How To Install Vapor Barrier Under Vinyl Plank Flooring?

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Are you thinking about installing a vapor barrier under your vinyl plank flooring? The vapor barrier works just like what the word suggests. It blocks moisture or vapor from affecting your flooring. Installing a vapor barrier can be a tricky as well as easy task. Here’s how you can install a vapor barrier:

• First, determine how much vapor barrier you need for your desired place, by simply measuring the place with tape.
• Clean the area to get rid of as much dirt and debris as much as you can.
• Lay the first layer of the sheet without any creases.
• After that, lay the other sheet and ensure that there is an 8-inch overlap in them to leave out no gap.
• Seal the seams of the sheets with duct tape.
• Trip up any excess sheets that you don’t need.
• Done.

Vapor barriers work as a protective layer between the floor and the vinyl plank flooring. It ensures the safety of your planks so that mold and mildew can’t affect them.

If you want to know more about vapor barriers stay tuned with us.

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Types Of Vapor Barriers

There are three types of vapor barriers, Class I, Class II, and Class III.

Class I

Class I vapor barriers are the strongest ones, these barriers are impermeable. It means no amount of fluid can pass through it. The barriers include sheet metal, glass, rubber, and plastic sheets.

Class II

This type of barrier is semi-permeable. Meaning some fluid to pass through it. These types of barriers include plywood, expanded or extruded polystyrene, and bitumen-coated paper.

Class III

This type of vapor barrier is permeable. Which means water can pass through them. These types of barriers include board lumber, concrete block, fiberglass insulation, gypsum board, etc.

Vapor Barrier Vs Underlayment

Underlayments are vapor barrier which is installed between the flooring and the existing concrete surface. Underlayment’s can be installed as floating or fixed. They can also help to reduce noise and sounds.

Vapor barriers on the other hand functions differently depending on different types of rolls. You can use 6-20 mil plastic rolls of vapor barrier for your floors.

Do You Need A Moisture Barrier Under Vinyl Plank Flooring On Plywood?

Using a vapor barrier under vinyl plank flooring on plywood is not always necessary if your plywood is good quality. But we would suggest you use a vapor barrier in this case.

From our above discussion, you can see that plywood itself is considered a semi-permeable vapor barrier. That means water or fluids can pass through them in little amounts.

So, you should use a vapor barrier under vinyl plank flooring on plywood to ensure that no amount of fluid cannot pass. This will protect your vinyl plank floorings from getting affected by molds and mildews.

Final Words

Installing vapor barriers is easy if you know how to do that properly. In this post, we have tried to cover everything related to vapor barriers. Hope you found this article helpful.

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