Ongoing beech floor saga

  • Thread starter Andrew Haughton
  • Start date
A

Andrew Haughton

In November last year Sypmtoms and and other kind folk advised me.
We have dried out the wood which is beech, junckers, 140 x 22m T&G in random lengths with ends machined. To remind you (sorry!) the area is a warehouse space but heated and although there is some sign of damp in some walls, the floor seems dry and has many layers of floor paint on it.
I checked out your exchange with pantsmachine (!?) which is stuffed with valuable info. and what a result. Thanks for that.
We have to do the work in 3 weeks starting 30th June. What I didn't notice when I started is that the floor runs down to a central dip about 1 and a half to 2" lower than the sides. Its a huge area (130m2) so this is not easily visible and not critical. I have a joiner friend who confidently says we should lay the boards straight onto a special underlay and then glue them together to produce a floating floor. I'm unsure but no doubt this is much cheaper than battening.
Can I ask your advice on this idea or do you think the batten method will work better here. If so I am wary of 1" battens and feel if you're going to raise a floor by 25 + 22 = 47mm, you may as well go the whole hog and make it 73mm with 2" x 2". (scuse mixed measures).
Thank you.
 
Sponsored Links
How wide is the area? Beech is a rather nervous wood type and needs 5-7mm expansion gap per meter wide.
If the width is wider than 5 -6 meter I wouldn't even consider installing it floating (none of the wood species if solid should be installed floating in those circumstances).
 
The main area is about 12 x 8 metres with two add ons about 5 x 4 metres.
 
Ouch. Way too wide to even contemplate floating. If possible, add a 'loose' tongue in the middle row and 'turn' the direction of the boards.

In other words: when starting from one wall, the grooves of your boards will 'point' to the other side of the room. In the middle of the room use a loose tongue and turn the direction of the boards so now the tongues of the boards will point toward the wall to which you are working towards.

Hope this makes sense.
 
Sponsored Links
I think I'm getting closer to a solution here so thanks.
Can you confirm if you mean I should do this on a 2" x 2" treated timber support? If so should I put anything under or on the timbers for moisture, acoustic or movement reasons?
Andrew
 
Make sure your concrete underfloor is dry (when screwing battens into your concrete any liquid moisture barrier will be 'lost').
2" is good, your battens needs to be at least 50mm high (try to have them wider than50mm though, 70-75mm would be better).
Acoustic insulation won't harm, installed flush with top of batten to avoid 'sound gaps'
Use 55 - 60mm long nails to secret nail floor boards to battens.
 
Hi Mattysupra,
The floor is about 12 x 8 metres and there are no breaks in the floor.
I look forward to your thoughts.
And thanks for the tip will2000, I'll check out the clips.
 
Andrew - if raising the height of the floor by using 50mm thick treated battens isn't an issue then use them. IMO that dip in your concrete, whilst not noticible now, will be once the smooth beech goes down; using 50mm battens will allow you to shim-out the gaps (below the bats) to level the floor; using thinner 25mm bats wouldn't give you the rigidity on such a large span, they'd go down wavy, although 25mm works fine on smaller floors. Lay 100mm wide dpc (black plastic strip* on a 30m roll) loose on floor below bats; fix the bats with 97mm long cartridge nails (Hilti) shot into the concrete. I'd use these nails because with such a large area you'll be on for ever plugging & screwing. Then secret nail the boards with floor cleats

*you could use brushed on synthaprufe as a good alternative and has the added advantage of acting as an adhesive to the bat/floor interface when dry. Only downside to this stuff is when you shoot the nails sometimes the impact can squit a bit of the black stuff out onto your clothes.
 
This is great stuff. Thanks a lot. Will let you know how it goes. Andrew
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top