help and advice please- recovered solid oak flooring

[ratstrangler]

I have a room with a sand/cement screed over a concrete sub base floor. The whole floor is uneven as the room has been extended by previous occupiers. I intend to lay a hardwood floor which is recovered solid oak previously laid in a bituminous adhesive. Firstly, will I have to clean the previous bituminious layer off the back of the recovered flooring prior to laying it or is there a suitable adhesive that will adhere to the bitumin layer and the sand /cement screed? Hopefully the final sanding will take out any discrepancies in finished height.

Secondly, I intend to break out the existing sand/ cement screed and relay it level and also to reduce the floor height to accomodate the wooden flooring. I am concious that this type of flooring can be cold so would I be better off installing a floating insulated wooden subfloor to attach my oak floor to instead of replacing the sand/cement screed? Alternatively could I install an underfloor heating system to take off the chill of a cold floor ( i'm not too keen on this option bearing in mind expansion / contraction of the wood with moisture content). Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Hi

Yes, you have to remove as much of the bitumen as possible. A: it will reduce some of the height differences, B: large bits of bitumen will get brittle in the long run (if it isn't already) and crumble the bonding between underfloor and wood, C: modern adhesive will take longer to bond with any bitumen residue.

Wood on it's own can act as thermal insulation. Underfloor heating and solid wood floors are in our book a definite no no

 

[ratstrangler]

thanks for the advice, can you recommend a suitable adhesive?

 

[Symptoms]

No need to remove the old bitumen (it is probably a product called Synthaprufe) if you put the floor down as follows.

Screed off if you need to gain clearance. Fix tanalised batterns on a bed of Synthaprufe (it not only acts as a dpc but also as an adhesive) then Hilty-nail the batterns to the concrete floor. Belt & braces you could give the whole of this new sub-floor a wash of our friend Synthprufe, then nail (secret through the tongues of your oak) into the batterns. Hire or buy a air floor nailer thus using the correct nails. Sand off. Thats how we've been doing it for 25 years.

 

[WoodYouLike]

thanks for the advice, can you recommend a suitable adhesive?

Lecol5500, B92 (Stycobond), Mapei etc.