Underlayment Question
So I pried up a composite vinyl floor and I have some type of paper underlayment on the plywood. It’s porous and needless to say some of it came up as the tiles were removed. What is this stuff? Whats the best way to get it off so the plywood is as clean as possible…
So I pried up a composite vinyl floor and I have some type of paper underlayment on the plywood. It’s porous and needless to say some of it came up as the tiles were removed. What is this stuff? Whats the best way to get it off so the plywood is as clean as possible and should I put something else down before putting down peel and stick Armstrong tiles? Any advice appreciated. thanks.
Give Armstrong a call. I’m sure they have a technical dept. that will help. I’m concerned that a very thin layer of levelling cement will actually crack and that’d cause a lot of problems with the tiles eventually loosening and coming up.
Its not rosin paper. It is a dark brown black 1/8 inch thick moisture barrier. Water just beads up on it. So after I do get it scrapped up, someone suggested putting down 1/8 inch of leveling cement which would provide moisture barrier and a suitable substrate for good peel and sticking. It would also fill in all cracks and level out any bumps. Do you think thats the best way?
My first thought was the same as Dave’s, usually when you have paper under a floor, it’s rosin paper. The thing that concerns me though is that you really shouldn’t have any type of paper under vinyl composition flooring, as it usually gets glued to the subfloor. Is the paper that’s left a pinkish color, or dark grey or black? Is it possible to take a picture and post it? I have seen cases where people have pulled up sheet vinyl flooring and the end up seperating the top from the bottom, and end up with a sort of rough black paper substance that’s still stuck to parts of the floor. If that’s what’s happening here, you’re going to just have to attack it with a scraper until you get it all up
I wouldn’t put down peel and stick tiles until I had everything up, the mastic on those isn’t that great to begin with, and you don’t want everything coming loose a month after you install it.
Last but not least, as Dave points out, make sure that all the high points like nail heads that are a little proud of the surface, are knocked down and the low points like the seams between sheets of plywood, nails or screws that are countersunk, voids in the subfloor, are all filled in or they will telegraph through the new flooring.
Sounds like rosin paper. I think before laying the new floor, the old one needs to be as clean as possible but more importantly free of any “lumps” of old adhesive, etc. In other words, a perfectly clean and flat surface.