Vinyl Tile over rough wood underlayment

cindinw

Should I treat the entire plywood underlayment before installing a vinyl tile floor in my bathroom? I have to replace part of the underlayment with plywood where I cut out rotten subfloor, so there are a few places with small splinters out of the cut wood. No place sold treated 1/4 plywood so I am using oak. Now I wonder if I should treat it with am embossing leveler before I lay the vinyl tile squares. Will this help to eliminate water from soaking into the underlayment?

Bud Cline

Fill any divots with patching material. It won't waterproof anything.

Treated material wouldn't have been the product to use anyway so you lucked-out there.

Nothing will eliminate water from soaking into the cracks between the tiles unless you were to load the floor with wax and hopefully seal all the joints but any spills would still have to be cleaned up quickly.

So are you kid-proofing or what?

rusty baker

Using treated lumber indoors is a no-no.

__________________
"I'm twisted, not sick. Sick implies, I'll get better"
Semi-Retired Installer
Installing since 1973

cindinw

The old toilet began overflowing in the middle of the night & flooded the room & poured into the basement. The previous owners had put cheap carpeting in and evidently had toilet & tub problems in the past. I ripped out the toilet & carpeting and found some of the underlayment was rotted out, so that is where I began. There are water stains all around that area, but it wasn't rotting, so I left it. There is a large area that I think had shampoo spilled and soaked through to the wood, not sure how to handle that, not sure if adhesive backing on tile will stick to it.
I'll take back my oak & get sanded birch (pine or birch are recommended I found out) and patch what I cut out. Then I guess I should sand the top of most of the rest of that area.

Bud Cline

I wouldn't expect any adhesive to stick to soap.