Wood floor on plywood on battens on screed

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Hi there. I have an extension to my 1930s house. The back is now open plan.

The old bit is pine floorboards and the new bit is screed set 55mm below, although the old floor is not horizontal and varies by about 18mm so the low bit is only 37mm above the screed.

I am having engineered oak flooring fitted next week. The fitter told me that I need to fit battens and plywood sheets over the screed to make it the same height as the highest bit of the old floorboards (55mm).

The plywood will be 19mm so I need 36mm battens. I will space them 400mm apart. My question is...

How do I fix the battens to the screed? If I screw then how deep and how frequent should they be? Will softwood like in B & Q do? Also, should I fit sound insulation and if so what is recommended?

Sorry that this is pretty basic stuff. I wish my extension came with a 'what you need to do next' manual. Thanks in advance for any help.
 
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What you need to do next is return to the floor layer and have them sort out the job or pass it up. Its not down to the HO to figure out technical difficulties, thats why you are paying a professional.

As a HO having an extension built, dont stand in your own light, allow the professionals to do their work, and only pay for a successful job.
By definition professionals must know, and work to, whats coming next.
 
How do I fix the battens to the screed?

I would do it with hammer fixings:

http://tinyurl.com/m4o5lhl

If I screw then how deep and how frequent should they be?

60mm hammer fixings in 36mm battens will give you an inch penetration into the floor, which I've found adequate for stud walls so should be plenty for your battens. Every couple of feet should be OK.

Will softwood like in B & Q do?

I suggest treated lats from a builder's merchants. If you buy timber from B&Q it only encourages them.

Also, should I fit sound insulation and if so what is recommended?

You can get foam underlay for the flooring itself (Google for Polyfoam), but I don't think it's strictly necessary.

Please bear in mind I am just a humble DIYer, not someone who has done this literally hundreds and hundreds of times :mrgreen:

Cheers
Richard
 
Ahhhhh!!!

Just rang a merchant who told me they only sell 25mm battens, which with 18mm plywood would be about 12mm too low. He recommended something called packers which sounded like I should be able to get from elsewhere as he didn't stock them.

This gives me another problem... What do they look like? I don't want to appear thick asking the bloke from the timber merchants...

And thanks for the answers already. I feel that I'm getting there.
 
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