Plywood Under Vinyl Flooring
In most cases 4 by 8 foot sheets of particle board or plywood must be installed in preparation for the vinyl floor install.
Plywood under vinyl flooring. This means that over time it will conform to the shape of the floor beneath. It can also be used under hardwood laminate and carpet but this is much less common these days because subflooring is typically smooth enough for these materials many of which are installed with a different type of underlayment or pad. This usually occurs if joist spacing is a wide 24 inches rather than the standard 16 inches. One of the big considerations when installing different types of flooring in the home is getting the finished elevations to.
Most underlayment approved plywood is at least 11 32 inches the standard recommendation. The finished floor is then installed on top of the subfloor. Plywood underlayment is a thin plywood material that is most commonly used under resilient flooring materials such as vinyl and linoleum sheets and tiles. Putting a soft product under vinyl plank will result in an unstable floor that is much more inclined to being damaged and even punctured or torn over time.
This means you want the sub floor to be as smooth as possible. Some professionals however will use plywood as thin as 1 4 inch for resilient flooring if the subfloor is in particularly good condition. What size plywood do i use for a subfloor. The thickness of plywood.
While underlayment for vinyl planks may be used under hardwood and laminate the reverse is not true. There is usually no appreciable difference in the performance characteristics of plywood or osb subfloors. It s extremely beautiful flooring that mimics natural hardwood and sometimes even stone. The subfloor is the decking installed on top of flooring joists.
Vinyl isn t very thick and it is quite plastic. Vinyl planks require hard thin underlay because the product itself is softer. Vinyl flooring is usually not installed directly over the subfloor in residential applications. A final mark to check is the thickness of the plywood.
Under some circumstances osb may flex underfoot when installed under carpet or vinyl flooring.