Glued or Floating on a Concrete Floor?

[steviechap]

Hi Folks!

I have a small query on the correct way to approach my problem.

I want to replace the carpet in the dining room before it sprouts legs and departs under it's own steam - yes it's that bad.

The room is 3.2m x 3.8m and I want to pull up the carpet, remove the underlay and put down some softwood tongue and groove floorboards. The floorboards would then get a water-based be varnish.

The base is solid concrete with thermoplastic tiles on top.

My plan is
1. Get wood delivered from local timber yard
2. Allow to settle for ~4 weeks shifting it about
3. Pull up old carpet and hope it doesn't attack

Now either:

- Floating
Put a membrane down to stop it sliding about
Glue the T&G together
Job done - hope for the best

- Fixed
Glue each board to the thermoplastic tiles and glue the t&g

... then varnish.

My concern with floating is that I may end up with a ripple effect ... and the concern for fixed is that the glue may not adhere to the thermoplastic tiles.

Would very much appreciate your boards thoughts and comments - thank you!

Cheers,
Steve

PS Planning to do this in Feb along with the half-term!

 

[WoodYouLike]

Hardly any of the modern adhesive will adhere to your thermoplastic tiles, so floating would be the way to go.

As long as your boards are long and wider than 100mm and you use an underlayment that contains a DPM (to prevent any "sweating of the tiles getting into the wood") you'll be fine. Do keep a wide enough expansion gap all around the wooden floor, at least 15mm

 

[steviechap]

Thank you WoodYouLike - floating it is then. I don't really want to take the thermoplastic tiles up - I'm sure they are there for a purpose.

Walked with my wife to the local wood yard (I know how to treat a girl) and was impressed with the quality of the timber compared to the DIY sheds.

Priced up at £180 for softwood, or extra £70 or so for a hardwood. And they can provide full-length planks that will reduce the need for joins.

Planks will be 150mm x 25mm x 3m or so.

I'll add the DPM ... and remember the expansion gap.

I'll update this thread with photo's etc till it's done - comments etc will be very welcome during progress - cheers, Steve.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Make sure the boards are not only of high quality, but stored correctly too

 

[steviechap]

Willl do WoodYouLike - the timber yard offered to make the boards to our specification and finish ... I didn't know such a thing was possible without an extra zero being stuck onto the invoice but they quoted not much extra to do the work.

Will go for a slightly harder wood, and get them to pre-sand the boards - will save my knees! If they mess about - then will get the bog-standard stuff.