21mm Oak Flooring

andyuao · Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 4:20 pm Post Subject: 21mm Oak Flooring

About to lay a solid Oak Floor in a new build extension 44m3. Floor is now dry, humidity is below 2%. No skirting boards fitted yet but would like to fit oak boards direct onto concrete. Any help on floor preparation and Flooring fixing would be of great help or pointing in the direction of help on internet, needs to be layed next month (pressure from Wife). Please help make my life easy.

SASHWIZARD · Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 8:01 pm Post Subject:

Fit your skirts after the floor is layed,they will cover your expansion gap!!
There is a few diff methods of laying onto concrete a couple of common methods are bonding directly to concrete or screwing/plugging battons at 400mm centers then secret nailing(hire a porta-nailer) to these.
Battons will raise the floor level and make the floor a little noisy to walk on,also check the floor levels of adjoining rooms and consider how they will join.
Bonding will feel solid and only raise the floor the thickness of your wood plus maybe 2mm for adehsive but your floor screed needs to be level!!
You can laytex screed any uneven spots but be warned it can be tricky and you will need a long straight edge to check the floor.
What ever method you use under cut your door frames and architraves so the wood slips under and finish the wood under your doors where meeting carpet/tiles etc.

andyuao

can you suggest any type of bonding agent as I would like to bond the boards to the floor to avoid a step from one room to the other. Is it also possible to do a floating floor by just gluing the t & G or am I asking for trouble?

WoodYouLike

andyuao wrote:

can you suggest any type of bonding agent as I would like to bond the boards to the floor to avoid a step from one room to the other. Is it also possible to do a floating floor by just gluing the t & G or am I asking for trouble?

floating installation is possible, as long as your room isn't wider than 5 - 6 meters (when installing Solid wood). On a concrete underfloor, use a combi underlayment (DPM with 2 - 3mm foam sound insulation) and make sure you glue the whole of the grooves, not just some drips here and there.

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SASHWIZARD · Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 8:23 pm Post Subject:

I've layed one solid oak floor by glueing the tongues and floating it seemed fine and and there are no probs as yet (3 months ago) but luckily the lengths were very straight!!!!if the milling is not so good you will have trouble as you will need to clamp the boards up until the pva has dryed stopping you from progressing,silver cloth tape is a must and really helps to keep boards together whilst you are banging around use plenty of it and peel it off the next day.
Just my opinion but i think i would stick the flloor to the screed it is more expensive (cost of adehsive) but the floor feels and sounds solid.
Maybe its just me and the guys i have worked with but floating a solid floor is not often done.

WoodYouLike · Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 8:42 am Post Subject:

SASHWIZARD wrote:

if the milling is not so good you will have trouble as you will need to clamp the boards up until the pva has dryed stopping you from progressing,

Quality flooring = quality milling. Buy a proper product, pay for the quality and no problems with installing a floor ever. With proper boards you can go on installing board after board

SASHWIZARD wrote:

Maybe its just me and the guys i have worked with but floating a solid floor is not often done.

Beg to differ

90% of all our flooring is installed floating (remaining 5% is 'old-fashion' parquet-herringbone flooring, 5% is on top of underfloor heating).

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SASHWIZARD · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:34 pm Post Subject:

Hi wood,intresting to hear you often float solid floors i take it if you are laying over old pine subfloor you would still nail?or is floating the way to go?

WoodYouLike · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:41 pm Post Subject:

As long as the underfloor (any, be it concrete, screed, chipboard, existing floorboards) are level and stable we are more than happy to install the new Natural wooden floorboards as a floating floor.
One of the advantages is also that we can use proper insulation underlayment (for sound, draft, moist barrier etc), which you wouldn't if you would nail the floor (well, you can, but it would be a waste of money

)

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