Glueing Oak flooring down on to concrete

[trevorbayliss]

I am planning on remodelling the back of the house, so the kitchen area will merge with a new garden room at the back of the house.

Currently we have a concrete floor down with limestone tiles. These are going to stay in the kitchen area, but we have a little corridor where the cats eat and this will become part of the new garden room.

I intend on laying a concrete floor in this room and then use roof lats drilled into the concrete to form a joist base on which to lay my new oak floor. I want to use solid oak flooring from UK oak.

The issue pops up when i merge the new room with this corridor. In here i have a concrete floor BUT i cannot drill into it as i have put in UFH. I will not be using UFH in the garden room.

I need to match up the finished oak floor level in the garden room with the concrete floor in this corridor. So my oak boards will be sat on these roof lats and will then run on into the corridor but only sit on concrete.

Sorry it is a bit long and winding, but my question is can i use an adhesive to glue down the oak boards in this corridor area.

The boards will be running for 4.5m on the roof lats and then a further 1.5m on bare concrete.

 

[Tigercubrider]

I don't know much about uf heating but if you have a gap for the oak flooring does it warm up?

 

[trevorbayliss]

Not sure what you mean

 

[Tigercubrider]

I mean that presumably a wood floor floating on battens above a concrete floor is separated by an air gap.
Does uf heating work with a gap like that?

 

[trevorbayliss]

There will be NO UFH in my new extension. I have it currently in the kitchen and this corridor.

Do you know if i can lay oak onto a glue system ? Do you understand what i am getting at ? It probably isn't clear.

 

[Doggit]

The main question is whether the oak flooring in the hallway is square edge, or T&G. If the latter, then you can glue the flooring with a fleible heat resistant glue. If it's square edge, as the extension very likely will be, then no, you can't do it.

A better way of tackling the whole job, would be to make both floors level; after that, you could either use a low tog underlay, and then fit a floating T&G floor, or glue the boards down with a flexible adhesive. As it's a kitchen, you'd be better of using engineered flooring, rather than solid oak, as you get more heat and moisture changes in a kitchen.

 

[trevorbayliss]

http://www.uk-oak.co.uk/product/Rustic_Grade_Unfinished_American_White_Oak_Flooring

I was thinking about using products from this site.

They have engineered oak as well.

So really in this instance i need to go for a floating system which will allow me to match up to this corridor (which will become the back of the main garden room). The kitchen will then open onto a full room and not this corridor.

Thanks Doggit for the info.

 

[Doggit]

Ouch, someone going to hate cleaning that floor.

It's more important to get the floor levels the same, then you can either glue or float. Have a chat with the flooring company, and see the glue and low tog underlays they've got. Now I know you want the floor to go from the kitchen to the hallway, but you're best off having an expansion gap with a cover between the hallway and the new room, as the UFH could cause more expansion.

 

[trevorbayliss]

I will be doing all this work myself.

I think the floating floor seems the best idea and yes i will need to make an expansion gap as the new room (oak floor) will touch about 4m of limestone floor with the UFH.

Couple of questions though:

1) How big does the gap want to be. Is it 10mm ?

2) Is engineered oak easier to keep clean?

3) We have a real oak floor in the dining room and this was put down by me in 2008. I oiled it twice after i laid it, but nothing since. It has got dirt marks now in it and it has faded in places.
One of my jobs is to go over this floor again with a hand sander and then re-oil. Any tips on how often i should be oiling etc.

 

[Doggit]

You leave about 10mm around the perimeter of the room, and there are differences of opinion as to whether you put cork in the gap, so you'd need a similar gap between the rooms, and you'd fit the gap cover you use to either the centre of the gap, or to just one side so that it can slide over the other if necessary.

Engineered oak is essentially the same as ordinary oak on it's top layer, so any cleaning and sanding method applies equally to both. The base layer of engineered oak is normally two layers of ply, turned at 90 degrees so that it is dimensionally stable. Ordinary oak expands and contracts across the grain more than down it's length

Just oil as and when necessary. I think you've realised you'd left it a bit long, but sometimes you'd need to degrease it and oil it every year; other times, you'll get away with a few years with light trafic.

 

[trevorbayliss]

Thanks again for info Doggit