How to lay linoleum on old parquet: surface preparation, installation technology, nuances

Before replacing the flooring, you often have to use ways to remove the old floor at minimal cost or use it as a subfloor. For example, when buying an apartment with parquet flooring, in most cases renovation is required, so linoleum will be laid on the floor. But is linoleum laid on parquet? This task is not easy, since linoleum does not always work well on wooden floors.

Is it possible to put linoleum on the parquet?

You can’t just take and lay linoleum material on parquet boards. It is not recommended to lay linoleum even on plank floors, since old floorboards do not provide the required level of rigidity for the subfloor.

Linoleum is laid on treated and prepared parquet. Otherwise:

1. Cracks appear on the linoleum.
2. Some poorly secured boards may be torn from the installation site due to the drying out of the base of the linoleum covering.
3. The parquet will squeak due to moisture accumulation. Linoleum flooring, unlike other types of flooring, practically does not allow water vapor and water to pass through.

Laying linoleum on parquet also means blocking moisture. Parquet wood can rot and swell, often leading to warping.

Linoleum is laid on old parquet, especially if the coating is many years old, there are holes and humps on the surface, and dismantling or restoration will require financial costs. For example, it makes economic sense to lay linoleum on parquet glued to bitumen mastic. Provided that the difference in the thickness of the boards is no more than 3 mm. If in the thinnest place the parquet flooring is not thinner than 8 mm, then in order to lay linoleum you will only need to level the surface and make minor repairs.

This is useful! Engineered board or laminate: what is better to choose for floor construction.

Technology for laying linoleum on parquet

There are several ways to lay linoleum flooring over parquet flooring, but first you need to make sure of the following:

1. Old parquet is not rare (there should be a facsimile stamp on the back). Today, a parquet board made of valuable wood (with minor defects) can cost more than a new glued board that imitates real parquet. Such coating needs to be restored, repaired or sold to restorers. It makes no sense to put linoleum on such a parquet.
2. The parquet floor is laid with mastic or any other adhesive composition (but not with oil paint). This is called floating installation, and cannot be placed on such a base. Needs to be glued to concrete. In this case, it is cheaper and easier to disassemble and throw away the parquet boards.

New flooring is laid only if the subfloor (in this case parquet) is securely fixed, sanded and primed. Can be placed on a lining material (felt or cork) or laid directly on the parquet.

In some cases, for example, cold floors, then OSB sheets with a thickness of 12-16 mm are additionally sewn onto the parquet, and only after that linoleum is laid.

How to prepare the surface before laying linoleum on a parquet floor

Preparation takes the most time and effort. Before laying linoleum, you need:

1. Repair the parquet, cut out the defective tiles, replace them with new ones, glue and trim the patches to the level of the main floor.
2. Rub the surface of the parquet floor with any good quality acrylic primer. As a rule, the ends and back of a parquet board are impregnated with varnish or wax - they will not allow moisture to pass through, but the cracks need to be filled to make the coating more rigid.
3. Sand the surface at the points of greatest swelling of the boards.
4. Cover the floor with polyurethane varnish; if the parquet is in very poor condition, then use a cheap varnish composition (oil-based), the longer it dries, the better.

After acrylic varnish, linoleum can be laid after 6-7 hours, but oil treatment must dry for at least 5 days. Sometimes craftsmen suggest saving time and effort by gluing fiberboard sheets onto the parquet instead of processing and stripping.

It is easier and faster to lay linoleum on such a base, but there is one drawback. If there is no waterproofing (film or mastic layer) under the parquet, then the sheets of fiberboard (essentially cardboard) will rise in bubbles, and the linoleum will flapping when walked on. Therefore, instead of putting fiberboard covering, it is better to spend money to carefully sand the “humps” and treat the old wood twice with waterproof varnish.

Parquet repair

The first 3-4 parquet floors removed from the floor will show the condition of the wood. If this is a rare floor, then it is better not to remove further, but to transfer the matter to professionals.The technology for dismantling such coatings is complex. Each board is numbered, the seams are cleaned, then they are heated to soften the bitumen mastic and removed.

On a simple parquet, the defective die is simply carefully cut out with a chisel, trying not to damage the tenon and groove of the adjacent boards. If the base is black, with signs of fungus or rot, then linoleum cannot be laid on a parquet floor. After a few years, due to the accumulation of condensation, the parquet will rot completely. The same goes for plank floors.

If everything is in order, then cut repair boards of the same size or fill the damaged area with repair compound. The second option is worse, since all bulk compositions shrink.

In order to sand the protruding edges of parquet flooring or cut off the “hump”, it is not necessary to use an expensive sanding machine for sanding parquet flooring. Everything can be done with a hand machine with belt sandpaper and an electric planer. You don’t have to try too hard, the main thing is that there are no protruding edges - you still have to lay linoleum on top, so the decorative appearance is not important.

If the old parquet floor was regularly treated with mastic or wax, then the craftsmen recommend varnishing only if the linoleum is planned to be laid as a flooring, without glue.

Before applying varnish, you need to clean the floor - not just blow sawdust out of the joints, but conscientiously go through the entire parquet with a vacuum cleaner. If you plan to lay linoleum with glue, then the floor may have to be wiped with a damp cloth and dried in a draft, without heating.

Complex options for preparing parquet floors

Often the old coating is so broken that it may take another week to repair it and replace the boards.Therefore, to form a rough base, a self-leveling floor based on acrylic copolymers is poured over the prepared old parquet.

The layer thickness must be at least 10 mm above the level of the “highest” plank. The base will harden quickly; after 6 hours you can lay the lining material and the linoleum itself.

If there is a wooden base under the parquet - chipboard or thick plywood, then the most problematic boards are fixed using self-tapping screws, a couple of pieces per board is enough. Parquet flooring can also be strengthened with nails, but only if the old parquet flooring was laid on a base made of boards 30-40 mm thick. Nails - at an angle. You can score it by dipping it in drying oil, or through a piece of laundry soap. Otherwise, a nail will not penetrate old oak or beech; you can only split the board.

How to prepare linoleum

There are several options for laying linoleum flooring. It all depends on the quality and type of linoleum. The problem is that the polymer sheet, regardless of its class, price and brand, is subject to shrinkage.

Even if you plan to lay commercial grade linoleum flooring, there will still be shrinkage. Therefore, whether the master puts the material on tape or sticks the canvas onto the parquet, shrinkage must be eliminated.

For at least a couple of weeks, the panel needs to be cut and spread on the parquet floor. It is advisable that during this time the apartment residents walk on the canvas; you can even carry books and any heavy objects with a flat base.

How to lay linoleum on old parquet

You can often find recommendations not to lay linoleum covering on an old floor paved with a small-sized wooden block.It is believed that such a base, even after preliminary preparation, remains too soft. It is best to lay it on modern parquet floors, and the larger the size of the panels or boards, the better.

How to lay linoleum with glue

The procedure is the same as in the case of laying the canvas on plywood. We roll up the linoleum spread on the floor, and at the same time use a dry and clean cloth to wipe away any dust and debris that might stick to the back of the panel.

Next, we glue sheets of wrapping paper onto the parquet. You need to find one that is dense, thick, with a pronounced fibrous structure, without impregnation. Typically this paper is used to make packaging board. We dilute PVA-M with a small amount of water to make the glue liquid.

The adhesive solution should be applied with a hard paint brush, then a sheet of paper should be placed and pressed with a soft wallpaper roller to remove bubbles. The glue should not saturate the paper, just slightly moisten it.

After a day, you will need to cut off the raised edges, glue the places where the paper did not stick, and you can lay linoleum.

Laying linoleum on paper is even easier than on fiberboard or concrete. Apply viscous mastic with a spatula and level it into a thin layer. At the same time, roll out the linoleum roll and press the canvas to the base using a roller. The edges of the linoleum sheet should overlap the wall (3-4 cm) and the adjacent sheet.

After rolling out the rolls and gluing the linoleum, you need to place a weight (weight) from available material on the overlap line of the 2 edges. After the glue has dried, the overlap line is cut using a sharp shoe knife and a steel ruler for plumbing.

Free linoleum flooring on parquet

The idea of ​​laying linoleum flooring directly over an old parquet floor, without an adhesive base, is attractive. If only because the work is less labor intensive and preparation is simpler. The only downside is the need for lining material.

In theory, linoleum can be laid without a lining, but in this case you need to be prepared for the pattern of parquet blocks to appear on the surface of the new coating. In addition, if some boards turn out to be poorly fixed and play (“swing”) under load, then the lining material will compensate for the movements and partially protect the linoleum from tearing.

If you are not sure of the strength of the old parquet, then it is best to use 2 layers - the first is laid with 3-4 mm polyethylene foam. It is used as a backing material for laminate flooring. The second layer is laid with fiberboard 4 mm thick.

Moreover, the soft lining is placed on double-sided tape, and the linoleum itself is laid out according to the principle of a floating floor - a simple flooring. Only the seams and edges under the baseboards are glued with tape.

Linoleum can only be laid on parquet if the old parquet floor and linoleum covering are of relatively high quality.

There is no point in trying to lay single-layer linoleum on planks. This coating can only be glued to a solid base - self-leveling floor or concrete.

Tell us about your experience of laying linoleum on a parquet floor - how was the problem solved, what difficulties did you encounter? Share in the comments. Save the article to your bookmarks so you don’t lose useful tips.