Fixing uneven and squeaky floorboards before laying vinyl

doveman

I want to lay vinyl flooring in my hallway but the floorboards are very uneven and squeaky in places.

I was considering screwing down the floorboards to hopefully stop them squeaking and then laying hardboard on top to level it out but was wondering if it might not be better and not much more effort to just pull the floorboards up and replace them with large cuts of chipboard/MDF/whatever of the same thickness as the floorboards.

It occurs to me that the advantage of doing that is that with boards just butted up against each other, so that they're not tongue and grooved together, there's less chance of them rubbing and squeaking and by using large cuts of board the weight when walking on them is spread over a larger number of joists at the same time, reducing the chances of squeaking from those too. I also imagine I should be able to secure each board with only 4-6 screws, much less than with floorboards which will require at least 2 each, which will make it much easier if the floor needs to be lifted for access in future. I can also cut and lay the boards in such a way that the most likely place that might need accessing (where water pipes and electric cables run across the hall, from the kitchen to the hall cupboard) can be reached by only lifting a single piece.

I'm replacing the knackered old skirting and door trim anyway, so that's not an issue. I was thinking that I should cut the board to sit just inside the new skirting rather than have the skirting sit on top as it currently does, so that the board can be lifted in future without having to remove the skirting. Is there any reason not to do that?

jamesellis72

If I were you I would secure the old boards back, Taking care there are no pipes underneath. Then you really need to board over the full floor with 4mm plywood to take any ridges out of the floor( if you fix the plywood with 20mm ring nails they should not go all the way through the floorboards in case of more pipes)
vinyl is a fantastic product on a flat floor but its not very good on a poor floor. Did I tell you we sell cheap vinyl and if you want any more help please let me know. Cheers James