Can I lay real wood oak floor 'dry'?

[Porker]

Hello,

I've read a fair bit on this forum about real wood floors and it appears that the route preferred by most if laying on a concrete floor is to lay it floating rather than glue it down to the concrete.

I want to lay around 50m2 of oak which is around 110mm wide random length T&G all round to 2 adjoining rooms. The concrete floor it is to be laid on is around 30 years old with no damp. There is one small section of floor which is tiled as this is the result of an internal wall coming down and making the room slightly larger. The floor appears to be sound (no crumbling) and reasonably flat and smooth (apart from the small section mentioned earlier). My intention was to use a levelling latex? screed on this.

The place where I intend to buy the wood say that it can be laid on thin (2-3mm) grey underlay and does not require glueing at the T&G. Due to a minor alteration I may do in the future, this would suit me well as I could make adjustments easily. Is it possible to lay a floor this way and fill the expansion gap with cork to hold the joins together? There are no instructions on the packaging as this appears to be some contract stuff and I guess they assume you know what you are doing.

If glueing is the only option what type of glue should I use PVA? yellow glue?

thanks

 

[WoodYouLike]

Hi Porker

Use combi-underlayment (sound-insuation with DPM) on concrete and tiles (vynil?)
Leave expansion gaps EMPTY and cover them wit either flat beading, scotia or your skirtingboards.
Presume you have the glue-less click-version type of flooring?

 

[Porker]

Thanks for the reply. The tiles are very hard black (ceramic?) tiles and are very well fixed down. The wood is not the click type but around 15mm boards with square T&G on all 4 sides. I know the click stuff does not need to be glued but not sure about this stuff. The stuff I want to use has very little 'locking' and would only be held together by adjacent boards.

WoodYouLike - glad you answered as I have followed your other posts and note you have given good advice to others. The underlay described looks to be a good bet though.

 

[popey]

Solid oak flooring of the type you descibe is best glued directly to the concrete. We use adhesive made by Stauf, suitable alternatives are available from Sikabond and Bostik.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Popey, I beg to differ. As long as your rooms are not wider than 5 - 6 meters you can safely install the floor floating. Glueing always depends on the quality of the concrete/screed layer and is the weakest link.

Porker, it is best to glue the T&G's with normal PVAC wood-glue. This will 'seal' the boards also to prevent any moist (spills etc) going underneath it.

 

[Porker]

Thanks guys for the replies. One final question - I have bought the combined DPC and underlay. What sort of tape do I need to join the pieces? The place I got the underlay didn't appear to have the tape. The bloke in the shop stated masking tape just to hold it together. I beg to differ if you are relying on the DPC properties.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Did you have a close look at the combi product? It (well the proper ones) should come with an overlapping self-adhesive strip.

 

[Porker]

Ah, that might be the case because I didn't unpack it and it states that it has adhesive and I was expecting a seperate roll of tape. That may explain it.

 

[WoodYouLike]

It's always those simple things