How Do You Install Vinyl Floor Underlayment?
Vinyl floors can go over just about any solid, unbroken surface, but the best surface for them is generally plywood. Plywood provides a strong, flat base, but still has a little give to it in case the vinyl expands or contracts with temperature changes. Installing a plywood underlayment layer for your vinyl floor is a fairly straightforward project, though you do have to remember to leave “expansion gaps” between the sheets of wood. Those gaps have to be filled in with leveling compound so they don’t transfer through the vinyl. Use your hammer and pry bar to remove the floor trim throughout the room. Clean the floor completely and let it dry. Put carpenter’s glue all over the back of a plywood sheet, running the glue in squiggly lines throughout the surface. Bring the lines to within two or three inches of the edges of the board, but not right up to the edges. Lay the plywood glue-side down on the floor, starting in one corner. Don’t butt it up to the wall, but leave between 1/4 and 1
