What is the preferred grade of plywood we should use as a subfloor underneath commercial-grade Vinyl Composition Tile (VCT) tile (not vinyl peel & stick tile).
Wood – What grade of plywood should we use as subfloor under VCT tile
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I'd question how waterproof you need this to be. Will there routinely be water sitting on the floor? If not, you may be over-engineering things.
That said, off the top of my head, one option for waterproofing the subfloor would be to paint on Redgard:
It's a 'paint on' waterproofing membrane that you'd typically use behind tiles on cement board and the like.
Well technically it is plywood, it's just not very good plywood. Having said that I've seen flooring guys use a product that looked very much like luan that was no more than an 1/8 of an inch thick to get the level they needed. This was in a hospital remodel so it was definitely up to code and it went under a commercial grade thermo-sealed floor so it should be good for just about any application unless your subfloor is really atrocious. Ask around at a dedicated flooring supply store and they should be able to point you in the right direction.
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Best Answer
Basically any plywood will do. If I were doing it I would go with 3/4 inch. The key to a vinyl install install isn't the quality or depth of the subfloor but how flat it is. Any divots or seams bigger than 1/8" could have issues in the future and need to be filled.