kitchen floor, hardy board & tile?

[Mary]

We have a kitchen floor with linoleum and a water leak (from the refrigerator). It has been fixed but the floor underneath has buckled.

Our insurance adjuster is coming on the 12th. He said anyone can do the work; he will just give us a check to spend for the repairs.

Our handyman said he doesn't work with linoleum, just tile, and he said using hardy board underneath the tile should work fine. He has not seen it yet; he said this by phone after I described the problem.

I'm not sure what hardy board is, actually. I've been reading previous posts and it seems that 3/4 inch something should be put down, then the tile. Is this correct? Is hardy board this thick?

Can someone let me know what hardy board is and what sort of standards we should follow when having this floor repaired/replaced? And it seems to me that tile is better and nicer looking than linoleum. Am I correct in this?

Thanks very much for any advice.

[rmurray]

The recommendation you read was to probably fix the sub-flooring before this is done...

Hardy backer board is only about 1/4 inch thick..It is a concrete property used as a backer for ceramic tile.......
The judgement is you will like ceramic better than linoleum is only a judgement that you can make..ceramic will cost at least 3 times to 7 as much as vinyl....

[David Oxhandler]

You want plywood or OSB for the base and there are a lot of contractors who will gladly install linoleum. Check out the MH Yellow Pages or your local yellow pages and get bids from 3 or 4.

[Mary]

Thank you both for replying. Does the plywood or OSB go down after the bad buckled wood is pulled up?

After that, does linoleum go down right on top of plywood or OSB? And hardy board if tile is used?

[Good neighbor]

"Does the plywood or OSB go down after the bad buckled wood is pulled up?"

Yes, exactly.

"After that, does linoleum go down right on top of plywood or OSB?"

Yes, it can. Some people advise that thin luan plywood be applied over the OSB before laying down vinyl sheet flooring (aka linoleum), as the surface of OSB has much more texture than plywood. But most MH manufacturers put the vinyl right over OSB, which works fine. If you were choosing a solid-colored or lightly textured vinyl, you would probably want to go with the luan over OSB, so the texture of the OSB doesn't "print" through the vinyl.

"And hardy board if tile is used?"

Maybe. To do tile properly, the subfloor should really be 3/4" thick. If your contractor just patches in OSB or plywood to your existing floor, which is probably only 5/8" or even 1/2" on an older home, the subfloor is really too thin for tile. To do it right (to prevent cracked tiles or grout from the floor flexing) you would probably need:

- Repair existing subfloor
- Apply 1/2" exterior grade plywood
- Apply 1/4" or 1/2" tile backer board (cement board, HardiPanel or equivalent)
- Prep tile backer board with self levelling compound
- Apply tile

You can see why tile is a much more expensive proposition than vinyl!

[Mary]

Thanks so much for the valuable information, Good Neighbor. I always learn so much on this site!

[Fred]

Dont use hardy board on your floor. Your warped floor needs to be replaceed and it is either a 5/8 or 3/4 in thick floor. Most manufactured homes dont even glue down the linolium except some times around the floor registers. You can cut the lino. next to the wall pull it back to relpace the floor decking then glue only the edges next to the wall. I hopr this helps As I work daily with most manufactured homes

[Mary]

Our handyman was here this morning with an estimate for Pergo floors, after he replaces the warped boards.

He is talking replacing the warped wood with 1/2 inch plywood, then the Pergo over this.

Is this logical? Does it sound okay?

[Roy T. Bonney]

He has made the 1/2" recommendation so that when the laminate is installed, the level of the floors adjacent to the kitchen will be similar. The 1/2" plywood, however, will no be sufficient to provide the proper foundation for the laminate. Go with the 3/4" and use a threshold strip to facilitate the floor height.