Osb Underlayment For Vinyl

Other osb negatives contractors builders and home remodelers have mixed opinions about the use of osb for flooring mostly tending toward the negative.

Osb underlayment for vinyl.

Vinyl floors under 4mm should be installed right over the subfloor. Plywood is recommended and approved as an underlayment by almost all flooring manufacturers including resilient flooring like vinyl. Osb subfloor is mostly serving as a base under the finish floor hardwood engineered wood vinyl tile etc and even below the underlayment in some cases. Plywood underlayment is usually 1 4 inch thick and sold in 4x8 sheets.

In addition to the visible surface flooring material the carpet tile or hardwood there is usually an underlayment and beneath that is a subfloor that serves as the foundation and structural reinforcement for the floor. Installing a glue down vinyl floor sheet or tile directly over oriented strand board osb subflooring has become a hot topic for me of lately i have had people asking about installing sheet lvt and vct directly to the osb subfloor without the use of an underlayment. The subfloor consists of sheet materials that are nailed or screwed to the joists to. An osb board absorbs moisture less readily than plywood and the main problem with an osb subfloor getting wet is that the seams of the individual sheets can swell.

Most flooring vinyl flooring manufacturers do not allow direct glue down directly to the subfloor. Particle board is an inexpensive smooth product that can be used for underlayment under carpeting and vinyl flooring. My subfloor is made of osb and is overall flat but with a slightly roughed up surface. This makes the subfloor almost perfectly flat by evening out the surface with its foam layer making the vinyl lock in place easier and sturdier.

I should note the imperfections are more due to the nature of how osb versus the smoothness of plywood. While underlayment for vinyl planks may be used under hardwood and laminate the reverse is not true. The rule of thumb is any vinyl over 4mm can have a vinyl specific underlayment. Putting a soft product under vinyl plank will result in an unstable floor that is much more inclined to being damaged and even punctured or torn over time.

A typical wood framed residential flooring system is more complicated than you think. Vinyl planks require hard thin underlay because the product itself is softer. This swelling although undesirable and to be avoided is virtually unnoticeable under a laminate floor unless it is very pronounced.