Advice for fitting 18mm Oak T&G flooring on floorboards.

[IanWood]

Hello all,

For some time my partner has been wanting to have wooden floors instead of carpet. I finally agreed when our 7 month old vomited on the carpet...

Anyway, Wickes have an offer on Solid Wood Flooring Oak at the moment so I thought now is the time to buy.

From my research so far I have come up with a plan to put 6mm ply down, felt underlay and then the wooden floor.

I want to put ply down to even out the floorboards. The felt to help deaden noise and apparently heat insulation too. We are in a first floor flat of a house conversion btw.

The items I am considering are:
http://www.wickes.co.uk/solid-wood-flooring-oak/invt/199905/
http://www.wickes.co.uk/fibreboard-underlay/invt/201508/
http://www.wickes.co.uk/exterior-wbp-plywood/invt/110117/

Does this sound like a good plan? I have put down T&G chipboard down in the loft but never done a "proper" floor and don't want to get this wrong.

Also, Wickes seem to advice on using clips (http://www.wickes.co.uk/fixing-clips/invt/158053/) to hold the boards together, but elsewhere on their video guides they suggestion using glue. To me glue sounds easier and more likely make a strong floor. Any thoughts on these?

While I understand that the wood itself will need a 10mm expansion gap doe the ply also need this?

One last thing. I have seem various posts about wax v oil v lacquer. These boards have a lacquer on them already. Is is best to leave this alone or put something else on top of it?

Advice, criticism please.

Best regards,

Ian

 

[WoodYouLike]

Right, looking and reading the description of the boards you want to purchase, you better read this first "Solid Floors - what to note (specially the part about "cheap offers".

9 times out of 10 the boxes will contain too many short (very short!) lengths to install this floor "floating" and definitely not on those fiberboards which will make everything even more unstable. This type of floor therefore either needs to be glued down fully or not installed at all. If you glue it down, you're better of with a thicker plywood subfloor than the 6mm planned.

So all of this will add to the costs of your "cheap offer" from Wickes. Your better off searching for a better quality wood-engineered floor which can be installed floating over 6mm ply and a simple 3mm foam underlayment.

 

[NickB_99]

9 times out of 10 the boxes will contain too many short (very short!) lengths to install this floor "floating" and definitely not on those fiberboards which will make everything even more unstable. This type of floor therefore either needs to be glued down fully or not installed at all. If you glue it down, you're better of with a thicker plywood subfloor than the 6mm planned.

So all of this will add to the costs of your "cheap offer" from Wickes. Your better off searching for a better quality wood-engineered floor which can be installed floating over 6mm ply and a simple 3mm foam underlayment.

I looked at the Wickes one too and was glad I'd read the info WoodYouLike refers to.
In the end I went for engineered wood elsewhere and am pleased with how it's going.

 

[IanWood]

Right, looking and reading the description of the boards you want to purchase, you better read this first "Solid Floors - what to note (specially the part about "cheap offers".

9 times out of 10 the boxes will contain too many short (very short!) lengths to install this floor "floating" and definitely not on those fiberboards which will make everything even more unstable. This type of floor therefore either needs to be glued down fully or not installed at all. If you glue it down, you're better of with a thicker plywood subfloor than the 6mm planned.

So all of this will add to the costs of your "cheap offer" from Wickes. Your better off searching for a better quality wood-engineered floor which can be installed floating over 6mm ply and a simple 3mm foam underlayment.

Thanks for the warning! Many of the reviews mentioned that there were short pieces, but were fairly positive overall. I will give your website a look over and probably come back with more questions!

Thanks again,

Ian

 

[IanWood]

I have a question regarding thickness of ply.

From what I understand 6mm is the minimum and thicker if the floorboards and less level.

Our flat is a first floor conversion and I am worried about sound insulation. My gut feeling is that the thicker the ply the better. I may be wrong but it makes sense to me.

Other than the cost and loss of room height is there a disadvantage of using say 9mm over 6mm ply.

From what I can tell our floorboards aren't too bad, so 6mm would be ok for levelling out purposes, so having the extra 3mm may make a difference in sound proofing.

The cost difference is around £290 for 6mm and about £410 for 9mm. However the wooden floors are going to cost around £3500 or so. As the cost difference in the ply isn't that much I am thinking its worth it.

Or should I go even thicker?

 

[WoodYouLike]

3mm ply difference is not going to make a lot of difference in sound-reduction. so if your existing boards are rather level that 6mm will level everything out, you're better off with better (thicker) sound-insulating underlayment than adding 3mm of plywood and going for a less sound-absorbing underlayment.

Do note that sound travels through pipes too, so make sure the plywood, nor the wooden floor comes in contact with pipes in the floor or near walls.