Fitting engineered wood flooring

[beastwez123]

Hi folks, just have a couple of questions if anyone could help shed any light. I've fitted a few rooms worth of laminate floor before, but this time around I've decided to go for the 10mm or 14mm engineered wood stuff.

Just wondered if A I still need to cork it around the edges, and B Is it laid generally the same as laminate, ie Same underlay, all locks into place etc etc.

Cheers for the advice in advance.

Wes

 

[Richard C]

Just wondered if
A I still need to cork it around the edges,

Yes you still need expansion joints.

and B Is it laid generally the same as laminate, ie Same underlay, all locks into place etc etc.

Lay it in the same way as laminate using a vapour barrier & underlay. It doesn’t fold/click together in the same easy way as laminate &, depending on which one you buy, it can be a bit of a pig to fit. I find a smear of washing up liquid along the 2 interlocking tangs makes it very much easier to fit together.

 

[beastwez123]

Cheers for that. Will order my stuff tomorrow!
Whats a vapour barrier by the way.
Ta
wes

 

[Richard C]

Whats a vapour barrier by the way.

It’s just a big sheet of polythene; it stops the risk of any moisture that may be lurking around in the floor permeating up into the wood flooring & warping it. Lay the barrier first & then the underlay. Some of the more expensive underlays incorporate a vapour barrier but, IMO, they aren’t generally necessary. Store wood flooring in the room it’s to be laid for 48 hours & remove the polythene wrapping the night before you lay it.

 

[mattysupra]

expansion gap YES! Cork in it NO! Vapior barrier only used on concrete floors, dont use on a wooden subfloor.

Not sure about this washing up liquid idea! some woods have a pressure sensitive glue in the tongue and groove that bonds the headers together. putting some sort of liquid in there will stop it working and the floor will come apart! Plus there is a risk of it discolouring the end grain of the wood and also giving you hydraulics in the headers.

Also different woods are fitted different. There is still alot of glue together, so look out for a locking system if thats what you want.

 

[Richard C]

Not sure about this washing up liquid idea! some woods have a pressure sensitive glue in the tongue and groove that bonds the headers together. putting some sort of liquid in there will stop it working and the floor will come apart! Plus there is a risk of it discolouring the end grain of the wood and also giving you hydraulics in the headers.

Discolouring the end grain, hydraulic lock! I said a light smear to lubricate the tongues not pumping gallons of the stuff in there! Obviously don’t use anything unless you really have to but the Westco flooring I had was proving almost impossible to fit without excessive force which was damaging the edges of the boards. There were also reports of others having similar problems with this product at the time; perhaps there was a problem with a particular batch I don’t know.

It’s been down nearly 2 years now, no staining of the end grain & no problems with it coming apart; in fact I had to take up a small section in one corner to deal with a central heating leak & it was almost as impossible to get apart as it was to put together!