Recent content by herodotus

Hi, I've recently redone the floor in a first floor bedroom, and am soon going to be replacing the skirtings. Being a Victorian terraced house, the old skirtings were attached to wooden battens nailed to the wall; while I could recreate this it seems needlessly complicated, particularly...

Hi, I'm proposing to lay a 21mm thick structural engineered oak floor in a 1st floor bedroom (~3mx4.5m). I have taken up the old floorboards that were in a bit of a state and am going to lay the new floor directly onto the joists. The joists are 2.5" x 6" and run across the short width of the...

Like this ? That looks a lot like what we have already - is there some specific type that I should be looking for that will ensure I get a good flow? Or is the resemblance to what we have already just superficial? Yes, I thought that :shock: when I took the lid off. It's one of those...

Hi, I've seen a number of threads on this subject but I'm still a little confused about what to do in our specific situation. We've lived in our house for a year or so, and we've noticed that after using water you can hear the hissing of flow back to the cold water tank for quite a while...

Cool, thanks for the information. I'll give that a try with some samples and see what happens :D

Fantastic, thanks. I've read through those pages now and bought your "buying guide" - it does contain a lot of useful stuff. I'm still not completely clear on the tongue and the bonding, however: 1) What fault/failure do the additional layers of ply above the tongue correct/prevent? 2) Is...

Not at all. I would never buy from a supplier that doesn't have a commitment to sustainable timber, and I would ask how that commitment is upheld. That is certainly my responsibility as a consumer. But I have no interest in whether the measures conform to a Brussels-mandated scheme or not -...

Not at all. I'm very grateful for being given concrete information about what to look for and where to look for it. I freely admit I know very little about flooring, that's why I'm asking. But the assertion "paying more is always better" is not useful. Who are these "reputable, known key...

Ok, that's useful information, thank you. The latter point doesn't really concern me - that's for the merchant to worry about; I'm guessing no-one from the EU is going to be round to inspect my floors and pull them up in the event that the flooring didn't have all its paperwork in order. So...

From the site: 21mm Overall Thickness 189mm Wide Single Strip Oak Face Grade Mix of ABCD (explained below) 15mm (9-Ply) Eucalyptus Plywood Backed Full 6mm Wear Layer of European Oak 75% Lengths of 1830mm 25% Lengths of 610mm, 915mm or 1220mm Moisture Content 8 – 10% Micro Bevelled...

Indeed. I was originally looking at solid oak, but I'm open to using a good quality engineered if necessary. I was told that £35/m2 was unrealistic for solid oak, so I asked what a reasonable price was; I also then asked about whether I could get quality engineered for my budget if solid was not...

I have to say, that seems odd to me. Over the last few years my father laid beautiful solid oak floors throughout his house in France at less than 25 euros a square metre. I've seen the material up close and there's nothing rubbish about it; in fact it's actually rather too "prime" for my taste...

Hi, As mentioned in another post, I'm planning on laying a T&G oak floor over some recently exposed joists. Like many Victorian terraces, our house has pretty puny joists (6x2.5), so even with securely nailed boards, you tend to notice every footstep rattling every bit of furniture in the...

Hi, I'm in the process of redoing all the floors upstairs in our late Victorian house. We have reasonably nice pine boards under the carpet in most of the rooms except one, where they've taken a real beating. I've decided to lift the floor in there and use the good boards to patch up the few...