Oak flooring... again (sub floor question)
- Thread starter Therms
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Timbermate underlayment is not a subfloor, it's underlayment.
Nothing wrong with your plan A - as long you do it correctly
Nothing wrong with your plan A - as long you do it correctly
Therms - before you nail or screw, lift one of the old floorboards up for the entire width (or length) of the room and then with a mirror and a torch survey the void below for pipes and cable runs. Mark, with a permanent black marker pen, these runs onto the top of the old floor as a reminder of where not to nail or screw.
My own view for your installation is to deal with any uneven sections of existing boards locally (lift, pack-out on joist, replace) to ensure a flat, tight sub-floor. Then secret nail the new stuff directly onto the old stuff.
My own view for your installation is to deal with any uneven sections of existing boards locally (lift, pack-out on joist, replace) to ensure a flat, tight sub-floor. Then secret nail the new stuff directly onto the old stuff.
Very sage advice about marking the position of the pipes. I’ve done this whenever I’ve had the floor up to do plumbing and it will be the first thing I do when I lift the carpets. I’ll also transfer these marks to the top of the plywood.
Incidentally, I’ll hire one of the proper nail guns to do the job, but how long are the nails? Will they penetrate the tongue of the floor, 10mm plywood and the floorboard?
Incidentally, I’ll hire one of the proper nail guns to do the job, but how long are the nails? Will they penetrate the tongue of the floor, 10mm plywood and the floorboard?
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Therms - 38mm or 50mm. But remember they're shot in at an angle. I'm still not sure why you need to skin the floor with ply. Why don't you FIX the uneven sub-floor as per my earlier post; if you do this then there is no need to introduce the ply skin as the sub-floor will be flat.
<i>I'm still not sure why you need to skin the floor with ply</i>
Simple answer – I’m lazy and I see this as the easiest way of doing it. Actually that’s not the full story – I’m flooring the whole downstairs apart from the kitchen, which sounds grand, but I live in a small house. The house is 1930’s and the floorboards have warped and twisted and splintered in places and been hacked to bits as people have done electrical and plumbing work, moved walls and extended.
The thought of lifting every board and levelling it with its neighbours is a job I just don’t relish. It would take an age and I’m not sure I have the skill or the patience to pull it off and the consequences of messing it up and leaving floorboards uneven and laying an expensive oak floor on top doesn’t bear thinking about (Mrs Therms would never let me forget it).
To me the easiest and possibly the best answer is to lay down 10mm plywood and secure that well to the jousts… after checking for pipes and wires.
I’ve already removed the skirting in the dining room and re-plastered and decorated and the front room just needs the skirting removed, so the extra 10mm height shouldn’t be a problem.
Thanks for the suggestion – it is something I had thought about, as was removing the floorboards altogether.
Therms
(thankful for all the selfless help)
Simple answer – I’m lazy and I see this as the easiest way of doing it. Actually that’s not the full story – I’m flooring the whole downstairs apart from the kitchen, which sounds grand, but I live in a small house. The house is 1930’s and the floorboards have warped and twisted and splintered in places and been hacked to bits as people have done electrical and plumbing work, moved walls and extended.
The thought of lifting every board and levelling it with its neighbours is a job I just don’t relish. It would take an age and I’m not sure I have the skill or the patience to pull it off and the consequences of messing it up and leaving floorboards uneven and laying an expensive oak floor on top doesn’t bear thinking about (Mrs Therms would never let me forget it).
To me the easiest and possibly the best answer is to lay down 10mm plywood and secure that well to the jousts… after checking for pipes and wires.
I’ve already removed the skirting in the dining room and re-plastered and decorated and the front room just needs the skirting removed, so the extra 10mm height shouldn’t be a problem.
Thanks for the suggestion – it is something I had thought about, as was removing the floorboards altogether.
Therms
(thankful for all the selfless help)
You guys seem to be experts in flooring.
My i ask a question as well?
I am not sure what kind of flooring to use for my basement.
I had already several suggestions but the most reasonable for me is oak flooring.
Am i right? Or should I rather use laminate?
My i ask a question as well?
I am not sure what kind of flooring to use for my basement.
I had already several suggestions but the most reasonable for me is oak flooring.
Am i right? Or should I rather use laminate?
Oak flooring is still the most popular around. For your basement I would opt for Oak wood-engineered flooring though, not solid
you cant use solid below ground level. Needs to be engineered.
Can I tack onto this post with a similar question?
I'm going to lay a solid timber floor in a 6m long room which was formed 10 years ago by the addition of a 3m extension onto an existing 3m room. The new and old chipboard floors are not an exact match - the levels are slightly out and there may be a very small gradient variation from the old to the new. The floor had a carpet with a foam underlay so there was no problem before. I am going to lay the floor with strong Elastilon (thanks to all the advice garnered from your forum). It was my intention to plane the chipboard floor edges to feather any irregularity in level/slope. Do you think that this will suffice, or will I need to lay a 6mm ply base? I will lay the timber boards so that the long side runs parallel with the joint in the two floors. Will i need to lay a levelling compound on the ply (if required) first? Thanks to Mattysupra and Woodyoulike for all their wise comments. I will not readily ignore the voice of experience. Sorry if this is a minor variation on a well discussed subject, but as mentioned above, a timber floor costs a lot of money and I would rather be ask than mess it iup.
I'm going to lay a solid timber floor in a 6m long room which was formed 10 years ago by the addition of a 3m extension onto an existing 3m room. The new and old chipboard floors are not an exact match - the levels are slightly out and there may be a very small gradient variation from the old to the new. The floor had a carpet with a foam underlay so there was no problem before. I am going to lay the floor with strong Elastilon (thanks to all the advice garnered from your forum). It was my intention to plane the chipboard floor edges to feather any irregularity in level/slope. Do you think that this will suffice, or will I need to lay a 6mm ply base? I will lay the timber boards so that the long side runs parallel with the joint in the two floors. Will i need to lay a levelling compound on the ply (if required) first? Thanks to Mattysupra and Woodyoulike for all their wise comments. I will not readily ignore the voice of experience. Sorry if this is a minor variation on a well discussed subject, but as mentioned above, a timber floor costs a lot of money and I would rather be ask than mess it iup.
Planing to level it out sounds like a plan. Just make sure it does turn in a very, very gently sloop since one (or two) rows will be effected lengthways and could end wobbling the connecting rows too if the sloop is still too much.
Thanks for that. I will be able to feather the floor over about 600mm - enough to be covered by about 6 planks. The advice you give is read by many people like me and it gives us the confidence to try things which might otherwise have seemed too big a problem. It is also comforting to know that if a problem arises, your advice is readily available - when do you get any work done?
Thanks again
Thanks again
Well, not for the 8 coming days - we will be on our annual pre-Christmas break 'back-home'. But then there is always the search option for 'old' advice
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