Bought a house and planning to install new flooring and replace the masonite walls in the bedroom. There was a vinyl floor covering when I moved in, and I could already feel how uneven the floor was. I tore out the vinyl flooring and a linoleum mat underneath. Then there was a thin masonite board under that, which I also had to remove. Now I see that there are planks as the subfloor, and they are very uneven. Should I tear out all the planks and install chipboard flooring? Or is there another solution? It's my first house and I'm not very knowledgeable in the construction world, but I would love to learn
Masonite is the classic choice for leveling out wooden floors. Masonite comes in different thicknesses. It sounds like you might need thicker masonite, or perhaps double layers. Otherwise, there are also thin renovation floor chipboards and floor gypsum available.
If the floorboards are thick enough, you can sand them even as well.
Feels like it would be a lot of work to plane/sand everything to make it even. Then I need to screw all the boards so I won't have a creaky floor. Isn't it easier to tear everything up and then glue/screw 22mm floor chipboard? But maybe I'm wrong.
Normally, you rent a floor sander, but that's usually when you plan to keep the wooden floor and not lay another floor on top.
If you're just fixing uneven spots and using the floor as a subfloor, it might be enough to hand-plane the highest ridges. As a subfloor, it doesn't need to be perfectly even. You top it with masonite and then lumppapp.
If the floorboards aren't securely fastened, screwing or additional nailing might be necessary to avoid squeaking.
It might be easier to remove and lay chipboard if you absolutely need a completely smooth floor. You need a maximum of 60 cm center-to-center with chipboard. If you're unlucky, there could be a greater distance between the floor joists, but you should be able to see that from the nail rows in the floor. Additionally, it's possible that the existing floor beams aren't entirely straight/even, so you might need to level them or add to them.
Personally, I'm not keen on modifying existing functional constructions.
Lay 16 mm chipboard flooring on top or tear it up.
If you tear it up, it’s not certain you can lay chipboard flooring since it requires a maximum of 600 mm centers. In that case, sparse paneling could be a solution, or you could buy a solid wood floor that is thick enough.
Floor chipboard, definitely worth it.
I hammered down all the nails and sanded the really uneven parts in the bedroom but kept the tongue and groove. You can feel through the laminate that it's not level. In the kid's room, however, I sawed along the walls and replaced it with floor chipboard which was screwed and glued, then the same laminate. Feels much better overall.
Check how it looks along the inner walls first so that they are not standing on the floorboards and continue to adjacent rooms, then it might not be so good if you tear down....
