Laying linoleum on a wooden floor is a troublesome task, especially its preparatory part. But this applies only to those cases where the surface is not smooth enough. If the linoleum itself is of high quality, the floor is leveled, the laying of the coating will be successful even for a beginner.
The most time-consuming work is laying linoleum on an old plank floor. Avoiding irregularities in this case is not easy, but the task is doable, it just takes a little longer to tinker.
Before you put linoleum on a wooden floor, you need to start preparing this very floor.
Inspection of the condition of the floor
It begins with an assessment of the state of the surface. Even if you can’t call it perfectly even, but at the same time it doesn’t creak or stagger, there will be much less problems.
An important point before laying is the elimination of fungi and rot. If there is no mold, the nail heads are not rusty, the boards do not have signs of deformation by insects, there will be less hassle. If you see rotten boards, it is correct not to ignore this fact, but to replace them - otherwise, the rot will go further.
When the floor sags and creaks, you will have to put bars under the floorboards, and / or pour talc into the cracks.
So, subject to correction:
- creaking boards;
- Rotting or rotten boards;
- Cracks in the boards;
- Recesses between boards, gaps;
- Remains of old paint on the boards.
Old paint can be removed with a spatula and a building hair dryer. The latter will warm the floor, after which the paint will be removed with a spatula.
Preparatory work
If the floor is strong enough, but its surface is uneven, a scraper or planer will help. Many people prefer to scrape the floor by hand, but this will take a lot of time and take a lot of effort.
The obligatory moment is the deepening of the nails. All cracks between boards must be filled.
The surface must be processed, because all the irregularities will definitely appear on the linoleum. If the unevenness of the floor is not so harmless, they have differences in their height, you cannot limit yourself to grinding.
Floor leveling methods
The most common ways:
- Alignment with sheet material;
- Leveling with a special mixture.
The second method is more popular, as it is more familiar. For this case, plywood, fiberboard, furniture panels, hardboard are used. If the purpose of these manipulations is only to eliminate irregularities, it is very important to fix the sheets correctly. Fiberboard or plywood is fixed with special glue for parquet, and then it is also nailed to the floor, as an option - with a construction stapler. Gypsum + PVA is often used as glue.
If the goal is to create a horizontal surface, the sheets will need to be laid on logs. Logs are made of plywood strips or bars, they are fixed with glue on the floor.
No matter how the fiberboard sheets fit (here, in addition to fiberboard, we include plywood, boards, and hardboard), the seams are puttied in any case. The final stage is to cover the surface with a layer of drying oil.
It may be erroneous to decide on additional thermal insulation (sometimes waterproofing), because it is this functionality that the linoleum underlay takes on.
Don't forget about the simplest preliminary steps, floor need:
- Clean (including vacuuming);
- Wash;
- Dry.
Now you can start working directly with linoleum.
Cooking linoleum
We buy linoleum with a margin of at least 7-15 cm, we also take into account the tolerance for thermal shrinkage.
When transporting the material, you can not bend it, creases easily occur. At home, linoleum is usually spread on the floor and “aged” for a couple of days. And rightly so: such adaptation will help the material to lie perfectly. It does not matter what we have under the linoleum - plywood, fiberboard or other material.
And a few more little tips:
- Single-color sheets are more advantageous to arrange in the direction of daylight;
- Linoleum joints are best placed in the middle of the board;
- Places for the battery and other protrusions are marked in advance, after which we carefully cut them out.
We fix and lay linoleum
You can also lay linoleum on fiberboard or plywood without fastening: but this is appropriate if the room is small. The maximum is 12 square meters. The canvas will be attached with skirting boards, in the opening - with a threshold.
Linoleum is often fixed with double-sided tape. Usually enough gluing around the perimeter of the canvas, but sometimes additional strips stretch in the middle of a sheet of linoleum, and so they are attached to plywood or fiberboard, or just a leveled wooden floor.
The adhesive tape method takes place in stages: first one side is peeled off, fixed, then the other, etc.
Landing linoleum on glue guarantees fastening strength, it is better to purchase a special glue created for this purpose. First, one part of the sheet is smeared, glued, then the second. The surface must then be rolled with a roller, and for at least seven days do not force the room with furniture. That is, another week the linoleum will be fixed.
It happens that when laying linoleum, two pieces are connected. They need to be glued with a small overlap. In the place of this overlap, two layers are cut off at once with a sharp knife (cut along the ruler). The so-called cold welding must be applied to the seam.
Laying linoleum (video)
Conclusion
The laying of the linoleum itself takes place quickly, rarely there are problems in this matter. But the irregularities of the floor show through even the most perfectly fixed linoleum. Make sure that the plank floor is free from rotten boards, does not creak, does not stagger, make the surface even, and then there will be no difficulties in the second part of the event - laying.
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