Carpets, Lino & Flooring

Laminate Installation - Remove flooring and plywood nailed on subfloor or leave it?

Anonymous user 09/03/2024 - 3.33 PM

Hello, Half of our hallway is plywood and the other half looks to be solid hard wood (herringbone style), nailed onto the subfoor. We don't know why this is but suspect it is to get it level with the living room and dining room each is around 3x3.5m. Hallway feels solid to walk on with some slight wear on the edges. The house is old and not new build. A salesman from a company came to measure for us and said the existing floor on the hallway needs to be removed and plywood to be added on top before the underlay. Can't remember exactly what his words are but he said there is a chance moisture gets trapped causing the wood to buckle and expand, which can damage the laminate on top. Previous owner had carpet so this would not have been an issue. Another contractor came by and he said you can leave the hallway as is, get a few wood pieces replaced. He also said that because the hallway is quite narrow and the two rooms are quite small, he will place the laminate flush under the doors meaning no expansion gap here. My questions are: 1. Is it fine to leave the hallway as it is or is it advisable to remove the hard wood and plywood, re-apply another plywood on top? 2. Is there anything wrong with not having an expansion gap underneath where the doors close? Update: We had the builder come round again. Given the flooring at the edges of the hallway below the front door was worn enough to need replacing, he took these up and noticed the floor was raised and not level. The wood beneath the herringbone hardwood layer was discoloured right beneath the front door with minor signs of water damage but rest of hallway was sound. Decided to raise that part of the subfloor just to be safe. I was surprised to find the subfloor planks did not extend all the way along the corridor in single long planks but went from the stairs to the front door and again to the other end of the hallway so in two pieces (if that makes sense). The builder did indeed find water damange at the ends of a few planks right below the front door. It needed replacing so we had half the hallway subfloor replaced. The joists were is great condition. Comforted from the fact we didn't lay underlay and laminate on top straight away.