laying oak floor technique

[John.Stitch]

So I have decided to buy 15mm thick oak to lay onto chipboard sub floor.
From what I have picked up the stages are
1. Buy wood.
2. Store in house prior to laying for at least two days , longer probably
3.Borrow next doors chop saw to square ends.
4. Clean floor up of surface imperfections.
5. Hire power nailer.
6. Work out the best pattern for the planks.
7. Check squareness of room and decide which side will be datum
8. start laying from datum
9. Nail at 45' into tongue.
10. Leaving expansion gap is optional as planks exapnd indiviaully.
11. Finish laying floor.
12. Sand flat using drum sander and belt sander
13. Oil with Danish oil.
14. Buy a three piece suite

Advised not to use foam underlay as it is uneccary with nailed planks and the underlay will lift the nails out over time

Is there anything wrong with this plan or is there anythingI have missed or would be best done otherwise.

Thanks for reading

 

[WoodYouLike]

2. Store in house prior to laying for at least two days , longer probably

5. Hire power nailer.

10. Leaving expansion gap is optional as planks expand indiviaully.

12. Sand flat using drum sander and belt sander

Advised not to use foam underlay as it is uneccary with nailed planks and the underlay will lift the nails out over time

2. If purchased from a respectable (i.e. knowing about wood) company 2 - 4 days is fine. When purchased from unknown company which stored the wood in open shed you can't be sure of the moist content of the wood. Tip: measure the width of several planks on both ends to check for big differences in width (2 - 3 mm difference is BIG).

5 Buy the correct nails with it

10 NOT optional. Leave a minimum expansion gap of 10 - 15 mm

12 If you can get it hire a beltsander with endless belt. The normal DIY hire centres will only have belt sanders with sheets, where 9 out of 10 times the strip holder is damaged which can result in damaged surface and ruined floor.

12A vacuum clean as best as possible.

Never heard of foam (2mm) underlayment lifting out the nails Movement will lift the nails out in the long run.

Good luck

 

[John.Stitch]

Thanks for your tips and advice.
Now the practical

 

[flooringman]

Never nail into chipboard, it is not suitable. You will need to nail into ply.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Chipboard is as suitable as ply, according to Building Research NL (main organisation who write many Code of Practice papers for the flooring industry).

Main issue is to use the correct nails.

 

[flooringman]

If Building Research NL will warrant the installation by all means go ahead......good luck!

 

[Thermo]

why is it not suitable?

 

[WoodYouLike]

If Building Research NL will warrant the installation by all means go ahead......good luck!

Sorry Flooringman, but here you go wrong. Building Research NL states in their code of practise that chipboard, ply and MDF (sub)flooring can all be used equally for the 3 installing methods: floating, glueing-down, nailing-down.

As I said before: using all proper other materials is the key issue. If someone uses the wrong kind of nails, or glue or whatever why in heavens name should Building Research NL have to warrant the works??????

 

[flooringman]

I based the advice merely on my experience, the advice I was given by colleagues/other floorlayers and the recommendations given by suppliers and manufacturers that chipboard alone should not be relied upon and that a layer of plywood at least 6mm. should be used.
Perhaps the joiners and builders who use this forum would advise me that chipboard and mdf gives exactly the same fixability, ( is that really a word?) when nailed or screwed into, as plywood.
In the same way, whilst any of the aforementioned materials would be suitable for a floating floor, I would not recommend chipboard for a glue down method out of hand before checking with the adhesive manufacturer as to its suitability.
When you are going to take the time and go to the expense of installing a solid wood floor then it is better to be safe than sorry but I would not presume to offer my advise as being superior to the body previously mentioned by Woodyoulike.
By all means follow this advise and once again good luck.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Flooringman, we are always in favour of a floating installation.
John.Stitch listed what he has bought or what is already on site and wants to work with. Hence my answer. (and after your remark about not to use chipboard, before I posted my answer to that I did check UK manufacturers and suppliers on their advice, knowing that code of practise differ from country to country).
It was not to ignore your post, but it was asked (by Thermo) why you said it wasn't suitable.
This forum is for asking questions and receiving (hopefully) good answers. We just tried to find out from you (entice you to elaborate your post) why you made that statement.

Hope for no hard feelings.

 

[masona]

Perhaps the joiners and builders who use this forum would advise me that chipboard and mdf gives exactly the same fixability, ( is that really a word?) when nailed or screwed into, as plywood.

Since they made annular ring shank nails for chipboard it has improve the problem of holding the nails but plywood is a better sub floor as the chipboard is not really rigid enough and can cause the floor to expand, however both are fine but given the choice I would go for plywood. Some manufacter don't recommend floors to be fixed to a chipboard floating floor. I always find it best to remove the chipboard flooring or what ever then fix the flooring to the floor joists.

 

[flooringman]

WoodYouLike - as you will gather from this and previous posts I am not in favour of floating a solid wood floor (although I appreciate some people do this without problems) because it does not have the same stability as an engineered wood floor.
It is for this reason that I feel a solid wood floor should be fixed by the most secure means possible i.e. nailed down (or if this is not possible then glued down) and that ply is best.
I would agree with masona in nailing to joists.

Certainly no hard feelings - life's too short for that.

I would be interested to hear how John.Stitch got on.

 

[WoodYouLike]

I would be interested to hear how John.Stitch got on.

So would I. John, how are things?

 

[John.Stitch]

Ha Hmm.
Well the Oak is to be delivered tomorrow or Thursday. The (18mm) chipboard floor is a floating floor then Celotex then DPC then concrete.
Still not sure what underlay to use, I looked at Screwfix catalogue and theirs is £1.23/metre for the 3mm stuff. So I'll check elsewhere but I am temped to buy some to lay. As for nailing or otherwise, I'll check with the building research web site and maybe get advice form them on nails if nothing else.
I talked to a hire shop about the Porta nailer and he advised me to bring in a section of chipboard to experiment with the Portanailer.
My semi retired builder friend reckons its OK to nail into the chipboard.
The nails I inend to use are these two inch ones: http://www.porta-nails.com/nails/index.shtml

 

[WoodYouLike]

You can install the wood floor floating (if the widest width of the area is not wider than 5 - 6 meters) if that helps with the decision.