Saw a house built in 1920 where they laid tile directly on the subfloor with no backer board

I was checking out a flip in Portland last month and the guy doing the bathroom pulled up the old linoleum. Underneath it was sheet vinyl that some dude in the 80s just glued straight to the plywood. No cement board, no felt, nothing. It was still holding up pretty well actually, just had a few soft spots near the toilet flange. The homeowner said they wanted to throw down some porcelain planks over it and I had to talk them out of it. I ended up ripping out three layers of old flooring before I could even start. Made me wonder how many old houses out there have the same kind of hack job hiding under newer floors. Anyone ever run into a situation where the previous installer skipped the underlayment and it somehow lasted 40 years?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_anthony10d ago

Yeah that "it somehow lasted 40 years" thing is real. I pulled up a bathroom floor in a 1950s house where they'd laid sheet vinyl directly over the original hardwood. No underlayment, no nothing. It had been down since 1962 and the only damage was a little curl at the edge near the shower. The trick with those old vinyls is they were softer and more flexible than modern tile, so they could handle a little subfloor movement without cracking. Still, once you start ripping it up you see the rot underneath that was hiding. I always tell people, just because it held doesn't mean it was right.

leo23810d ago

Totally agree with you there, it's wild how long that stuff can hide the real damage underneath.