Spruce Flooring - Waterproofing?

[Jri]

Hi,

I've been decorating a room in my house and when I've come to lay an engineered wood floor have noticed that the tongue/groove chipboard floor underneath has swelled due to what I think is water damage from the shower in the next room.

The swelling has made the board uneven and unsuitable for laying nice level a wood floor on, so I have pulled off the old chipboard (exposing the beams underneath).

I have fixed the leaky seal on the shower and have bought some 18mm spruce plywood boards to replace the ones I have ripped out.

Here's my question:

I don't know if the boards are waterproofed, do I need to treat them before I nail them down? If so, what do I need to put on them? The shower no longer leaks, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

This is the stuff I have bought: http://www.wickes.co.uk/Structural-Soft ... m/p/120945

Also - the new spruce plywood is NOT tongue and grooved. Do I need to leave a clearance in-between the boards? What's best, screws or nails?

Thanks,

Jri

[Jri]

Nobody? Could really use some advice on this one.

[big-all]

you dont normally waterproof internal timber you just remove the source
let it all dry out do not attach any skirting for a few months if you can afford the time to allow any timber to fully dry and shrink

[Job and Knock]

Maybe had you posted in the joinery forum...... Spruce boards are not waterproofed. In my experience they are used as sub floors where a finished floor such as resin flooring, vinyl, etc is to be laid and it is the finish floor which has any waterproofing element incorporated (as needs be). When installing it we've generally been given T&G boards to work with - where it isn't T&G we've routed grooves in the edge and glued-in 6mm plywood loose tongues. In point of fact when you are installing spruce you do need to keep the elements off it whereas P5 chipboard is (to an extent) weatherproof, but that's it. We generally fix down 18 or 22mm stuff with 50mm ring nails.