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Is old-school tar paper hardwood flooring underlayment and old-school tar paper roofing underlayment the same thing? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago by grue@lemmy.world to c/homeimprovement@lemmy.world

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I fixed my roof a few years ago, and have part of a roll of tar paper sitting in the basement. I’m now re-laying some hardwood flooring. Can I use that leftover stuff as underlayment, or is there some subtle but important difference between “flooring” tar paper and “roofing” tar paper that means I ought to go buy some other product?

(If it matters, the house was built in the 1940s and uses materials typical of that era. I’m just doing repairs/small modifications, so I’m patching in like-for-like stuff.)

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[–] ValenThyme@reddthat.com 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

if it's old it might be flooring 'mastic' and it's so hard to remove! You have to get it tested for asbestos if it was old and you're gonna mess with it so be careful.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No, it's definitely a sheet of paper, not mastic. It's not even attached to the subfloor, let alone sticky; it was just held in place by the flooring being nailed through it. You can pick up the corner and bend it, although it'll easily tear if you crease it. For comparison, my roll of roofing felt is nearly identical except it's about half as thick and can be creased back and forth a couple of times before tearing. In other words, they're both tar paper but the new stuff is #15 weight and the old stuff is apparently #30 weight.

Anyway, in my search for an answer I've now run across exactly the same tar paper product being sold online as being "for flooring" and as being "for roofing", so the answer to my original question is a definitive "yes, they're the same."

[–] ValenThyme@reddthat.com 2 points 1 month ago

count your blessings then I have had to remove mastic and it's fucking hell!

Glad you got it sorted!