ᐅ Installing solid vinyl flooring over existing cork flooring

I would like to install a solid click vinyl floor over an old, firmly glued cork floor. The height of the new floor would be 4 mm (about 0.16 inches) so it won’t raise the level too much. I have heard that vinyl floors on cork should generally be 10 mm (about 0.4 inches) thick and installed on an HDF (high-density fiberboard) underlayment because cork is supposedly too soft. However, this doesn’t feel accurate at all: even when pressing hard with a finger, the cork doesn’t give way.

What are your recommendations or experiences? Removing the old cork is not really an option.

About 5 years ago, we installed solid vinyl flooring directly over our old cork floor (glued down, about 5mm (2 inches) thick) as a floating floor. So far, we have had absolutely no issues, and the cork provides additional pleasant sound insulation.

Hello questioner.

Installing a "PVC click vinyl floor" over an old cork subfloor is certainly an unusual special construction. It should work, as there is no rigid coupling (and therefore no adhesive bonding) between the different floor layers, and no risk of puncturing caused by point loads (from the new PVC flooring) is expected due to the self-supporting HDF carrier layer. Only the total installation height must be sufficient to prevent doors from dragging or creating a tripping hazard at adjoining rooms.

Regards, KlaRa

KlaRa schrieb:

Hello questioner,
Installing a "PVC click vinyl floor" over an old cork underlayer is certainly an unusual special construction. It should work because there is no rigid connection (and therefore no gluing) between the different types of flooring, and damage from point loads (caused by the new PVC flooring) is not to be expected due to the independent HDF carrier layer. The only thing to consider is that the total build-up height must be sufficient to prevent doors from scraping or creating a tripping edge at adjacent rooms.
Regards, KlaRa

Thanks for the feedback! But precisely because of the build-up height, I would like to install the solid thin vinyl flooring without HDF. It is clear that the 10 mm (0.4 inch) thick flooring with HDF should not be a problem, but this raises the height by 6 mm (0.24 inch) too much for me. Does anyone else have experience with the 4 mm (0.16 inch) thick vinyl?