Engeneered wood or not to Engeneered wood?!

[Suz100]

Hi,
I am considering laying engineered wood through out my ground floor. There are 3 rooms that run straight though to each other. 1 Kitchen has original concrete floor we just had to take up old quarry tiles from, house is probably from the 50-60's, from the kitchen it would go straight into our dining-room extension built about 10years ago and has underfloor heating, from there it goes though to our lounge, which is back to the original flooring. Is it a good idea?? What about the underlay some being uneven old concrete some that has underfloor heating?
Any advice gratefully received!

Suz

 

[WoodYouLike]

Use dividers in between every room to avoid problems in the long run.
Normally all manufacturers advice to fully bond wood-engineered board where there is UFH involved to avoid air gaps.
On the existing floorboards use underlayment without DPM - if you plan to install in the same direction as the existing floorboards you'll have to overboard with 6mm plywood (minimum) and on the concrete without UFH use underlayment with DPM (or apply a liquid DPM)

 

[digger1410]

Laying engineering floorings is only as good as the sub floor to which you are laying.

There are special underlays now with a very low tog rating and can be used in conjunction with a screed/concrete floor as long as it is flat and level. Flat is determined as 'when laying a straight edge along a 3m span of floor, there shouldn't be a gap greater than 3mm from the underside of the straight edge to the top of the floor/screed.

Also, the length of your rooms doesn't really matter however, the overall width does matter. Is it greater then 7m measuring from the further points? if not, ok, if it is, you need to put some form of expansion gap to allow for contraction and expansion during the year.

This might help

http://www.oakbydesign.co.uk/products/oak flooring.html

Thanks

Richard
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