How to level a hardboard floor? Fiberboard on a wooden floor: the choice and installation technology of fiberboard for the floor step by step

Fiberboard (Fibreboard) is the most affordable and popular sheet material. It is actively used in repair and construction works, as well as in areas National economy. Very often produced laying fiberboard on the floor, as a base or final option.

To save costs for such construction or repair, home craftsmen do all the work on their own, without involving expensive specialists. Laying fiberboard on a wooden floor is a relatively simple procedure that you can do yourself.

Preparatory work

Before any repair and construction work, some kind of preparation is necessary. This also applies to fiberboard flooring. The first condition is the same humidity of the sheets with the environment. If this is not taken into account, they will deform immediately after the flooring.

In the case of laying fiberboard sheets in a room that is heated irregularly, it is necessary to moisten the sheets on the reverse side warm water. After that, fold to each other with the back side and leave to dry for a day. When laying in a room with regular heating, the sheets are placed on edge and are in this position for two days.

Such a floor can be laid out on a screed of sand and cement, but a more popular option is laying fiberboard on a wooden floor.

Laying fiberboard

After a day or two, depending on the type of room, the sheets are laid on a wooden floor with a small ventilation gap. The first sheet is laid in the corner of the room and fixed to the base with nails. Along the edge line, the step should be 10 cm with parallel rows of 15 cm.

Subsequent sheets are fixed to the floor in an appropriate manner. Beforehand, they should be carefully docked, avoiding a gap between sheets of more than 2-3 mm. During installation, fire safety measures must also be observed. Where the fiberboard sheets come into contact with vertical pipes heating system must leave gaps. These places are filled with a special solution of sand and cement. When heating up to 80 degrees, the gap can be 1-2 cm, if a more thorough degree of heating is planned, up to 5 cm of the gap should be cemented.

The last sheet in the row is fixed to the floor, taking into account its adjustment to the remaining area and the curvature of the wall. The extra parts of the fiberboard can be sawn off with a jigsaw or cutter, having previously outlined them.

The next row is laid out in the same way as the first, but now adjusted to fit the existing fiberboards. When installing near a doorway, it will be easier to file a little trim than the sheet itself. This will not only give greater aesthetics to the surface, but also preserve the integrity floor covering.

The popularity of fiberboard boards is also due to the simplicity of their installation, therefore, having studied all the nuances, you can start working on your own.

June 1, 2016
Specialization: master in construction drywall constructions, finishing work and installation of floor coverings. Installation of door and window blocks, facade finishing, installation of electrics, plumbing and heating - I can give detailed advice on all types of work.

There is an erroneous opinion among many developers that laying linoleum on fiberboard is not the best the best option, they say, the surface is deformed through short term. In fact, if the laying is done in accordance with the technology, then such a base will serve you for more than a dozen years. In the review, I will describe the workflow in detail, and if you follow all the recommendations, the result will be excellent.

Description of the workflow

Let's figure out what you need when working, how to choose best material and what stages the laying of fiberboard consists of on different types of surfaces. Everything is quite simple, the main thing is to understand all the nuances and avoid the mistakes that most developers make.

preliminary stage

At this stage, you need to do the following:

The first step is to take measurements, to determine required amount material. It is important to do this not by eye, otherwise it may turn out that you did not have enough 1-2 sheets or, conversely, there are several elements left and there is simply nowhere to put them. The best thing to do rough plan each room, so you can lay out the sheets, this will allow you to arrange them so as to minimize the amount of waste;

As for fiberboard, the material is made from chopped wood with the addition of natural adhesives: paraffin, rosin - this ensures the environmental safety of the material, it can be used in rooms with the most high demands on hygiene and safety;

For all its advantages, fiberboard has one big drawback - the plates are afraid of moisture.
Therefore, it is not recommended to use this option to prepare the surface for linoleum in rooms with high humidity.

The thickness of the material is from 2.5 to 6 mm. If there is a choice, then it is better to purchase the option with the maximum thickness, since fiberboard has high thermal and sound insulation properties and it is not advisable to use thin options. In addition, the rigidity of the elements also matters, and it also depends on the thickness, the minimum allowable indicator is 3.2 mm;
As for the size of the sheets, they can vary, the width can be from 100 to 180 cm, and the length - from 120 to 274.5 cm. When choosing a specific option, use simple rule- the more, the better: the fewer seams on the surface, the more reliable it is and the easier it is for you to work;

You must decide how the chipboard will be attached, there are three options - adhesive composition, nails or screws. The choice of a specific solution depends on the type of base and your preferences, below we will talk about all the methods of fastening and touch on their advantages and disadvantages;
As for the tool, for cutting you will need a hard construction knife and a metal ruler 1 meter longso that when cutting the lines are perfectly even.

The price depends on the size of the sheet, so the 2140x1220 3.2 mm option will cost 140-180 rubles, the 2745x1700 slab will cost 360-420 rubles. As you can see, the solution is quite budgetary.

Foundation preparation

How evenly the fiberboard will lie directly depends on this stage, therefore it is important to carry out the work in a quality manner, the process consists of a number of actions.

Let's start with this type of base as a wooden floor, here the process is as follows:

First of all, you need to free the room from all objects, after that you need to remove dust and dirt from the surface and conduct a careful inspection for damage and gaps between the floorboards. Pay special attention to the heads of nails and self-tapping screws, if they stick out, then they must be drowned into the surface, otherwise you will subsequently get a lot of flaws on the surface of the fiberboard;
Next, you need to check the floor plane using the level, very often the elements have a semicircular shape. If such a flaw is found, then you will have to grind the surface. If the problems are minor, then you can get by with an electric planer or grinder, but if you need to remove significant irregularities, then it is better to use scraping;

After the alignment is completed, you can begin to repair cracks, damage and indentations from nail heads and self-tapping screws. For work, either a special putty on wood or an acrylic sealant is used, this composition is excellent for sealing gaps, it has good adhesion and lends itself perfectly to grinding;

When the putty dries, the surface is polished, after which you need to remove debris and carry out wet cleaning to remove even the smallest particles from the surface.

As for concrete bases, the preparation has its own differences:

First, it is necessary to vacate the premises, after which all debris is removed from the surface and wet cleaning is carried out;
Then the rule is taken and the plane is checked for curvature and level differences. If there are, then they need to be sealed. cement mortar if the irregularities are significant, then it is easier to use a self-leveling compound;

If you are working with a solution cement base, keep in mind that he needs at least 2 weeks to gain strength, so it is better to do preliminary preparation in advance.

After carrying out all the work, you need to carry out a wet cleaning to remove all dust and dirt. After that, the base is treated with a water-repellent primer, it strengthens the surface and creates a reliable barrier to moisture penetration. Work can continue after complete drying composition.

Laying fiberboard

In order to qualitatively lay fiberboard on the floor under linoleum, a number of conditions must be met:

The most important thing to remember is that fiberboard does not tolerate moisture very well, so you need to take care of protecting the material, it is best to pre-treat the surface. Drying oil is used for work, which perfectly protects the material, its application will not cause difficulties - the work is done with an ordinary brush;

After processing, the sheets should be allowed to dry, after which they should be stacked indoors so that they align as best as possible. If necessary, weighting agents can be placed on top so that under their influence the elements become perfectly even, this will simplify the workflow and make the final result much better;
If the humidity in the room is low, then drying oil can be omitted, but the elements still need to be leveled. To do this, the wrong side of the fiberboard is treated with water, after which the sheets are placed with the wetted side to each other and so stacked. After two days, laying work can begin.

As for the workflow, it is done differently depending on the type of base, let's start with such an option as a concrete screed:

First of all, you need to apply a special glue to the surface to fix the fiberboard on the surface, if earlier bitumen was used for these purposes, then nowadays there are many compositions that are very well suited for these purposes. Alternatively, you can use Double-sided tape, it fixes the elements well and, if necessary, it is much easier to remove the sheets;

Next, the sheet is carefully placed and pressed, do not forget that the material we are considering tends to expand, so a gap of 5-7 mm should be left between the fibreboard and the wall;
Work begins from the farthest corner of the room from the entrance, first all whole sheets are laid, and then you need to attach the extreme element, which is carefully applied to the surface to determine the cutting line. After that, with the help of a metal ruler and a durable construction knife, the fiberboard is incised and broken;

After the adhesive has dried, you can start processing the joints, if there are irregularities in their place, then they must be removed by grinding. After that, the dust is removed from the surface, and the seams are sealed with putty on wood or acrylic sealant. When the surface is dry, the final sanding is carried out, after which the surface must be thoroughly vacuumed before laying the linoleum.

Now let's figure out how to mount fiberboard on.

The work instructions are as follows:

As for alignment, the process is described above, so it does not make sense to consider it in detail. It is worth noting that if you do not want to wet the sheets, then it is better to bring them into the room and stack them in a pile at least a week before the start of work, during which time the material will acclimatize and level out;
There are only two ways of fastening - using nails 16-25 mm long or using self-tapping screws 3x20 or 3-25. You choose the option that is more convenient for you, but it is worth noting that working with nails is much faster and easier, so the nail method of fixing fiberboard is most often used;
The work is carried out as follows: in the farthest corner, a slab is laid with indents of 5-7 mm from the walls, after which the fastening is carried out. Nails are hammered in increments of 100 mm along the edges and 150 mm at the junction of sheets to each other. Self-tapping screws are located in increments of 150 mm along the perimeter and 200 mm along the junctions;

When fastening Special attention make sure that the fastener caps are flush with the surface or are slightly recessed into it, otherwise, after laying the linoleum, the protruding caps will show through.

Cutting is carried out as described above, if there are protruding sections along the perimeter, then cuts of the desired configuration are made in the fiberboard sheets. Remember a simple rule: if the platband interferes with the installation, then you need to cut it, and not the fibreboard. All recommendations are collected in the diagram below to make it even easier for you to understand the process;

All protruding areas are polished with a bar with sandpaper, after which the surface is cleaned of dust and puttied, the fewer irregularities there are, the better the linoleum will lie, remember this. After the putty dries, it is also polished, on this the work can be considered successfully completed.

It is worth noting that laying linoleum on chipboard is done in a similar way. The only difference is that chipboard much thicker and heavier, and it is better to cut it with a hacksaw or electric saw.

Recommendations for laying linoleum on a fiberboard base

Let's figure out how to properly lay linoleum on a prepared base, this process is simple, so you can easily handle it with your own hands. We will consider three main ways of doing work:

Without fixing material	If the area of the room is less than 12 square meters, then linoleum can not be fixed on the floor surface. In this case, you need to cut the canvas according to the configuration of the room and carefully lay it. Fixation is carried out by skirting boards, which are located around the perimeter, and a metal threshold, which is attached to doorway, it is these elements that should press the material and prevent it from moving
Using double sided tape	This option appeared relatively recently, but has already gained great popularity due to the simplicity of the workflow and high-quality fixation of the material on the surface. The work is done as follows: first, the adhesive tape is glued over the entire area in the form of a lattice in increments of 30-50 centimeters, the upper protective layer while not being removed. After that, the top protective tape is removed from one edge at a distance of about 50 cm, linoleum is laid, and so on.
Adhesive fastening method	The classic solution, which involves the use of a special adhesive composition. This option is used in rooms with an area of more than 20 square meters, its essence is simple: you smear part of the surface with adhesive, and then gently press the linoleum. Work is done gradually - part of the surface is lubricated, the roll is unwound, and so on until the end of the room

As for the joint at the seams with the glueless method, the easiest way is to stick double-sided tape on the base, it will securely fix the joint, and you do not have to purchase an adhesive composition. A metal bar is attached from above, which protects the joint and additionally fixes it.

Conclusion

Fiberboard is great for preparing the base for linoleum, it is important to choose quality material and properly install it. The video in this article will clearly show the workflow, and if something is unclear to you, then ask questions in the comments below the article.

When repairs begin in a room that is intended for housing, the most important thing to do is the floors. In principle, with the right approach to business, the floors are laid quickly and easily, there is no need to solve any unnecessary puzzles and come up with all sorts of abstruse schemes. I made the floor, and then you can safely continue repairs in the rest of the room. There are many materials and ways to improve the surface of the floor, and now we'll talk about it. After all, this is a very important task, and for those who have never done this and have not delved into the principle of laying and screeding floors, a lot of incomprehensible things are expected.

All floor coverings are usually performed after completion of construction, finishing and installation work that are associated with soiling or wetting the floor. Almost all types of coatings can be made on a cement or concrete screed, but at the end of the work it must be perfectly even and dry. concrete tiles usually leveled with mortar or leveling compounds. When laying parquet, the humidity should be no more than 5%, and for other types of flooring - in accordance with the instructions for their laying.

Sand-cement and concrete screeds are laid on an already prepared layer of heat and sound insulation (made of sand, concrete or slag), usually these screeds are made of concrete or various solutions. To avoid peeling and cracking on the base, the screeds must be given time to harden in a wet state, for this it is necessary to cover them with sand or sawdust on the third day. After that, the screed is watered with water for 7 to 10 days, depending on the circumstances. After all this work has been done, the screed must be lubricated with a primer, and only after that it is ready to continue covering the floor.

For flooring use the most various materials, but most often it is fiberboard of hard grades. In order for the floors to be beautiful and of high quality, you need to take the choice seriously. wood boards and pre-prepared base. The smoother and cleaner the base is made, the longer and more reliable the wood flooring will be. It is possible to cover fiberboard on a wooden and concrete base, and at the same time, the basic rules for carrying out this type of work should be observed.

Before covering with such plates concrete base, you need to check the evenness of the finished base. This can be done with a rail, but it is desirable that the length of this rail is equal to the width of the room. If there are any protrusions or depressions, they are marked with chalk, then all the protrusions are cut off, and the depressions are poured with cement mortar.

In order to lay fiberboard, you first need to make a markup, attach the plates and mark them, and it is better to lay them so that there is minimal amount sawing of a whole slab. The quality of the finished floor directly depends on the size and types of joints between the plates. The sawing edges of all plates go under the plinth, each plate must be manually adjusted to each other in order to have a more or less even cut. Throughout the room there should be no visible seams from hand sawing.

The second thing to do is to fit the edges of the slab so that there is a minimum number of seams between them. It is necessary to attach the plates to each other, mark the irregularities and, using a planer, carefully adjust their joints. Then you need to number the sheets, and only then you can start gluing them.

Before gluing the plates, the base is cleaned of dirt and dust, then the plates are smeared with mastic and laid on the base. Lay out the tiles first large sizes, adjusting them to each other, then proceed to the small ones. You don’t need to adjust them exactly to the wall, there should be a gap of about 10 mm, this is necessary so that later you can put the baseboard without any unnecessary.

After all these works have been completed, the front surface of the plates must be cleaned of dust and glue that could remain on the surface, with all this, the boards must be pressed down with their own weight, and then a load should be applied to the seams. After drying, it is necessary to remove the protruding mastic and sand the surface. Where the seams are not sufficiently filled, they are filled with pre-prepared casein-cement mastic, then they harden, and they need to be sanded again. If with all these work done it was not possible to achieve a good fit of the boards, then the seams are covered with putty. After sanding the joints, the floor can finally be painted.

In principle, there is nothing complicated in all these works. You just need desire and perseverance, after all the work done on the floor, it will look just great. It is not necessary to call a specialist to lay your floor for you, you can do all this yourself. You should work a little, and then comes the real delight from the result that will be obtained at the end of the work. After all this, the floor can be painted in any color the owner liked. Colors now just unlimited, on the market paintwork materials there is so big choice of all shades and palettes that simply “dazzle”.

So, you have seen that all repairs in your home can be done quickly and efficiently, without spending a large number of finance. Many choose a wide variety of inclinations and directions so that the floor turns out to be magnificent and it was impossible to take your eyes off it.

One of the options for finishing the floor is laying linoleum on fiberboard: both types of materials have a long service life, are practical, and are undemanding to operating conditions. The base made of fiberboard is an excellent alternative to concrete screeds and other structures that are expensive and difficult to manufacture.

Why put fiberboard under linoleum?

The technology of laying linoleum on the floor over a flooring made of fiberboard is not a novelty. This type of base has become widespread in the USSR and has proven itself with better side. Currently, fiberboard is customary to lay in private houses and apartments, as well as on the first floors. multi-storey buildings. This is due to the fact that fiberboard has thermal insulation properties, and is often used as a heater.

An important advantage of fiberboard is the flat surface of the material. If these slabs are properly laid on the floor, the resulting flooring will be perfectly flat, suitable for mounting almost any flooring.

Linoleum mounted on a fiberboard base is a wear-resistant floor covering. Installation of this design is carried out in a short time: in the case of concrete screeds you need to wait several months until the cement dries, while it takes a week to adapt linoleum and fiberboard to operating conditions.

The floor covered with linoleum is resistant to static and dynamic loads of different strengths, depending on the thickness of the linoleum sheet. Together with the fiberboard underlayment, linoleum provides excellent soundproofing of the premises.

Contraindications and errors

Fiberboard is not resistant to moisture. This material has absorbent properties, and it is supposed to be laid only in dry rooms. At high humidity the coating made from it will go in waves. To avoid negative consequences, Fiberboard must be brought inside the room and simply laid on the floor without fixing. Plates should rest for 7-10 days. During this time, the material adapts to the operating conditions, and it will be possible to proceed directly to the installation work.

Other precautions must also be taken. For example, each fiberboard must be carefully oiled on both sides to create a moisture barrier. Polyethylene is placed on the floor under the plates - it is desirable that the material be made in the form of a single sheet. If several sheets of polyethylene have to be laid on the floor surface, no gaps are left between them. After each stage of installation work, the floor is thoroughly dried.

Waves also appear due to an uneven base under the flooring. The floor surface must be leveled, getting rid of too high protrusions. For this wood flooring usually chiseled out. Hardboard decks are not installed over concrete floors, for preparation cement screeds under laying linoleum it is correct to use self-leveling mixtures.

Ways of fastening flooring from fiberboard

Before laying fiberboard panels on a wooden floor, the cracks in the base are treated with putty. The joints between the boards are filled with acrylic sealant - this will increase the thermal insulation properties of the floor covering.

Fiberboard sheets are fastened to the surface of the wooden floor with nails or self-tapping screws. The disadvantage of this technology is the appearance of irregularities in the places where the caps of the fasteners are located. To avoid this, recesses are made in the surface of the panels so that the screws are placed there along with the caps. Irregularities that form after the installation of fasteners are eliminated with putty.

Another option is to glue the flooring, but a suitable base for this is not a plank floor, but a concrete one. As an adhesive, tar, boiled drying oil or special glue is used. However, the installation of fiberboard boards with adhesives is carried out in exceptional cases, since this technology is impractical.

Foundation preparation procedure

Laying fiberboard on the floor starts from the far corner of the room. Work is being carried out at room temperature and moderate humidity after the plates are adapted to the operating conditions. Before you fix the fiberboard sheets motionlessly, you need to make sure that their joints do not create bumps and depressions. If you lay linoleum on such a surface, it will go in waves.

If irregularities are found after the completion of installation work, the floor will have to be leveled. The joints between the fiberboard boards are treated with sandpaper and putty. As soon as the putty dries, you can immediately glue the linoleum to the base. These works are carried out in a short time, 1-2 days. High installation speed is one of the main advantages of fiberboard flooring.

Linoleum laying sequence

Like fiberboard, linoleum should lie in the room where the repair is being carried out. For this, 2-3 days are enough: during this time, the material adapts to the temperature and humidity conditions, and after installation it will not expand or, conversely, shrink. Sheets of linoleum are spread on the floor so that they accept correct form. If the material is to be laid in strips, care must be taken to match the pattern of the floor covering.

Linoleum must be glued to the flooring, it is not recommended to use self-tapping screws: they will spoil the appearance of the floor. A special adhesive is used to perform installation work. It is applied to the floor with a notched trowel, avoiding lumps and untreated areas. When the glue on the fiberboard thickens a little, it is applied to reverse side sheets of linoleum, and then lay them on the floor surface. To properly distribute the adhesive under the linoleum surface, the flooring sheets are aligned from the center to the corners.

Often laying linoleum on fiberboard is done in a different way. Instead of gluing the material, it is fixed with a furniture stapler. This tool is designed to work with wood and slabs of wood waste, and will provide high reliability of fastenings.

Linoleum sheets should be laid on the floor not close to each other, but with a small gap. The size of the gaps is usually a third less than the thickness of the sheets. Outwardly, these gaps are invisible, so you can not be afraid about appearance floor covering. They are designed to remove moisture that accumulates between linoleum and fiberboard, and extend the life of the coating.

Sometimes the installation of linoleum is carried out on a painted surface. This usually happens when there are no other materials to assemble the decking other than painted fiberboard. In this case, laying linoleum on the floor is allowed only on condition that the paint has dried a long time, is evenly distributed over the surface of the flooring and does not contain lumps. Usually linoleum is not attached to a painted base.

Fiberboard or, as it is correctly called, fibreboard, is the most common sheet material used in different areas and areas. It is especially popular in construction and different kind repair work.

For example, very often they put fiberboard on the floor, making it either a base for different type floor coverings, or a complete and independent flooring on the floor. Its undoubted advantage also lies in the fact that it can play the role of heat and sound insulating material.

Pros of choice

Fiberboard is made by hot pressing waste from woodworking (sawmilling), to which synthetic resins and antiseptics, and other stabilizing agents are added. Thanks to this, such flooring has a number of fundamental differences that make it more beneficial than natural wood flooring. Especially if you correctly paint the fiberboard and open it with a special varnish.

Fiberboard sheets

After these procedures, it acquires a dense structure that holds self-tapping screws and nails well, screws that resist mechanical damage. Laying fiberboard is also beneficial because it is not expensive, and it is not at all a pity to actively exploit it, which, in fact, is typical for any gender, especially in residential and other regularly visited premises.

It is worth noting that many experts recommend painting the floor of such material with waterproof paint or using water-repellent varnishes. This is necessary because the composition of the material includes water repellents, which can be deformed from excess moisture.

In addition, such flooring without proper protective coating can wear out pretty quickly. And finally, it is worth painting it, if only because the visual appeal of fiberboard is not particularly high. Here, the wooden floor, for all its shortcomings, clearly surpasses it.

Foundation preparation

Laying fiberboard provides preparatory work. First of all, this is the maximum approximation of the humidity of the sheets from which the flooring will be laid to the humidity of the room itself. Otherwise, there is too much chance that the sheets will noticeably warp over time. Correspondence is established as follows: in the same room, the reverse side of each fiberboard sheet and back sides from impose on each other, after which they leave for a day.

The procedure is simpler if the flooring will be laid in a regularly heated room. In this case, the sheets can simply be left on the edge indoors for two days.

Laying is done on a wooden floor or. If there was no primer on the screed, then before you start laying fiberboard, it is better to apply the desired layer of it and let it dry. Instead of a standard primer, it is recommended to use bitumen dissolved in gasoline in a ratio of six to one. The substrate must be thoroughly cleaned before application.

Glue or cold mastic is applied to the entire surface of the screed, coated with a primer. The layer of mastic in this case should not exceed more than 0.6 millimeters, and glue - 0.3 millimeters. The slabs, before laying, must also be smeared with glue in the lower part before laying.

It is recommended to put hot mastic only on the area where this moment will attach the plate itself. This is necessary so that the mastic does not have time to cool down (its temperature should not be colder than one hundred and forty degrees). Its layer, equal to one millimeter or less, is leveled with special rubber combs and the flooring is immediately fixed.

Laying process

It is necessary to lay fiberboard so that there is a gap between the plates. Optimally, they should retreat from the walls by no less than five millimeters, but no more than a dozen. The first plate is recommended to be fixed in the corner opposite to the exit. It will be necessary to press it tightly and check the horizontal level (in all directions).

The remaining plates in this and the next row should be laid in the same way. The gaps in the joints should be no more than three millimeters.