Laying Vinyl flooring over uneven floor boards

lolly_896

Looking for a little advice please.

In the upstairs bathroom previous ocupants have put laminate down - cheap nasty junk! This is now swelling and looks awful, were going to take it up asap but not sure whats under it - possible uneven floor.

If worst case it is uneven what can we do to rectify this? I can't use a self leveling compound

Looking for a cheap and simple solution IF there is one. I did have the idea of laying a sheet of mdf but there would be joins in it - Would they show through lino?

Thanks Lolly

Myser

I have seen hardboard being used under vinyl flooring on top of uneven floorboards. However, hardboard may swell up in a bathroom.

ste_86

if you lay mdf and have tight joins you shouldnt have a problem,as for the mdf swelling make sure your well sealed in the corners and leave plenty of excess under the bath we have recently relayed a lino onto floorboards and no problems at all but mdf below would help

lolly_896

I'm a amatuer at DIY So i doubt there would be tight enough joins unfortunatley.

Ste - Can you see the floorboards through the lino?

Thanks both!

Myser

lolly_896 wrote: »

Can you see the floorboards through the lino?

If you buy vinyl flooring with a thick backing, you won't notice the uneven floorboards as much. However, this can be more costly.

Have you considered a moisture resistant board such as Wedi board:

http://www.wedi.co.uk/

aliasojo

In my experience, most floor flaws will show through even the most expensive vinyl with time. Best to spend some time, effort and money making the subfloor as good as you can get it now, rather than regret it in a year's time.

har0ld

I wouldn't lay mdf, chipboard or hardboard as they are all prone to swelling. If laying vinyl upstairs I would use something like 12mm exterior/marine ply. Screw it down every 10" or so and ideally fill with slightly flexible filler on the joins. (a pro would usually use self levelling compound on top of this - though you may get away without doing so) Then fit your vinyl.
It would be far easier for you to fit another laminate floor as the underlays etc are far more DIY friendly and will hide an uneven floor - but then use a proper bathroom approved laminate rather than standard - slightly dearer but won't suffer the way your previous floor did.