Underlayment for fake hardwood floor

I've purchased the Harmonics hardwood floor system from Costco for my master bedroom. It is the same as

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I've removed the carpet and I'm down to the 3/4" plywood subfloor. I have purchased 1/2" particle board for underlayment. My question, can I get away with not gluing the particle board and how should I lay it down? I'm currently planning to screw it down. I was shocked to find out how much screws cost but think this would be better than nailing (I need to address some squeaks on the subfloor first). Would drywall screws work? Also, I plan to lay down the particle board so that seams don't overlap the subfloor seams. Do they have to be perpendicular or is it OK to run them parallel as long as the seams don't overlap.

Any other advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

John

Reply to
jomearajr
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Any particular reason you're laying a particle board underlayerment with a laminate floor? Seems like a huge amount of extra work. Just use the plastic underlayerment sold for this use (after fixing your squeeks and such).

Drywall screws don't have a huge amount of strength -- deck screws work a lot better for flooring work.

Reply to
Andy Hill

I was planning to use the particle board to provide a level surface and didn't want to mess with leveling compound. The instructions

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mention the Uniclic Underfloor System. I purchased that but it wasn't clear to me from the instructions whether it was for leveling or not. The instructions says "a levelling underfloor must be installed", but I didn't think the Uniclic Underfloor system was that because it just consisted of a thin membrane. I'll double check tonight. I also was thinking of raising the floor to the same level as the flooring in the adjoining bath and hallway but if I can skip the particle board I certainly can live with it as is.

Thanks for the response.

Reply to
jomearajr

The underfloor membrane that uniclic sells is plenty for leveling any "normal" subfloor. Anything over 2mm needs to be knocked down / sanded off, and larger holes filled with leveling compound. Sweep and vacuum thoroughly, too. Pretty much what you'd have to do before laying particleboard, anyhow -- you can't just slap that stuff down over a torn up subfloor and expect the edges to line up.

Laminate floors don't telegraph like vinyl, and don't require quite as solid surface as tile. Very forgiving stuff.

Reply to
Andy Hill

I used a 3/8" plywood underlayment attached to the kitchen subfloor with #6 X 1-1/4 inch drywall screws, they were easy to countersink too. Ceramic tiles over that. It was 11 years ago and not one problem at all with even one tile.

Reply to
kato

Anybody have recommendations on what leveling compound to use? It seems most require a 1/2" drill to mix. Are there any good products that are premixed and are intended to go down on plywood subflooring? If so, have you seen them at Lowes or Home Depot? Thanks.

Reply to
jomearajr

I'll have to dig out the can I've used on the last couple of jobs. It was just some premixed stuff off the shelf at Home Despot, 'tho. Hopefully someone with a better memory than mine will chime in the meantime.

Doesn't have to be anything fancy, 'tho -- you're just trying to minimize the amount of bridging the laminate has to do.

Reply to
Andy Hill

OK, what I've used in the past is "Jasco Floor Patch and Level". Picked it up at either Home Despot or Lowes. Good stuff for the usual floor divots.

Reply to
Andy Hill

I ended up purchasing SpeedFinish

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- a quick drying cement based floor patch. It did the trick and allowed me to return the underlayment and screws saving me about $150 not to mention the labor. The floor went down fine. Only warning, when they say SpeedFinish is quick drying, they mean it. You only want to mix the amount you can work with in 10 minutes. Thanks for the replies.

Reply to
jomearajr

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