Solid wood floor, concrete and tiles...

Hi all. Sorry for this long post but I need to make a decision.

My current project is to lay a solid wood (maple) floor. I have the wood but am now faced with a variety of options.

This is the problem part of my floor:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13818533@N04/?saved=1

The concrete area to the right is pretty flat and dry.

The tiles to the left- which appear to be vinyl on a bituminous adhesive, over concrete- are well stuck down and would take a lot of getting up. They do undulate slightly though near the join and would probably need some sort of levelling compound (mira x-plan?) across it. There are a lot of them and nearly all of them are straight and true.

The bodged job of joining the areas I think covers a water pipe (don't ask!). That area can however be smoothed over.

My current ultimate plan is to use Rewmar MS adhesive and glue the floor down.

Now, the concrete area is not exactly level with the tiled area and is slightly (5mm or so) higher- hence again some sort of levelling will be needed. I therefore need to consider my options:

1)I get lots of expensive levelling compound (35 sq m in all to cover) and put it over tiles and all (the Mira x plan website says it will go over almost anything) then glue down using the Rewmar adhesive. Downside=expensive and most of the tiles are level anyway.

2) I try and use levelling compound in the localised area near the join and smooth over the join to such extent that it is insignificant (thank you mattysupra for your previous response to an earlier post about this- your comment that I would have to get it very smooth makes me think it might be beyond my ability!)

3)I screw down a ply sub floor over the lot with some underlay to make it level across the join and then nail down the floor on top. Downside=it will make the floor thicker I suppose but I could live with it.

It's looking like (1) or (3), I really don't know whether (2) is feasible but it would have the advantage of not using up masses of compound.

4) I guess is to employ a flooring contractor, pay up and have done with it!

Thanks. If there are other options I've not considered feel free to comment.

Instead of glueing the floor down have you considered installing it 'floating'? Depending on the size of the wood you have - guessing it's normal floorboard type with T&G? - you can than opt for 2. Leave it to dry sufficiently, install a combi-underlayment first (DPM + sound-insulation) and glue all T&G's.

If you want to glue the floor down, remember that wood is very, very strong and when it expands or shrinks the weakest link is the screed/concrete layer.
Bad quality of that = screed will be pulled up as if it's paper.

Thanks- sounds lie a good option.

The wood is in strips of varying length and about 90mm wide, tongue and grooved all round.

But- if I glue all of the tongue and groove will it handle the expansion and contraction?

Secondly if glued straight down won't a modern adhesive like the Rewmar stuff assist with dissipating all of the forces involved anyway?

drawis said:

Thanks- sounds lie a good option.

The wood is in strips of varying length and about 90mm wide, tongue and grooved all round.

Click to expand...

90mm wide is normally to narrow to be installed floating I'm afraid. Also guessing that the lengths are short? Max 1.25 meter? Installing this type of floor floating will make it very 'unstable'

Actually some are quite long, but from what I'd read I thought the floating option wasn't really suitable for the type of wood, hence I'm left with lots of levelling or nailing onto ply.

Here's a thought though- can one nail down directly onto wooden floorboards? If so I could use the wood upstairs and buy some engineered stuff to float downstairs.

Thanks for your input.

drawis said:

Here's a thought though- can one nail down directly onto wooden floorboards? If so I could use the wood upstairs and buy some engineered stuff to float downstairs.

Thanks for your input.

Click to expand...

Problem solved I think
Bare in mind that cheap wood-engineered stuff (thin boards) can't handle slight differences in height as well as the standard (14-15mm thick) or multi-layer boards (like the Duopank 21mm).

And with nailing: know where the pipes are!

Assuming I'd rather keep the wood downstairs, any suggestions?

Is there any way of locating a good firm to do a screed?

Bump

Bump- specifically can I get away with Rewmar adhesive on well-attached 1970s vinyl/thermoplastic tiles?

bump- any advice appreciated

Last bump

no you cant glue to your thermo plastic tiles. And have a look at the nicf website, ( National Institute Of Carpet and Floor layers ) and look up a professional in your area if you want some one to level and smooth your sub floor.