The chipboard floor has fairly good strength indicators, so it is quite often equipped in apartments and houses not only by professionals, but also by private craftsmen. This modern coating can be used as a rough or independent flooring, which has an attractive appearance. It can be laid on any type of surface, including old coatings, without resorting to their preliminary dismantling, which reduces the cost of coating and work.
Application Features
With the help of this material, you can hide defects in the base, cracks, cracks and irregularities. Quite often, a 3-mm plate is used for such work, which has the qualities of resistance to moisture. During the production process, it is impregnated with oil, and at the laying stage, as a rule, it is placed on the first floors.
If you have to work with a floor that has significant irregularities, then you should purchase a 6 mm plate. On sale you can find chipboard of the desired variety, among them: soft boards, hard boards with a refined surface, hard boards with a tinted front layer, as well as material with a front layer of thin dispersion wood pulp. Canalso purchase solid boards of increased strength, which have a front layer in the form of a thin dispersion mass.
Why choose chipboard
The chipboard floor has many advantages over the one that is arranged using other materials. Of the advantages, low cost, environmental safety, as well as a dense structure, which can be obtained by hot pressing sawdust, should be highlighted. Among other things, the plates cope well with mechanical stress, are durable and strong. If you cover the floor with this material, then it will be well sound and heat insulated.
The flat surface of the material allows you to get a flat floor on which you can lay any coating. Even an inexperienced person will be able to cope with the work, since the material is easy to install. During manufacture, synthetic resins and antiseptics are added to the raw materials, which are designed to improve the properties of the material, because in terms of quality characteristics it is compared with natural wood.
If you use chipboard correctly, it will last a long time. Recommendations are the application of waterproof paint or water-repellent varnishes, which can also improve the appearance of the coating.
Installation of a chipboard floor: preparation of boards
Before you start laying the floor from chipboard, you need to prepare the boards, which must undergo acclimatization in the room, as well as gain normal humidity. This will prevent swelling of the material during operation. Within two days, the sheets are aged inroom in a calm state. If the floor surface has large differences, then a log should be laid or a solution should be poured. You can check the horizontalness of the draft surface using the building level, which will help you make marks at the same height along the perimeter of the walls. After the marks are connected, it will become clear if the floor needs alignment.
Preparing the base and laying sheets
If you decide to make a chipboard floor, you should prepare the base for laying. A perfectly flat surface can be achieved with a cement and sand-based screed, which is poured up to the line marked in the previous step. Before pouring, the surface should be cleaned and dried by pouring a 50-mm layer of sand, and the finished solution should be distributed on top. After drying, a primer or bitumen is applied to the screed, which is previously dissolved in gasoline. After waiting 8 hours, you can start laying chipboard with glue or mastic.
The entire surface of the screed is covered with mastic or a thin layer of glue. Plates should also be treated with adhesive. Bituminous mastic dries quickly enough, so its application should be carried out on the laying area of one sheet. After that, the composition is leveled with a rubber comb and the plates are fixed. The surface must then be subjected to pressure, which will act for some time until it dries. The resulting coverage canexploit in a few days.
Laying chipboard on logs
Chipboard can be laid on the floor after installing the lag system. Before this, you should measure the dimensions of the sheets in order to make markings on the floor. Beams treated with an antiseptic, which were previously well dried, should be used. They are attached directly to the floor, the distance between them should not be more than 40 cm. If you use undried wood, this can cause it to rot or deform. In this case, after 2 years, the floor will require repair. It should be noted that the width of the material slabs should not be greater than the width of the lag, otherwise the floor will be uneven, and large pieces of furniture will fall over.
Installation tips
Grooved chipboard for the floor is laid according to a certain technology. Before starting work, the material must be inspected for the presence of mold, in which case a primer and an antiseptic are applied to the surface. Stepping back about 10 mm from the wall, you can start laying the material, this will allow you to form an expansion joint. After completion of the work, it is decorated with a plinth. The plates should fit well to each other and not form distortions. It is necessary to start installation from the wall, which is opposite to the exit.
Slabs are laid out near adjacent walls, preventing the formation of a narrow strip along them. If chipboard is installed on glue, then it should be leveled over the entire surface of the sheet, allowing it to dry. In order to achieve higherstrength, the floor is primed before applying the adhesive. If there is a vertical pipeline in the room, then a circumferential gap should be left near it, which is filled with cement-sand mortar.
Specialist recommendations
Chipboard or plywood on the floor is laid in such a way that the joints of the plates do not fall on those places where the floor is used with the greatest intensity. This should include areas near the refrigerator, stove or sink. Fastening is carried out using nails, screws and self-tapping screws. If the slabs are 19 mm thick, then nails should be used. They need to be driven in at an angle of 30 °, 10 cm apart from each other. Laying chipboard on the floor should be carried out in such a way that the nail heads are firmly driven into the material and do not protrude from above. Traces of fasteners should be repaired with wood putty, which is matched to the color of the coating. Do not use long nails as this may damage the wires and pipes under the base.
Joints are covered with putty to make the floor attractive. If you place the structure on the logs, it will make the floor warmer. If it is necessary to perform a complex cutting of the slab, you need to use a template prepared in advance from cardboard. If laying is carried out on a wooden base, then the bituminous primer is not used.
Final works
Quite often used in houses to repair chipboard, a wooden floor can be covered with this material to get a perfectly flat surface. On theat the final stage, the glue should be removed with a rag, the resulting gaps should be sealed with putty. Such a surface is often primed and sanded, but this is not necessary if a laminate, parquet, carpet or linoleum is placed on top. If you still decide to paint, then for this you can use a paint composition or alkyd enamel, which has water-repellent characteristics.
Moisture-resistant chipboard for flooring can also be used as an independent coating if you need a budget solution.
