I have recently bought my first house which is quite old. As part of a rewire, part of the existing floor in the bathroom had to be taken up. The existing floor was a hardboard subfloor with stick on vinyl on top.
In my naivety (first real attempt at DIY) I assumed the previous owners done this correctly so bought and cut 3.2mm hardboard ready to be nailed down and primed. I know know that plywood would have been the recommended choice but am on a tight budget. I plan on putting down self adhesive vinyl tiles, so the hardboard will be nailed down smooth side up. I have conditioned the rough side with water.
This is intended to be a temporary fix until I can afford to have a Completely new bathroom installed.
My questions are:
There are some small gaps in the joins in places (about 2-3mm)Do I need to fill these? what would be best for this? Any wood filler?
Also how is best to seal the hardboard? I have some mdf primer, or would other wood primer be more suitable?
in the alternative, I also wondered if polyurethene varnish could be applied to the boards to seal the boards and help protect them from moisture.
Any help on how to prepare the hardboard would be very much appreciated.
