Floating PIR floor

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I have a suspended floor in my 1960s house. I am going to struggle to get all of the floorboards up and down again to install PIR between the joists and cannot afford to pay for this to be done.

Is it possible to do a floating PIR floor at 50mm and then put a 9mm ply on top in order to do glue down LVT flooring?
 
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Yes, but the flooring will need to be a bit thicker than 9mm (i.e. 15 to 18mm) and as John says, the doors will need to come off and be shortened
 
All doors and frames are being replaced so this shouldn't be a problem. With the flooring ply or chipboard, how do you attach that to something so it is a good surface for LVT glue down?
 
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With the flooring ply or chipboard, how do you attach that to something so it is a good surface for LVT glue down?
Forget plywood unless you can get T&G (with the T&G on all sides) and go for P5 T&G chipboard which comes in 2400 x 600 "planks"). Much cheaper and a lot easier to handle than plywood. I'd cover the existing sub-floor with a thin layer of polythene sheet, put the PIR over that (in a staggered "brick patternm"), then lay down another layer of thin polythene sheet over that before laying the chipboard. The first poly layer stops damp (but may not be necessary, your call), whilst the second at the top prevents glue squeeze out from laying the chipboards from permanently "welding" those boards to the PIR. The PIR is floated on top of the PIR, that is it is layed in brick pattern (with the joints staggered at half sheet point) and all the tongues are glued with D4 flooring glue (*normlly a polyurethane glue). To pull the joints up tight you can use flooring straps and a flooring pull bar. TBH I generally just get someone to stand on the first row, push the second row board into position against the first row, lay a 4 to 6ft length of 3 x 2 or 4 x 2 stud against the grooved (outer edge) of the board I'm fixing, stand with my legs apart, heels on the second board, toes on top of the stud, and gently tap the board into place - with a 7lb sledge hammer. Awkward bits and last rows will need a flooring pull bar and you will need some flooring (wedge) packers to give you a 5 to 10mm expansion gap around the perimeter. As you add more and more boards the friction of the floated floor means it will move less and less. Note that the floor flots and is not fixed to anything and that the spacer packers can be removed once you have finished

It may be best to ask the flooring guys what they prefer, but on many commercial jobs the floorers will screed a chipboard sub-floor with SLC before applying the LVT.
 
Forget plywood unless you can get T&G (with the T&G on all sides) and go for P5 T&G chipboard which comes in 2400 x 600 "planks"). Much cheaper and a lot easier to handle than plywood. I'd cover the existing sub-floor with a thin layer of polythene sheet, put the PIR over that (in a staggered "brick patternm"), then lay down another layer of thin polythene sheet over that before laying the chipboard. The first poly layer stops damp (but may not be necessary, your call), whilst the second at the top prevents glue squeeze out from laying the chipboards from permanently "welding" those boards to the PIR. The PIR is floated on top of the PIR, that is it is layed in brick pattern (with the joints staggered at half sheet point) and all the tongues are glued with D4 flooring glue (*normlly a polyurethane glue). To pull the joints up tight you can use flooring straps and a flooring pull bar. TBH I generally just get someone to stand on the first row, push the second row board into position against the first row, lay a 4 to 6ft length of 3 x 2 or 4 x 2 stud against the grooved (outer edge) of the board I'm fixing, stand with my legs apart, heels on the second board, toes on top of the stud, and gently tap the board into place - with a 7lb sledge hammer. Awkward bits and last rows will need a flooring pull bar and you will need some flooring (wedge) packers to give you a 5 to 10mm expansion gap around the perimeter. As you add more and more boards the friction of the floated floor means it will move less and less. Note that the floor flots and is not fixed to anything and that the spacer packers can be removed once you have finished

It may be best to ask the flooring guys what they prefer, but on many commercial jobs the floorers will screed a chipboard sub-floor with SLC before applying the LVT.
You can’t Screed a chipboard floor.

For Glue Down LVT you would need 6mm SP101 flooring grade ply, Feather the joints and screw heads and glue direct.

If you were laying Herringbone or design floor, it would be best to Renovation Screed the Ply before installing the Herringbone LVT for a perfect finish.
 

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