Wooden floor with hatch

[NicG2]

I have a room that I will now be laying a solid wooden floor on. It is a cement floor (will be level and screed) and is over a cellar that will be used for wine storage and reading the water meter, it has a very low ceiling and will never be a habitable room. In one corner of the room (6mx4m, about 30cm in from the sides) is the hatch and I need to do something to have access to this whilst still allowing for expansion of the floor. The rest of the house has tiles or oak flooring and I was hoping to use oak again but know this will probably expand more than more exotic woods (will also insulate the ceiling in the cellar with a DPM to try and keep a more even temperature and humidity level from below.

How best do you incorporate a hatch and have it blend in? I was thinking of hinging at one end and then routing the the top of the floor and underside of hatch floor to create a lip where I can leave a .5cm gap around (think this may look better). I would put stops in the hatch so that they took the weight of it and recess the handle into the floor so it fits flush. does this make sense? I have searched the web and can't seem to find a solution.

Cheers

 

[regsmyth]

Your plan seems reasonable, I think you might end up having to remove and trim the hatch and surround once or twice as the wood expands and settles.
I don't think you'll need to incorporate a full "expansion gap" detail.
Make sure the hatch is very strong and fully supported when closed, you should be able to jump on it without risk.
An overlapping/lip detail would work, but it won't be strong enough to safely support the hatch, so maybe a slightly pointless exercise.
Yes, use a recessed pull handle for the hatch.
Personally, I'd be more worried about damp coming up from below. If it's damp down there, it will affect the wood, especially around the hatch. Might even form droplets of condensation on the timber, so be careful.
Good luck.

 

[Chri5]

I'd suggest that under the hatch finish you use a marine plywood and glue the engineered floor to that for the hatch cover.

You will get movement on the whole floor, but virtually none on the hatch.