WoodYouLike and other flooring experts - Need some advice

[ShyBoy]

Hi WoodYouLike. Been trying to catch your attention with not much luck. (sniff sniff )


Subfloor: Pine Wooden floor (30 years old). MC of 13% - 15% but very few boards at 17% (no idea why but could be to do with the plastering we did 3 weeks ago and the removal of the radiators). I will replace both radiators and turn them on for a few days before laying the floor.

Wooden Floor: Acacia 12cm x 90cm x 18mm boards where most (95%) of the pieces are the same. MC ranges from 9% to 14%. The boxes have been sitting in our hallway next to the area where it is to go down for the last 3 weeks.

The room: The room's widest part is 4.8m. by the way, leaving a large expansion gap is not too much of a problem as i can chisel the bottom of the walls for the extra space. Length is about 9m. Will fit the boards perpendicular to the subfloor which runs along the length of the room. The room is above a rather damp garage but not sure if that is important.

Would you say floating is the way to go with this?

Would fibre boards be ok to lay on top of a pretty even pine subfloor? It would be good as a way of correcting some of the slight uneveness on some parts of the floor. Would a 3mm compressed foam type material be better?

I have read your bit about proper gluing on your excellent site but did not really understand what you meant by starting from the bottom of the groove when holding the plank. Do you mean the deepest part or the bottom (i.e the nearest bit to the floor)?

Last bit is, you are welcome to do a blog on our furniture advice site if you like. You can include a link to your site.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Wondered where this reply to the other posts went (was reading it when it disappeared Sorry for not replying on the other post, I thought mattysupra was given excellent answers and didn't want to bud in.

Anyway, 120mm wide boards are wide enough to install floating. If - and I hope that's in your case - over 60% are not shorter than 600mm.
If possible check the width of the boards from the same pack: the ranges in moist you're reporting could also means differences in width (and that means unclosable gaps!)

Pine has standard a higher moist content than Oak, keep an eye on those with 17% (perhaps that's the place where the plaster has been 'made'?)

In your case I would use Timbermate Duratex and not the fibre boards.
And you are correct on glueing as deep as possible in the groove (bottom part) I'm sure one of these days I'll make a picture of it

Re last bit: how about swapping guest posts?

 

[ShyBoy]

Thanks WoodYouLike. There is only 2 or 3 short planks in a single pack so the length is not a problem. The width is identical in the two packs i checked.

Would you say 15mm gap on each side of the widest room is ok? or should i chisel a bit more to be on the safe side?

I am thinking that the two planks i meassuered at 17% might have had some water dropped on them while i plastered the walls. Will refit the radiators tonight and see if i can lower them a little bit prior to installing.

Swapping guest posts sound great. sent you a PM.

edit - oops, PM does not work. Whats the best way of contacting you?

 

[WoodYouLike]

Either by becoming friends here (if it's correct you are about to receive a message confirming the request) so you can PM each other or email me from our website. it is a rather obvious email, start with info than the my 'nickname' on a co.uk domain extension

15mm is 'cutting' it rather short. If possible try to get around 18mm

 

[ShyBoy]

One last question. If we decide to lay the floor along the length of the room which is the same way the current pine floorboards go, would that be ok to do if i use fibre boards? I presume that using Timbermate Duratex is a no no in this case but thinking as fibre boards are more solid they might be ok for this purpose? I would ideally like to avoid laying down plywood if possible.

garden furniture

 

[WoodYouLike]

As long as the floorboards are level and you lay the fibreboards diagonal