Laminate/Vinyl flooring over wood floor

[gidz555]

Hi all,

 

We have a Thai house with the ground floor being cement and the first floor being wood and I'd like to redo the wood floor and make better use of the space upstairs.

 

The floor is not in great shape as it is creaky and uneven in some areas but it is still strong.

 

The wife's family seem to want to refurbish the floor keeping it as it currently is but I feel like it would be better use of our funds to buy some large sheets of wood of reasonable thickness, have them screwed to the wood beneath, and then just have laminate flooring installed.

 

Has anyone done something similar? What are your thoughts? Attached an image of the room as it currently is.

 

Cheers

 

[sometimewoodworker]

That is a reasonable idea, there are some things you need to do before doing that you will first need to level the floor, while I’m not there I can be sure that it is not flat now, then since the floor is creaking you will need a minimum of 20mm ply (you could use USB but you need to know where to buy it) I know a supplier in Khon Kaen and you will pay 1,200+ per sheet for good plywood, again you have to know where to go as the majority of places have cheap Chinese plywood.
 

You can never get a bargain on plywood, if its lower than 1,400 unless you know the suppliers, the reasons will include; little glue, high formaldehyde levels in the product, micron thin surface veneers, veneers overlapping, veneer voids, short time in the veneer press, low temperature in the press, etc

 

don't make the mistake of using outdoor ply inside as the formaldehyde levels will be stratospheric, also don’t believe that your builder has any knowledge of any of the information above, they will almost always consider that they have a bargain when they pay 600 Baht for a sheet of cheap c*r*a*p, that will do an adequate job for a year or two, while giving people formaldehyde exposure.

Edited 2 hours ago by sometimewoodworker