Underlayment for linoleum

7/2/18, 9:26 PM #1

Hoa in Alameda
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Underlayment for linoleum

Hoa in Alameda

I need to install linoleum flooring for a bathroom upstair.

The 30 yr. old flooring was linoleum over 3/8" particle board underlayment. Due to water leaking, the underlayment literally fell apart when I removed the linoleum.

Should I use plywood or particle board for underlayment? I realize particle board + water is bad combination. But it immediately tells me that there is a water leak problem. Plywood may hide the problem until it's too late.

The plywood subfloor is structurally sound. It is just not even, thus the need for the underlayment.

Re: Underlayment for linoleum

7/2/18, 11:42 PM #2

Larry
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Re: Underlayment for linoleum

Larry

Use 1/4 Plywood underlayment (Made for that). Most Linoleum manufactures won't warranty their flooring using Particle board.

Re: Underlayment for linoleum

7/3/18, 11:15 AM #3

Barry Irby
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Re: Underlayment for linoleum

Barry Irby

I agree with Larry. Use underlayment grade 1/4" or thicker plywood. If the existing plywood subfloor is not level either sand it or skim and fill the low areas.

Particle board has never been approved for wet areas. Now you know why.

Re: Underlayment for linoleum

7/3/18, 12:19 PM #4

Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana
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Re: Underlayment for linoleum

Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana

I am certainly not a pro carpenter, but I used 1/4" Hardiback (sic-cement board) as under-layment in my utility room under the linoleum. I applied the filler? material on all joints and sanded and cleaned before applying the adhesive. It has worked quite well for me for the last 20 years!

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I am 68 - be 69 in May 2010, have been retired about 4 years from Emerson Electric where I worked as a Engineer for about 40 years. Woodworking is my hobby, I refuse to do any woodworking for money as I am afraid it would become another job. I am very lucky to have a great woodworking shop. My son's and friends helped build it a couple years before I retired. It is a 30 X 30 shop with a 30 X 10 upstairs storage room, heated and air conditioned. I saved and purchased much of my equipment before I retired. I am busier now than when I worked, but seem to get little done :~>. I helped my son remodel his home, made all the woodwork from rough white oak, finished the vanity (from locust), lower kitchen cabinets (cherry) built cedar lined oak chest for my DIL, built a bathroom for my best friend and in process of building storage cabinets for SWMBO.

Re: Underlayment for linoleum

7/3/18, 1:27 PM #5

Kneale Brownson
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X3. Make sure it's the underlayment grade

Kneale Brownson

The underlayment grade has totally solid cores, so there are no weak spots.

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I’m a fairly spry 82-year-old who had been a reader/participant at WoodCentral since the demise of Badger Pond. I started visiting BP to learn something about finish for a project I’d completed and became hooked on internet forums as a way of increasing my knowledge about all sorts of topics. I have been a moderator for a couple other forums on subjects I enjoy. My interest in woodworking began in the early 1970’s when my wife and I had contractors add to our house near Traverse City, MI, and I ended up doing the trim work to reduce mounting costs. I had no tools. I bought a P-C skilsaw, hammer, screwdrivers and one of those wooden miter boxes with a backsaw. I made trim for windows and doors from one-by lumber and started my woodworking career. At the same time, I started a 50-year career as a ski instructor. I got onto the night shift at a mental hospital so I could ski days, and spent my 30s and 40s with that schedule. I eventually replaced the PC-upside-down-in-a-board with a real table saw and began the purchase of enough equipment to fill a jam-packed 40-foot shipping container we used after we sold our property in Michigan. The ski instructing had taken us to Colorado and we were spending too much on maintaining utilities for two homes. A couple years ago, the dozen years spent at 10,000 feet of elevation was making my body produce too many red blood cells, so we had to leave my “forever” home in the mountains and we moved back to Michigan. Now I have to find myself a shop space for all those tools in the container.

Re: Underlayment for linoleum

7/3/18, 2:01 PM #6

Mike Farinella
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+ 1

Mike Farinella

Yes a bit overkill, but it works great.

Underlayment for linoleum

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