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Hi,

I know this is the tiling forum but it's the closest forum I could find related to my question.

I want to lay vinyl floor in my bathroom over floorboards. I've searched around and the recomendation is I lay ply wood first. What thickness plywood wood be ok for a vinyl floor - I know for ceramic tiling 12mm is recomended. Would 6mm be ok for a vinly floor? Also how much of an expansion gap should i leave between the ply and the walls. Is an expansion gap required between ply and the bath panel batten? If so then how to do you cover up these gaps as it would look a bit wierd? Plus i wont be able to screw the panel back to the batten since the floor level will have been raised by the ply. The problem i have with the gaps between the walls is that there is no skirting and the wall tiles have been tiled right up to the floorboards with a 5mm wood trim between them - how would you cover the gaps between ply and wall?

Any help would be much appreciated.

The expansion co-efficient won't be high because of the normal size of a bathroom. Therefore, you can go very close with the ply. Leave approx 2 mm and you'll be fine. You shouldn't have to do anything with the gap for that distance. Angular rink shank nail the ply at 100 mm centers and you'll be fine (knock in more at the seams). A scratched on feather edge is how pro installers finish the seams of the ply. This stops seam lines appearing. There are probably similar and less expensive products in the likes of B & Q etc.

Thickness depends on the condition of your floorboards but 6 mm ply tends to be the norm. Some installers prefer 9 mm but I've seen 6 mm used a lot.

When you say cover the gap between the ply and wall, do you mean the vinyl and wall?? If so, cut as neat as you can and apply silicone around the perimeter. That'll seal it and stop water getting beneath the vinyl and solve the gap problem.

Hope that helps Adam and welcome along

Wes wrote:The expansion co-efficient won't be high because of the normal size of a bathroom. Therefore, you can go very close with the ply. Leave approx 2 mm and you'll be fine. You shouldn't have to do anything with the gap for that distance. Angular rink shank nail the ply at 100 mm centers and you'll be fine (knock in more at the seams). A scratched on feather edge is how pro installers finish the seams of the ply. This stops seam lines appearing. There are probably similar and less expensive products in the likes of B & Q etc.

Thickness depends on the condition of your floorboards but 6 mm ply tends to be the norm. Some installers prefer 9 mm but I've seen 6 mm used a lot.

When you say cover the gap between the ply and wall, do you mean the vinyl and wall?? If so, cut as neat as you can and apply silicone around the perimeter. That'll seal it and stop water getting beneath the vinyl and solve the gap problem.

Hope that helps Adam and welcome along

........and the bath panel will need to be trimmed, (and sealed, unless it's a GRP panel or similar).

just fitted a ply sub base to a bath room we were doing and the flooring company insisted we had to use these to secure.
http://www.toolfinder.co.uk/accessories ... tAod7ggAjA