kitchen floor (half chip board / half ply) - is chipboard OK

[JohnnyF]

Hi,

We are having our breakfast kitchen redone, it's dimensions are about 3m by 7m.

Half of the floor seems to be solid, with old tiles on top, then chipboard, then the mortar/residue from the tiles I lifted.

The other half is plyboard nailed directly to the wooden joists. Again this plyboard has the mortar / residue on it from the tiles I lifted.

Basically I'm wondering if chipboard is OK in the kitchen. Or should I lift the chipboard and replace it with plyboard?

We eventually want to put some laminate floor down so as for the residue/old mortar - am I best to use a leveling compound over the whole floor or would just a thin layer of ply and then the laminate /underlay do the job?

 

[Deluks]

To answer your main question, chipboard in a kitchen is a no-no. A washing machine leak or suchlike could mean taking up the whole floor and replacing it, Ply is much more forgiving to moisture, but make sure it's WBP grade.

 

[JohnnyF]

Cheers - will take the chipboard up and replace with ply as you say.

What about leveling over the old mortar on the remaining ply in the dining area? Am I best to use a leveling compound, a thin sheet of ply or will the laminate underlay be sufficient to cover any anomalies?

Cheers

 

[Deluks]

Get it off with a scraper/sander? Are you using the green fibrous type boards?

 

[JohnnyF]

I haven't bought any boards yet so will get what people recommend.

Is scraping/sanding the best approach then - i guess over 21mtre square it would be quite time consuming?

Don't get me wrong we're not afraid of the work but the whole house is being renovated so we've a mulititude of jobs and time is limited. So I'm after a solution that will be fairly quick but will be good enough preparation for laying the laminates. If scraping/sanding is that solution then that's what we'll do.

Cheers

John