Q about floating floors.

[ban-all-sheds]

Much is written about having floating floors with gaps at the edges so that they can expand without buckling.

But for 100's of years we had traditional T&G floorboards soundly nailed to joists.

 

[Burnerman]

I guess the tendency is for natural floor boards to shrink after installation i.e the water content is higher from the retailers storage than it is in the actual home. There's also more room for movement as each plank has a bit of room for shifting, whereas laminates etc have no tolerance at all.
Interesting point though!
John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I wasn't thinking about laminates - just wooden flooring.

 

[AronSearle]

But for 100's of years we had traditional T&G floorboards soundly nailed to joists.

Predominantly air dried timber or only kilned to 16%, so it only shrunk in use.

Occasionally a leak or similar will cause it to pick up moisture and expand causing buckling, the gap around the perimiter in a nailed floor is really only there as a safety measure to stop it pushing out the walls on the off-chance the nails give way and the whole floor expands rather than buckles.

 

[pinenot]

A quarter to three eights gap was always incorporated into traditional T&G floors, nailing them still allowed small movements, enough per board/joist fix. Even added together the overall expansion, would never be greater than the clearance gap left...pinenot