I am getting ready to lay some laminate flooring. I am going to replace the bueatiful parquet flooring the previous owners left in the dining room and the linoleum tiles placed over the linoleum sheet floor in the attached kitchen!! (The previous sentence was written with sarcasm!!) I have removed the parquet and both layers of linoleum, and was left with the subfloor covered in dry glue where the parquet was and what looks like floor leveler where the linoleum was. The glue for the parquet is some what even but coarse, the "floor leveler" is cracked and big pieces are missing sporadically around floor where it came up with the flooring.I was wondering how even the floor has to be for the laminate? I am going to be putting down padding, but want to make sure I don't have boards that sink when you walk on them. If you do recomend me removing the filler and the glue, what do you think I should use?Thanks.
As long as the irregularities don't resemble a mountain range then a suitable under floor insulation will even them out enough for the laminate to lie flat. I would recommend the thicker, stiff insulation which comes in rigid sheets. It covers more sins than the foam roll kind and gives far better thermal insulation. A fact you'll be grateful for the first time you walk across the floor on a winter morning in bare feet! ;)
The click and lock laminate flooring can go over a floor or subfloor with irregularities. I locks together as a sheet, and is a floating floor. You must be certain to use the underlayment, or it will squeak like crazy, and make certain that ALL the joins are true, with NO gapping or you will have huge problems down the road. If you have two pieces that absolutely won't join smoothly, even with tapping, put them aside and place them with a different sheet. No amount of hitting and yelling will make them work together.
