How to repair a hole thru linoleum and plywood?

Brown Sharpie.
JK

Photomike wrote:
1/4" plywood seems thin for the floor. If it is not structurally a problem then just fill it to level it off and put a carpet over it.

I thought the same, however the floor is actually almost 2" thick on the Wolf Creek 850! I removed the table leg base insert. I was pleasantly surprised to see 1/4" thick base layer, 5/8" of foam insulation, 5/8" plywood and then 1/4" vinyl flooring.







Nolan

I think, first off you should sit down and grab a beer. This doesn't look to be as bad as you initially described it. After you've calmed yourself down from beating yourself up, I want you to repeat after me, "I will not store my fast guns inside my TC anymore!"

You've got some great pointers here on the repair. Once it's finished you'll not notice it again. I wish I could repair some of the things I've done in the past as easily as this will be. Good luck

Having worked in with and in the flooring industry some of the advise is right on. !/4" "marine grade" ply wood is the besy underlament that you can use as it has no voids like the ply you get at homedepo etc. it is the standard for flooring. There may have been some misunderstanding on what underlayment is,it is used on top of the SUB floor to get a smooth surface and to allow removal if a floor needs replacing. The type of flooring you have is what is called "Rotoroveer" ( don't know the correct spelling.It is a vinyl photograph film that gives the floor its look/pattern and comes in various grades/thicknesses. The other type is an inlay where the pattern goes all the way through. There may be other sub categories but those are the two I was most familiar with.
If the damage was real bad one poster recommended scribing a piece to repair which is the right way to do it. But to go a step further they make a product that would weld the seams together after you made your patch,and this is what you need to permenantly fix your tear. Any flooring store should have a kit that would do this. Congoleum and Armstrong make such a product.

Thanks for all the great suggestions I'm sure this will turn out to be an easy fix.....just feels like that first scratch on a new car, especially since I think I did it with a fast gun being stored inside for the winter!!!! .....and now for the "1000" words or more I should have started with:

carpetguy2 wrote:
Only need 1/4 underlayment for vinyl .If you have another piece of vinyl you can cut a square out of it.Trace cut it out.fill the plywood with floor patch.let it dry completely
glue the new piece in with a vinyl trowel.Get a seam sealer around all the seams
If too much work for you throw a rug down lol

A better approach if you have a piece from under a cabinet or appliance is to match the pattern and tape it above the damaged area and cut through both layers preferably on a pattern line. That way the Piece will fit perfectly. Glue it in place and seal the edges. Only the person who fixed it will ever know.

1/4" thick wood for under layment used for vinyl support tells you why it punctured and is likely to happen again in other areas with simple dropped items landing on protrusions. You have what you have now and a coarse patch made from wood splinters and sawdust mixed with a strong glue adhereing to filling the depression in the 1/4" wood to level original level is easy to do. After total dry/solid and scraped to smooth, glue the vinyl down and fill the crack with a close blended color waterproof filler that's around the 3 sides to prevent water protrusion and trapped rotting. Should be very hard to see the damage then.

If the damage is large enough or will leave and ugly scar, the ture laminate of Bamboo or other interlocking flooring would be a big improvement in strength and looks too and is just as easy to care for as vinyl. You have lots of choices as ways to fix it and have it professionally looking.

All I see is wallows in your present flat floor with age as the foam under the 1/4" wood will continus to depress with walking on it alone. It's a foam used as a support. A no no to me! Under a strong composite non-wood 1/4"+ sheet may be better but still far from strong as the only true supports are the floor stringers (joists) and they are spaced X apart!

Slide a piece of alumiunm sheetmetal (stepflashing works great) with some adhesive on the back side of patch slide thru the linoleum tear. Take a littie adhesvive apply it to the back side of linoleum tear, press it firmly apply weight to the repair area. let dry/cure. Take some white-out and fill the tear seam, let dry.
Of Course if the linoleum isn't white find a suitable silcone colored caulk for seam filling, you need to let the silcone cure for 24 hrs. I like white-out due to the fact that it's very controllable during application, try using a cute tee if your using silcone.
Make sure the aluiumn has a 1 inch or bigger overlay than the hole; trim any sharp edges and round the corners .

....how 'bout a new (interlocking) ~~18 sq/ft of bamboo floor over the vinyl ?? Quick and easy (no messing about with finicky linoleum repair/glue jobs) ? And, imagine what it would like like (and, feel like walking on it) after. Bamboo is nearly indestructible against water spills, and humidity (get solid bamboo interlocking floorboards).

I made a patch out of saw dust chips and Elmer's Wood glue. Still holding to this day.