Recognized as a reliable construction material, plywood is made of thin layers of laminated wood veneer that are glued together under pressure and heat. Plywood panels have good stability and an excellent strength-to-weight ratio, but what exact thickness of plywood should you choose for flooring?
Uses of plywood
Plywood lends itself to a wide variety of uses. It can be used as subflooring, single-layer flooring, intermediate wall covering and roofing support, roof and ceiling decking, insulated structural panel, etc. These multiple possible uses clearly demonstrate the reliability of this material.
Plywood, a quality subfloor
Plywood is a panel composed of thin layers of wood, glued together under pressure and heat in a direction perpendicular to the grain of adjacent veneers. This cross-assembly gives plywood excellent strength and rigidity in both directions, as well as impact resistance and dimensional stability when humidity or temperature may vary. Due to its dimensional stability, plywood is a superior subfloor for flooring. It remains flat to provide a smooth and uniform surface that doesn’t crack or lose its shape. The quality of this covering is suitable as a subfloor for hardwood parquet or concrete screed floors. They are also very resistant to impacts.
The best thickness for plywood flooring
The thickness of plywood for flooring depends entirely on the objectives you wish to achieve. It can be used to eliminate irregularities in an existing floor or to lay a new raw floor covering. Follow the guide:
– To cover floors with slight irregularities, 1/4″ thick plywood sheets are sufficient.
– A glued veneer thickness difference of 3/8″ to 5/8″ is used to mitigate the difference in surface levels. Due to its superior density and rigidity, this plywood effectively eliminates irregularities.
– When laying plywood, drops tend to remain in the joint area. In this case, these imperfections can be eliminated by laying another layer of plywood with offset joints.
– For hardwood, floating, engineered, or vinyl flooring, we recommend a minimum plywood thickness of 5/8″.
Some criteria to follow for optimal strength of plywood panels
The strength of plywood panels is maximized when they are laid so that the grain is perpendicular to the supports. The edges of the panels must then meet certain criteria, here are which to follow:
– each plywood panel must have a “groove” edge and a “tongue” edge to interlock with other panels
– be laid so that the face grain is perpendicular to the joists;
– be laid on at least three supports including one support at the ends. For example, a plywood panel can be laid on 3 beams (supports) with the first end of the plywood laid on the first, and the other end on the third. There will also be support on the middle one. So there will be 3 support points;
– be laid with a perimeter gap of 1/8″ between panels to allow them to expand;
Panel fitting gaps can be tolerated occasionally, but the opening should not exceed 1/4″.
Plywood for flooring also has the advantage of being environmentally friendly and safe for health. If there are a large number of varieties of plywood in stores with different strength, material, and thickness and you don’t know which one to choose, don’t rush to buy, but ask for advice from flooring professionals!
Nowadays, hardwood floors are very popular, especially for the warm look of hardwood. But with the arrival of the cold season, if you wish to preserve all the beauty and warmth of hardwood, you must protect it through concrete actions.
