On Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 9:58:06 AM UTC-4, KenK wrote:
KenK wrote in
:

I stupidly let someone lay a new bathroom and kitchen floor in a
rental double-wide. Original floor was terrible, old broken tile, etc.
So he laid 1/4" plywood on the old floor and new square thin vinyl
self-adhesive tiles on that. Looked fine and wore well for a few
weeks. Until a kitchen sink drain let loose and dumped a bunch of
water on it. Plywood warped and needs repairing.

What can I paint this floor with to waterproof it so water won't go
between the tiles and soak the plywood? Haven't found anything yet
with Google. I suppose floor wax might work but I'm afraid it will
wear off all too soon unless frequently reapplied.

Ideas?

TIA.



Since I posted this I read about using groat between the tiles and caulk
along the walls and other floor edges. Anyone tried this successfully?

TIA


Sounds nuts to me. For one thing, vinyl tiles are somewhat flexible and
I would think that as people walk on them grout that is placed in between
would crack and probably fall out before too long. It doesn't have thin set
underneath to adhere to, IDK how much it will adhere to the edges of
the vinyl tiles. Even if it didn't deteriorate and come out,
I doubt it would keep water out for long. I think you have to ask yourself
if you aren't creating a bigger problem while attempting to fix a problem
that should rarely happen. There are a lot of floors with vinyl tiles in
kitchens, utility rooms, etc. I have them in my laundry room. There are
also many kitchens with wood floors too. They all live with the small
risk of a water leak damaging the floors. If you want something more
resistant, then go with ceramic tiles. But I would think even those, if
there is enough water on the floor for long enough, it could get under
them and do the damage anyway.

Another factor may be the sub floor, the type of plywood used, how it was
nailed, etc. A lot of floors get wet without warping.