Replacing bathroom floor boards, can laminate go straight onto it? Or still need hardboard?

[dragonfly101]

I had to rip up my laminate flooring recently to fix a plumbing problem under the floorboards. Between the floorboards and laminate was some hardboard that I wasn't able to get up without breaking either. The floorboards were a mess already (the reason for the hardboard I suppose) so I'm thinking to get them replaced with water resistant plywood or OSB boards, which I'll ask to be cut and screwed in such a way for easy access to the plumbing below without the need to break anything. Can the vinyl laminate flooring go straight on top of this? Any particular way to do it that will make it easier to pull up without tearing (use minimal glue I suppose)?

On a related note, anything to bear in mind when refitting the toilet? The toilet pan screws into the floor so will have to go before the laminate, but is there anything that should go between toilet and plywood flooring?

 

[drives]

When you say hardboard in top of the floorboards do you mean ply or similar i.e. 6/9mm sheet? I'd imagine this was laid on top to provide a more stable and smooth surface for the laminate rather than subfloor integrity unless the floorboards are really bad.

Again If it isn't too bad I'd be inclined to work with what I had and just sheet over it with 6mm ply. Again, slightly unclear whether you have salvaged the laminate flooring and intend to relay this, but if you are concerned about future access, karndean looselay may work well in this scenario and can be laid on top of the ply.

As for securing the toilet, just make sure there's no pipes underneath the subfloor that you are screwing down into but if fittings are in the same place I presume this wont be an issue.

 

[dragonfly101]

Thanks Drives, my hand is somewhat forced on replacing the floorboards, as the boards under the toilet are broken making the toilet pan unstable leading to leaks from the cistern connection.

The hardboard I was referring to was 6mm ply yes, it was stapled to the floorboards below and I was unable to get it up without breaking it. Indeed it was used because of the condition of the floorboards below. Since I have to replace the floor boards under the toilet, i figure I may as well replace the all the bathroom floorboards with waterproof OSB, and I'd hope that won't need any 6mm ply on top of it.

Karndean looselay sounds interesting, if it could go straight onto the new OSB, and is easy to remove and put back individual tiles for access to subfloor. What worries me about laminate tiles in a bathroom though is water splashes getting through any tiny gaps there might be between tiles.

 

[drives]

Ok if it is just the boards under the toilet could you not just repair that area and screw replacement board sections in between the joists?

It might be ok on OSB but I'd still be inclined to try and repair what I had and overboard with marine ply if it were me....

There are various ways of laying looselay- you can glue it all down or just do some of the perimeter ones I believe to hold the rest in place so that might help with preventing any small gaps appearing- or loose lay the whole lot. But, either way, it would be easier to take up if you needed, compared with any tongue and groove type flooring and personally I think glue down type LVT (and looselay) looks and feels a lot better anyway. I am probably going to go looselay when redoing some of our downstairs for the exact reason you say in terms of future access. I've used it once before in one of our previous houses and I liked it. I think the colours/patterns were a bit limited though.