total novice wanting to re-do flooring!

[almonds5]

 Hi workshop community! 

We just acquired a small coin laundromat and we are looking to renovate the flooring by ourselves. Here are pictures of what we have right now. I can't seem to figure out if the base board layer is masonite board, IBS or plywood? Can vinyl be directly glued onto this board?  Its thickness is 1cm and has been fixed down with screws. We can tell that the flooring is not completely level, hence, we are thinking of using vinyl sheet rolls instead of planks 

We intend to:

1) remove the timber skirting

2) clean up the floor boards

3) install senso vinyl sheet rolls sold by the metre at Bunnings using Dunlop adhesive

Does this plan sound right? 

Thanks for your advice ! 

 

 

 

 

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @almonds5. It's great to have you join us and many thanks for your questions.

I'm curious to know what the blue foam is accomplishing. You might find that the baseboard (possibly plywood as it appears to have a timber grain) is quite uneven in places. The foam could have been laid to disguise this variation. 

The flooring certainly doesn't appear to be IBS or masonite and as per the manufacturer's recommendation "All timber subfloors should be overlaid with a purpose made wood flooring underlay.". For further information on specifications and installation requirements please see the Senso flooring website.

I would imagine Senso is advising to lay masonite or IBS because they want to ensure you get a fantastic and non-distorted finish to your floor. Any un-evenness or distortions will show through the vinyl and that certainly wouldn't be great after going to that much effort.

You might be interested in reading these previous discussions on the topic:

• Vinyl flooring by @Marie1

• DIY change carpet to vinyl floor by @Sonia2806

• Renovations by @Marg19

Please let me know if you need further information or had any questions.

Mitchell

[almonds5]

Thank you, mitchell for replying to my post!!!!

i have read the above mentioned members' posts and more.

It seems that the blue foam maybe a 'floating floor'? that was laid on top of the base board to achieve what you have stated about hiding the imperfections from screws etc. Does it help provide a moisture barrier between the vinyl and the base board? I don't know if there is glue between the vinyl and foam sheet layer throughout the rest of the shop floor.

So if we take off the blue foam sheet and the checkered vinyl flooring and lay on the masonite board followed by vinyl, will we have a problem with the timber skirting, given that we are adding another 5mm of masonite boards?

Can you offer some suggestions about dealing with that? 

thank you!

[MitchellMc]

Hi @almonds5,

I'm not sure if the blue foam layer provides any type of moisture barrier. A moisture barrier generally has a layer that moisture can't pass through like the QEP Silver Laminate Floating Floor Underlay. 

Since the masonite boards are thicker than the blue foam, I would presume the skirting boards will have to be re-fixed slightly higher to accommodate that difference.

You should find these step-by-step tutorials helpful: How to remove skirting boards and How to install skirting boards.

Mitchell