for felt base or from foam. Such bases give it warmth and soundproofing properties. In addition, the foam base does not shrink and is moisture resistant, which means it can be laid in the kitchen.
This coating is amazing in color options. The layer with the pattern has a thickness of 2-6 mm, and the protective base, which gives the material durability, has a thickness of 0.15-0.7 mm.
A subfloor made of plywood under linoleum can be laid on concrete or wooden floor. Before laying the material, clean the floor from dust and dirt, check for height differences.
Concrete base, before laying plywood sheets, cover waterproofing film to avoid moisture getting on it.
Before laying the material, clean the floor from dust and dirt. Since plywood is a wood material, changes in humidity and temperature can negatively affect it. To prevent cracks from appearing under the influence of microclimate changes, a primer is used for plywood.
Allow the material to acclimatize before starting leveling.
Read detailed instructions, how to perform and why this is a mandatory process.
For work, it is more convenient to cut the sheets into pieces to avoid deformation in the process. The sheets are first laid out on the floor to adjust the dimensions. When laying, keep the sheets of material offset relative to each other. Leave a gap of about 3 mm between the sheets so that the surface remains flat when deformed.
Fastening plywood to concrete floor is carried out using dowels, and to wood – using self-tapping screws.
Often during repairs the question arises: Depending on the situation. If the floor is flat and there is no need to insulate it additionally, then there is no need to lay the underlay. If there are uneven floors and single-layer linoleum is used, laying a layer is mandatory.
On last stage The work involves sealing the seams using a sealant, which is low priced and easy to apply.
Conclusion
Using plywood, you can easily eliminate the curvature of the floor and evenly distribute the load when walking. This material is the best option for old wooden floors. Laying plywood on a concrete floor under linoleum helps to insulate the base and also protect against noise.
Following the basic rules of flooring will help avoid possible problems with floor covering. And the room will be cozy and warm.
Plywood consists of several layers of thin glued wood - veneer. As a rule, the number of these layers is odd and multi-layered - at least three, with each layer of veneer applied perpendicular to the previous one. Plywood is used quite often in home renovations. Usually it fits like flooring as a convenient base for laminate, parquet, ceramic tiles, linoleum, carpet, etc. At the same time, plywood has a number of useful qualities.
- It is very durable, aesthetic and durable coating, which will serve you for a long period of time.
- This material is very resistant to temperature changes.
- Even and smooth. Using plywood, we perfectly level the floor base.
- Plywood insulates the floor to some extent.
- Highly environmentally friendly.
- Allows you to level out annoying squeaks in wooden floors.
- Installation of plywood, although somewhat labor-intensive, is relatively simple. You can also lay plywood yourself.
- Moisture-resistant plywood often withstands room flooding.
- It is very easy to dismantle and replace if necessary.
But before moving directly to the repair, it should be noted that the plywood must “get used” to the room temperature. To do this, it must be kept for 24 hours to 7 days in a horizontal position in the room where the renovation is planned. It all depends on the temperature in the room and the warehouse/shop where the plywood was previously located. If it is approximately the same, a day is enough to get used to; if the difference is up to 5-8C, you need to let it rest for at least 3 days; more than 8-10C - a week.
Laying on a concrete screed
This is the most the hard way from the above. What should be done: 
Laying plywood on a wooden floor
In principle, the technology here is the same as when laying on a concrete screed. There are only small nuances.
In all cases, after fixing the plywood, it can be sanded to remove all differences, glue residues and make the surface of the plywood more suitable for fastening final finishing. To do this, use a coarse abrasive (emery) or a special grinding machine. Evaluate differences using a long rule or level. In addition, if necessary, to improve aesthetics, the laid plywood can be varnished.
That's all. Now you can begin installing the main finishing surface!
Linoleum is a fairly demanding type of flooring. It requires a perfectly flat base. Therefore, plywood is often laid under linoleum on a wooden floor to smooth out all the unevenness and roughness of the wood.
Requirements for plywood
Plywood is a material made from hygroscopic wood, so it is still not recommended to level floors in a damp room. Humidity in the room long time should not exceed 68%, and during the day should be within 78%. If the plywood available is not processed, then the percentage is reduced to 60. At the same time, the temperature in the room must be maintained between 18 and 27 ° C.
Attention! If we do not adhere to the above requirements for indoor conditions, then within a couple of months our plywood base will begin to delaminate.
To improve the quality characteristics and service life of plywood, it is necessary to impregnate the material with polyvinyl acetate putty during the process. This product is inexpensive but effective. Impregnation is carried out first on one side, and when stains appear on the other side of the sheet, it can be impregnated in two layers.
Drying is carried out in a horizontal position of the sheet and will take more than 3 days, the temperature should be room temperature. After such impregnation, the sheets also need to be treated antiseptic For wooden products. To increase strength, you can also cover the plywood with two layers of acrylic varnish.
Note! The thickness of plywood under linoleum on a wooden floor should not be less than 1.2 cm, since you will have to make do with more than one layer of sheet material.
It is recommended to lay hardwood veneer plywood under linoleum; it is more durable than its coniferous counterparts. Also, preference should be given to plywood marked FC or FBA. The latter is impregnated with natural compounds, being an environmentally friendly material.
Preparing plywood and base for installation
Before starting work, you need to carefully prepare everything, including the plywood itself. Like any other material made from wood, plywood takes time to acclimate. At equal conditions(temperature and humidity) in the warehouse and in the house, this period will be only a day. If the temperature difference is 2-8°C, then 3 days, with a larger difference it will take a week.
Important! Acclimatization of plywood sheets is carried out in a horizontal position.
Any surface of the base must be checked before work not only for integrity, but also for moisture evaporation. To do this, a square of polyethylene is spread over 1 square meter. m of base. In the center the material is lifted, and at the edges, on the contrary, it is pressed with weights. Further, if the bubble has already fogged up during the day, then plywood cannot be laid in the room.
When drops appear on the polyethylene within 3 days, the wooden floor needs to be dismantled and reconstructed, since, most likely, the boards have already rotted from the inside. In this case, you can cover it with plywood with the material improvements suggested above. If within 5 days condensation has not appeared, then you can lay plywood.
Now don’t forget about preparing the base itself for laying plywood. We remove the baseboards, if any. The floor needs to be checked for integrity, for rot, damage by insects, cracks and chips. If there is damage, they must be removed; if necessary, entire boards are replaced with new ones.
All small cracks and chips are eliminated with putty, but if the cracks are more than 5 mm wide, then patches are necessary. After all reconstructive measures, the surface must be leveled; it is recommended to do this using grinder. After this, the surface is cleaned of various debris, dust and traces of dirt.
Laying plywood with glue
Sheets of plywood can be laid entirely, if space allows, or they can be cut into several pieces. We lay them on the floor with an offset of half a sheet, like bricks. There should be a distance of about 1 cm to the wall, but no more than 2-3 mm between the sheets themselves. When the fitting and fitting of the pieces of plywood is completed, you can begin to apply glue.
As adhesive composition you can use either special wood glue or mastic (mixed PVA glue with building plaster until thick). We lubricate the floor surface well with the composition, thoroughly filling the cracks and smoothing out unevenness. We lay sheets of plywood on top of the product, securing them with self-tapping screws.
The screws should be spaced from each other at a distance of about 15 cm, the head should be deepened as much as possible so that they do not create problems later when laying linoleum. All remaining gaps between the sheets themselves and the heads of the embedded fasteners are puttied and sanded. Plywood joints can even be processed using a plane.
The video will demonstrate in more detail the entire process of laying plywood under linoleum on a wooden floor in the best possible way.
When the plywood dries, it can be treated with drying oil (hot), painted with paint, or treated with other protective compounds. After which you can begin laying linoleum, having first checked the evenness of the resulting surface.
Tsugunov Anton Valerievich
Reading time: 4 minutes
Due to its practicality, affordable price and ease of installation, it is one of the most popular materials used in floor reconstruction. Laying it is not difficult, but a perfectly flat base surface is required, otherwise even through a fairly thick layer of coating all the defects of the old floors will appear: height differences and gaps between the floorboards. Laying plywood on a wooden floor under linoleum is the simplest, fastest and cheap way prepare the basis for this material.
Why plywood?
Of course, there are other worthy ways to replace the cracked and uneven old wooden floor. But laying plywood under linoleum has a number of undeniable advantages:
- There is no need to dismantle the old coating, which means significant savings in both time and money.
- Sheets of plywood will help distribute the load more evenly across the entire floor. This will avoid sagging and creaking of the floorboards when walking; such a coating can withstand heavy loads for a long time without deformation or other undesirable consequences.
- If the old floors are uneven, then plywood will allow them to be leveled without special effort and costs.
- There is no fear that after a certain period of time the floors will acquire relief, which will ultimately appear on the linoleum.
- In parallel with direct tasks, laying plywood will increase the heat and sound insulation of the floor.
- The work of installing plywood is accessible to almost any average person; just the most minimal construction skills and watching a training video are enough. In addition, these works will not require the purchase of any special tool. The only exception is a floor sander, but you can do without it if you can’t borrow one from friends or rent one.
- This is the most economical profitable way qualitatively .
Some disadvantages of plywood sheets
Despite the impressive list of advantages, plywood is far from perfect material and has quite significant disadvantages that must be taken into account when using it:
- It is quite flammable. This drawback can be eliminated by impregnating the sheets with a fire retardant solution.
- Hygroscopic, that is, susceptible to moisture. Therefore, it is extremely undesirable to use plywood in rooms where the humidity exceeds 68% for a long time. If there is no other way out, then you should use special moisture-resistant plywood in the bathroom or kitchen. In this case, do-it-yourself impregnation of ordinary sheets with a special composition will help a little.
- Impregnation with an antiseptic is mandatory, since plywood is favorable environment for reproduction various microorganisms and fungi.
- Due to changes in temperature and humidity, the material will experience certain deformations, so it is necessary to have technological gaps between the seams and along the entire perimeter of the coating.
What grade of plywood should I choose?
The correct choice of material is the key to preparation quality basis under linoleum. What can you do to guide you?
- For any room, not just the bathroom or kitchen, preference should be given to moisture-resistant plywood. It is better to protect yourself from the possible penetration of liquid under the linoleum, and this can happen in any room: moisture can seep out when you wash the floors carelessly, leakage from heating radiators is possible, or something can simply spill. Having saved on material, you can then spend a lot of money replacing swollen floors. Moisture-resistant plywood is marked “FK”.
- The thickness of plywood sheets should not be less than 12 mm, if rough coating laid in one layer. The greater the expected load on the floors, the thicker the sheet of plywood should be taken. But it should be taken into account that this layer, albeit slightly, will reduce the dimensions of the room.
- Hardwood veneer in plywood sheets allows the latter to withstand higher loads compared to material made from softwood.
- Preference should be given to material polished on both sides. You can also use unsanded plywood marked “NSH”, but it will have to be treated with sanding paper.
Materials such as MDF or OSB are significantly superior to ordinary plywood in their qualities, but they are also much more expensive. If you have a sufficient budget, it is recommended to use them, financial expenses in the future, they will be more than compensated for by the strength and durability of the coating.
- If you doubt that you will be able to impregnate the sheets with the required composition yourself, then it is better not to risk it and buy plywood with factory impregnation, even if it will cost a little more.
Surface inspection and preparation
Any surface requires preparation before reconstruction, and wooden floors are no exception:
- Skirting boards are removed if they are present on old floors.
- Waterproofing and the presence of moisture sources are checked. Without eliminating the latter, it is pointless to lay plywood; they will fail in a fairly short period of time.
- Replace rotten or damaged elements.
- In old floors, it is permissible to have gaps up to 5 cm in size. If the gaps between the boards are larger, then they need to be eliminated.
- If there are significant differences in height between the floorboards, grinding will have to be done, otherwise such relief will subsequently appear on the surface of the linoleum. To do this, you need to rent a grinding machine.
Before sanding, remove or embed all metal elements so as not to damage the abrasive. Loose floorboards are secured using wedges, nails or self-tapping screws. Sand the floors diagonally, making overlapping strips and not holding the machine in one place.
In addition to the base, you also need to prepare the plywood sheets themselves. First of all, you need to let them sit indoors for at least three days. If you plan to impregnate the plywood, then you need to allow time for it to dry.
Impregnation of plywood with polyvinyl acetate putty has become widespread as a relatively cheap, but reliable way protect plywood sheets. You should also remember to treat the material with an antiseptic.
Cutting plywood sheets
On many construction forums you can find recommendations to lay plywood by first cutting the sheets into identical square elements. This is not at all necessary; you can install entire sheets if the dimensions of the room allow. It is important to follow the following rules:
- The boundaries of the joining of plywood sheets should not coincide with the cracks in the old coating.
- The elements should be laid in a checkerboard pattern so that the seams between the sheets of adjacent rows are offset by at least 20–30 cm.
- You also need to leave a compensating gap of 2–3 mm between the sheets, and about 10 mm between the plywood and the wall. This is necessary so that the coating does not swell due to thermal expansion material. Subsequently, the joints between the sheets are sealed with a special wood putty, and the gap around the perimeter of the room will be closed with a plinth.
HELPFUL INFORMATION: How to glue linoleum joints at home
Directly on concrete base no topcoat is applied directly, since it is quite difficult to make it sufficiently even and impossible to make it warm. Therefore for finishing coatings you need to prepare an appropriate base, which, as a rule, is plywood laid in one or two layers.
- Purpose of laying plywood
- Laying plywood on an old wooden floor under laminate
- If the floor is well preserved
- If the floor is poorly preserved
- Plywood for parquet
Purpose of laying plywood
To decide what kind of plywood is needed for the floor, you should understand what tasks are set for it, these include:
- raising the floor level;
- surface leveling;
- sound insulation and thermal insulation.
Many owners, before laying linoleum on plywood, do not try to level the base of the floor, hoping that leveling the floor with plywood under the linoleum itself will correct all existing unevenness. But this approach is valid only if there are fairly small height differences, no more than 5 mm. If more significant unevenness is observed, then it is better to refine the subfloor with a screed made from a self-leveling mixture. Why then lay plywood under linoleum? Here it should be remembered that, in addition to leveling, the plywood layer also serves as good heat and sound insulation for the floor - here the effect is approximately the same when plywood is placed under linoleum on a wooden floor, but it only requires less time and effort.
For use in residential areas European standards Only class E-1 material, which has a low formaldehyde content, can be used, and class E-2 material with a higher content of toxic substances is best left for industrial premises.
Thus, the best choice for linoleum is FK-2E1Sh1 birch plywood, 12-16 mm thick and sanded on one side.
Laying plywood on an old wooden floor under laminate
Before laying laminate flooring on a wooden floor, you need to check its condition.
If the floor is well preserved
In this case, the floorboards do not need to be dismantled; it is enough to simply lay plywood directly on the boards, leveling their surface.
The question will immediately arise, what kind of plywood is needed for the floor under the laminate - the FK grade of 10 mm thickness, graded 3/3, ¾, 4/4, is suitable for this purpose.
More expensive and quality plywood You shouldn’t take it, because its beauty will still disappear under the laminated coating.
Plywood for laminate on a concrete floor, as well as on a wooden floor, can be made from any veneer, since it will evenly transfer the load to the floorboards, and they then to the joists. Typically FC sheets have square shape with sides 1500 or 1525 mm. They tend to be too big or too small, so they will inevitably have to be sawed down to level the plywood over the old floor. It is most convenient to saw a plywood sheet electric jigsaw, and if you combine it with a vacuum cleaner, the work will be not only fast, but also not dusty. Of course, you can use a fine-toothed hacksaw, but it is extremely time-consuming, tedious, and the quality of the cut will be worse.
After this, the installation sequence will be as follows:
- After cutting the plywood sheets, you need to make sure that there is no debris or noticeable irregularities on the floor boards.
- Large bulges found can be removed with a plane.
- Then you need to spread a flexible substrate on the surface, and cut plywood on it, leaving gaps of 1-2 mm between the sheets (if you put plywood close to a wooden floor, it will subsequently begin to creak).
- The sheets should be fixed to the boards with self-tapping screws, arranging them in rows: with an indentation of 15-20 cm in a row and 20-25 cm between rows.
If the floor is poorly preserved
If its boards are very dry or rotten, then they should be dismantled, the damaged joists should be replaced, then plywood sheets should be used for the floor along the joists, and then a laminated covering should be installed on the plywood base (sometimes a flexible substrate is also laid between them). IN in this case plywood carries a much larger load. If, when supported on a plank covering, the plywood has nowhere to sag, then the sheets resting on the joists have a minimum support area, so their thickness should be significantly greater.
Instead of one layer, you can use two sheets of material, then the thickness of each can be 10-12 mm.
In this case, there should be no more than 400 mm between the lags, and they themselves should not be narrower than 50 mm with a thickness of at least 40 mm. The joist bars must be strong and intact, and damaged ones must be replaced.
The plywood should be oriented across the direction of the joists and fixed to them with self-tapping screws no less than 40 mm long. Self-tapping screws with a yellow coating, which have a powerful core, perform best - although they are more expensive, they do not break when you try to tighten them to the end.
Plywood for parquet
The base for parquet must be prepared especially carefully. Most often it starts with concrete screed and ends with plywood.
Under parquet standard option is the use of FC plywood, the thickness of which should be 2/3 of the thickness of the elements of the parquet used.
Laying plywood on a concrete floor under parquet is as follows:
- Before laying plywood, the concrete screed must be cleaned of dust and treated with a primer. With a good primer, one treatment is enough, but if the composition is not very reliable, then it is better to repeat the operation two or three times.
- Sheets of plywood must be cut into half-meter squares before laying - in this way it will be possible to reduce internal stresses.
- To fix plywood, construction adhesive and dowel-nails are used, and the adhesive is needed not so much for fastening the material as for filling the unevenness of the screed underneath it.
- The diameter of the dowels must be at least 6 mm, and the length must be such that it penetrates the concrete at least 40 mm.
The dowels need to be driven in a square-cluster method with an indentation of 15-20 cm.
What kind of plywood do you use and under what flooring? Share your experience in the comments - help other builders.