dalemstevens wrote:
Hi,

Any suggestions for the best way out of the following linoleum floor
installation disaster?

A (young) installer (with experience) opted to cover an old linoleum
floor with quarter-inch plywood and then cover that with new linoleum.
The plywood was secured with abundant use of one-inch staples dispensed
from a quality gun, then the new linoleum was glued to the plywood.
The problem is that the plywood has bowed up in the center, at least a
4 foot diameter bubble raised about a half inch. How could this
happen? Obviously the staples failed. Would the approach have worked
if screws secured to the floor joists were used instead of random
application of staples to the subfloor? The linoleum is glued tight
and if one tries to pull it up the paper backing tears and is an ugly
mess.

I'm trying to think of solutions; I hate to recommend a lot of
unnecessary work, such as tear everything out, or pull off the
linoleum, scrape off the glue, screw the plywood down into the floor
joists and try again. I know this sounds insane, but could the bubbled
plywood be screwed down through the new linoleum (into the floor
joists) and a second layer of plywood be used and newer linoleum glued
to that? Seems to me that if this is done the big bubble will just
become smaller bubbles.

It depends how perfect it has to look.

You could put screws through the linoleum/plywood/linoleum into the
sub-floor.

If there is a pattern where the screw holes wouldn't stand out too badly
it might be okay. You can fill the screw holes with some sort of filler
when you're done, yo match the color of the linoleum.

Every house I've owned that had linoleum has had many layers of it,
without any plywood in between. Why did he put the plywood in?