High-quality laminate flooring installation shouldbe carried out only on a perfectly flat and very strong floor surface. Even the best laminate can lose its high performance properties if it is laid on a poorly prepared base. The slightest unevenness of the floor can cause a strong creaking and deformation of the coating, as well as a significant reduction in its service life.
Laminate flooring should only be installed on ideal surfaces.a flat surface, so first you need to level the floor. Therefore, today any floor repair work begins with leveling its surface. Nowadays, the easiest and most affordable way to eliminate any unevenness is to level the floor with plywood. This method is deservedly very popular, as it does not require special knowledge and skills or large material investments.
Methods of alignment
Leveling the floor for subsequent installationcan be done in several different ways. If you, for example, plan to lay plywood on a wooden floorboard, then you should simply fix the plywood to the old flooring using self-tapping screws.
Arrangement of technological gaps during layingsheets of plywood. In this case, you will need to use fairly strong plywood, the thickness of which is not less than 1 cm. But it should be remembered that before you begin to perform this method, you should carefully check how strong the old wooden flooring is. A much more complex, but at the same time more thorough way to level the surface is to install a plywood floor on logs. Its main advantage is the ability to achieve a perfectly flat floor from plywood sheets, which is suitable for laying any floor covering, including laminate. Return to contents</a>
Requirements to be met
Before you start laying the sheetsplywood on a base made of concrete, it is necessary to properly prepare this surface. As is known, concrete is a material characterized by fairly high humidity. Therefore, before starting repair work, you should measure the humidity level in the room and make sure that it does not exceed the norm.
Technology of leveling the floor with plywood on joists.To protect plywood sheets from the harmful effects of humidity and low temperatures, it must be covered with a layer of a special antiseptic. This will prevent the formation of mold and mildew and thereby protect the plywood from premature destruction. If you are not sure which plywood is best suited for leveling the floor, it is recommended to purchase plywood sheets of category IV. Such plywood is more affordable, and is also treated with special compounds that will help protect the material from the harmful effects of moisture. In addition, it is absolutely harmless to humans and is ideal for leveling floors. Return to contents</a>
How to level the floor with plywood: step by step instructions
The technology of leveling the floor with plywood is notis particularly difficult. Therefore, the work can be done independently, without resorting to the help of specialists. To level the floor, you will need the following tools:
- hammer of medium size;
- perforator;
- Screwdriver;
- great roulette;
- level;
- electric jig saw.
Plywood floor repair diagram.First, you will need to prepare a concrete base, following all the recommendations described above. The floor surface must be thoroughly dried and cleaned of dust and other contaminants. Now draw a line on the wall surface, which will serve as a guide when installing the new floor. This border should run along the perimeter of the entire room and be carefully measured with a level to avoid even the slightest inaccuracy. Now you should prepare the logs. Ready-made bars made of fairly durable natural wood are best suited for this purpose. Today, ready-made wooden logs can be purchased without any problems in almost every hardware store. When choosing logs, it is best to give preference to those made of carefully dried coniferous wood. The cross-sectional size of such logs should be approximately 40x100 mm. In addition, you will need to prepare special spacers, which are also made of wood and installed directly under the logs. These spacers should be approximately 10 cm wide and length about 20 cm. As for their thickness, it should be at least 2.5 cm. When laying the logs, it is important to remember that they should be located across the rays of light falling from the window of the room. The logs should be laid at a distance of 50 cm from each other.
Scheme of floor leveling with plywood.When laying the joists, there will be free space between them, which can be filled with various sound and heat insulation materials, for example, mineral wool or basalt insulation. Thanks to this, you will get a very warm and absolutely silent laminate floor in your room. It is important to remember that the joists should never be placed close to the wall surface. There must be a small gap of about 2-3 cm between the wall and the joist. This will protect the laminate flooring from deformation, which often occurs during the expansion of the material caused by weather changes. When laying the joists, constantly ensure that the system you are installing is at the same level that was previously marked as the boundary of the new floor. If some joists are lower than you planned, you can fix this situation by simply placing wooden wedges under them. One should not forget about the obligatory sound-insulating pads made of soft material, which must be installed between the joists, wooden spacers and wedges.
Scheme of floor leveling with moisture-resistant plywood.Linoleum or a layer of foamed polyethylene can be used as such a lining. First, you should lay wooden joists around the perimeter of the room and only then begin laying the crossbars. After all the sheathing is ready, you can begin installing the plywood. The plywood sheets should be cut with an electric jigsaw into equal parts with sides of 75x75 cm. These squares should be screwed to the joists so that they are not located close to each other, but at a distance of 2-3 mm. If you mount the plywood to the joists without this mandatory gap, then over time the floor will begin to creak very loudly. Depending on the level of humidity or air temperature, wood can greatly change its original volume. And this can cause the laminate to "walk". It is in order to compensate for such expansion or contraction of wood that it is recommended to leave small gaps between the plywood sheets and between the joists and the surface of the walls. It is best to screw plywood to the joists using self-tapping screws, which must be placed at a distance of 50-100 mm from each other. If the floor is leveled with plywood in the hallway or in the corridor, then the joists should be laid so that they stand perpendicular to the movement of people. Such a simple technique will help to make the floor more durable and reliable. Leveling the floor under the laminate with plywood using joists is the most suitable option when there is a need to hide a large difference in height between different sections of the floor, which is 5 cm or more. Such a floor made of plywood sheets will become a truly strong and reliable base for any modern floor covering. Real birch plywood is absolutely safe for both humans and the environment, which distinguishes it from OSB, chipboard and fiberboard. In cases where the height differences of the surface fluctuate within limits not exceeding 1 cm, plywood sheets can be installed directly on the concrete floor, without using wooden beams. For this type of work, the plywood must be thick enough, at least 18 mm. In this situation, dowels or special adhesive mastic can be used to secure the plywood to the floor. With this method of laying plywood, the floor surface is prepared according to the same rules as before installing wooden joists. A special notched trowel must be used to apply a layer of glue to the concrete surface.
