hardwood floor onto Concrete floor

[kysauk]

why would you glue wood flooring to concrete floor and leave a 10mm gap around the edges for the wood to expand? How can it expand when it's glued down? Would this not ruin the wood flooring when it tries to expand and can't because it's glued?

 

[WoodYouLike]

why would you glue wood flooring to concrete floor and leave a 10mm gap around the edges for the wood to expand? How can it expand when it's glued down? Would this not ruin the wood flooring when it tries to expand and can't because it's glued?

Wood will expand/shrink during the seasons, that's wood for you. In normal circumstances glueing down will restricted you noticing it (Oak expands/shrinks 3mm per meter wide, beech even up to 7mm). If the wood expands more than the tolerance of the adhesive used it will come out of the glue and you have 'hollow'sounds and in worst case scenario cupped boards.
One of the reasons we prefer to install wooden floors floating. Normal expansion/shrinkage won't be noticeable also (well hardly, same as with glued down method), but by extreme circumstances it is much easier to correct and it doesn't destroy your floor as with the glued-down method in extreme circumstances.

 

[Sambailey]

One of the reasons we prefer to install wooden floors floating. Normal expansion/shrinkage won't be noticeable also (well hardly, same as with glued down method), but by extreme circumstances it is much easier to correct and it doesn't destroy your floor as with the glued-down method in extreme circumstances.

Hello, about to embark on similar project. Can you explain what 'floating' means in this context?

 

[WoodYouLike]

"Floating" a wooden floor means installing a suitable underlayment first and then laying the floorboards on top of this where you only glue the T&G's of the floorboards.
Meaning: the wooden floor is not fixed in away to the underfloor

 

[mac391]

I recently fitted my 18mm solid oak flooring just before xmas directly onto a concrete floor.
Our house is a mid 70's semi and the flooring was tiles.

We pulled the tiles up and was left with a bitumin type substance covering the concrete...we was told that this was the DPM and would be fine to lay the solid oak flooring too

1: We used a 5mm triangular notched trowl to apply the glue to the concrete floor. Glue and trowl came from Ridgeons

2: We didnt glue the T&G

3: Didnt use any straps either

4: I left a 10mm expansion gap all round

Floor looks absolutely spot on and im well chuffed with the final result.

Don't mean to knock all your hard work but you will probably be taking it all up again, your adhesive won't stick to bitumen for long !!

 

[WoodYouLike]

eh, Mac? That post is from 2006

Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:58 pm

 

[mac391]

eh, Mac? That post is from 2006

Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:58 pm

Bugger!!! i should read more and talk less lol