Laying a laminate slate floor over victorian floorboards

[andy2306]

Just looking for some advice on fitting a laminate floor in the kitchen over some victorian floorboards

The floorboards currently have vinyl tiles over them so im not sure what condition they are in, when i run my hands over them they are slightly bumpy across the lie of the wood, but flat with the lie, the way i will lay the laminate

Questions then,

1. do i remove the vynyl tiles before laying the metallic foil underlay?
2. Would i be better using the foam underlay to iron out the bumps
3. Should i board with 6mm ply before laying the underlay

Underneath the kitchen is a cold celler, i would ideally like to get as much insulation on the floor as possible but 3 doors open into the kitchen so this doesnt allow much room for increasing the floor height, I realise ill have to plane the doors a little.

Thanks in advance for your responses
Andy

 

[FredFlintstone]

Andy,

I'm no pro laminate fitter but I've DIY'ed it a lot. ll I can do is tell you how I would do it which isn't necessarily the correct way.

In my opinion, you would be fine to lay the underlay over the vinyl tiles - No need to remove them - they'll help with the levelling of the floor.

When laying laminate over floorboards, I always lay ACROSS the floorboards, not parallel to them.

I would use a foam underlay (the thickest you can find) with an integrated DPM, taped together at the joints. Foam underlay usually irons out irregularities in the floor of up to 2mm.

If you really wanted to go OTT on the underlay then you could do two layers of foam or one layer foam and one layer fibre boards but I'd say this is overkill.

Regards

Fred

 

[andy2306]

What sort of overall depth increase in the floor would using the foam with DPM and a standard laminate floor cause?

5-6 mm or would it be greater than this? does the foam flatten down over time? Im just thinking about planing the 3 doors that open into the kitchen

Cheers
Andy

 

[FredFlintstone]

Well, assuming you're using some sort of water resistant laminate such as Aqua-Loc then this is usually at least 8mm thick. The foam underlay is usually only 2 - 3mm thick so you're looking at 10 - 11mm additional floor height.

If you opt for fibre boards, they're 7 - 8mm thick.

Regards

Fred.

 

[mattysupra]

good try fred but not 100% correct. First like fred said your o.k to lay over tiles and they will help with floor level. Would be best to plywood but will raise floor height. Dont use a dpm underlay or tape joins over wooden subfloor. Can cause to sweat leading to floor problems. If leaving tiles down then dpm underlay will be o.k as these protecting against floors sweating. And you should lay across the floorboards unless very even or plywood used. As for insulation can you get to the joists underneath? or install insulation by uplifting boards? Adding a couple of mm with underlay will really make no difference to doing it properly