When is it possible, and when is it not?
Is it possible to lay a laminate flooring on an old parquet while repairing an apartment? Finishers claim that each case must be considered separately, but the main condition for a successful laminate flooring is an even foundation. In most cases, the old parquet floor meets this requirement.
To give a positive conclusion about the suitability of the base for laying laminate flooring, it is checked for compliance with the following characteristics:
- Strength. If the surface of the parquet floor is homogeneous, there are no bumps and flying dies, it is suitable for laminate flooring. But if the surface bends under the weight of a person or the dies are not securely fixed, it is impossible to lay the laminate, because in this case, the lamella locks will quickly become worthless.
- Flatness of the base. According to the instructions, with a laminate flooring, differences in height of no more than 2 mm per square meter are allowed. Allowable slope - up to 0.2% on the long side of the room.
- Dryness. It is possible to lay a laminate only in dry rooms. At high humidity, the panels change their volumes, which leads to a break in the lock joints. Also, for obvious reasons, the presence of a fungus on individual elements of the base is unacceptable.
Only after researching the old flooring can we give an unambiguous conclusion whether it is possible to lay a laminate on the floor in this case. If at least one of the above items is not fulfilled, you will have to abandon this venture and lay the coating according to traditional technology on concrete, well, or try to restore the old coating and bring it to the desired performance.
If it was decided to restore the old coating and lay the laminate on it, you should know that repairing more than 40% of the base will cost more than removing it and installing the laminate on the screed from scratch.
Advantages and disadvantages of laying on the floor
Before putting the laminate on the old parquet, you should weigh all the positive and negative points of this option.
TO pluses laying laminate on the parquet floor include:
- reduction of time costs. Flooring a new coating on top of the old one saves time and effort - if the floor is in good condition, minor work will be required to prepare the base, after which you can immediately begin laying. In the case when it is required to remove the old coating, you will have to spend money on removing each die, and then collect and remove garbage from the premises;
- lower material costs. The finished base allows you to save on waterproofing materials used with standard technology for laminate flooring;
- saving on preparatory work. To level the screed, it is necessary to grind the concrete base, and this is a significant cost and a large amount of dust;
- purity. On the finished base, lay the substrate and immediately begin to lay the laminate. In the process of these works practically no dust and dirt are formed;
- There is no problem with a dark stripe around the perimeter of the room. When the old base is disassembled, without updating the wall covering, unfinished parts are revealed on the lateral surfaces, hidden before this by the baseboard. With laminate flooring on top, this problem disappears;
- the degree of heat and noise insulation of the room increases.
TO negative Only one item can be attributed to the moments of laminate flooring on top of parquet floors:
- poor-quality preliminary inspection of the base leads to the destruction of lamellas. If the examination of the condition of the flooring was carried out with violations, then, after installing the laminate, the floors can begin to creak, and the key joints of the lamellas can break.
The nuances of laying laminate flooring
The technology of laminate flooring on parquet does not differ from the traditional way of laying lamellas on a concrete screed (which we wrote about here). Differences appear only when preparing a wooden base.
How to prepare the base
When doubts have been finally cast aside, and the decision to lay the laminate on the finished base has been made, it is necessary to begin preparatory work. Preparation begins with a study of the condition of the floor and repair of problem areas:
- the state of each plate is studied;
- repair and strengthening of individual fragments of parquet;
- detect creaky elements and eliminate the cause of squeaking;
- polish to smooth out irregularities.
Inspection is necessary to detect horizontal differences in the base, to identify falling dies and foci of mold or rot.
To more accurately identify problem areas, each die is recommended to be tapped with a mallet or rubber mallet. If the dies are firmly fixed, then upon impact they will make a dull sound, and poorly fixed elements will sound more loudly. During the inspection, problematic plates are marked in order to later return to their restoration.
Following a step-by-step plan for preparing the foundation, the next step is to eliminate the problematic dies and fill in the empty spaces. To replace the dies, pieces of plywood are selected that are suitable in thickness. You can use chipboard.
The attachment point is cleaned and filled with wood putty, after which a new plywood die is inserted. If new dies do not fall into the thickness of the old coating - no big deal. All irregularities will be eliminated when cycling the old coating with a parquet grinder.
Differences in height should not exceed 2 mm per square meter. Otherwise, the locking joints of the lamellas may not withstand the dynamic load and break.
Dies damaged by fungus or mold (such problems are often found in the "Khrushchev" in apartments on the ground floor) need to be ruthlessly removed. Leave defective elements under the laminate. Before closing the resulting emptiness, the place is treated with antiseptics.
Dies that do not sit well in place are fixed with screws or mastic. Also, if the owners do not want to thoroughly prepare the parquet for the laminate, you can simply close the old surface with plywood and already lay a new coating on it.
What needs to be done so that then the floor does not creak
The creak is considered the main problem of old wooden bases. To determine the creaky places, you need to go through the entire area of the room. Under the weight of a person, poorly united dies will begin to rub against each other and make a sound. Such places are marked in order to eliminate the cause later.
There are several ways to get rid of a creak:
- a hole is drilled between two creaky dies, into which a wooden chopik is put on PVA glue;
- strips are additionally fixed with glue and self-tapping screws to the base;
- between the dies that make the creak, they drive a few screws.
Is a substrate required?
Even the most even base has small errors. To eliminate them, lay a substrate under the laminate boards.
The substrate is needed for the following reasons:
- it aligns the base;
- acts as a shock absorber under dynamic loads;
- compensates for sound vibrations;
- additionally insulates the coating.
Are there any differences in the technology of laying laminate
After preparing the base, you can start laying the lamellas. The technology of this process does not differ from the standard technology of laying the laminate on a concrete screed (again, material on the topic is presented here and here):
- Along the perimeter of the room leave compensation gaps of 10-15 mm.
- Laying is carried out with a spike to the wall, so at the boards of the first row you need to cut the spike.
- Start styling from the far left corner (why - read in this article).
- Lamella flooring is carried out with dressing of stitches.
- To hit the boards use special inserts.