Tips for laying solid oak floor

[Paul Giverin]

In the next few days I'll be laying an 18mm thick oak floor to my lounge. the wood is 120mm wide and in various lengths from 400mm to

1800mm. Its tongue and groove all round.

I've prepped the concrete floor by screwing 6mm marine ply to it (original floor had marley tile with bituminous adhesive). I'm using a specialist batten adhesive which I'll be putting down at 90 degrees to the planks and at 150mm centres. I plan to measure out one plank width from the long wall and mark a chalk line to lay the first strip to.

Now the questions... What expansion gap should I leave all round? Obviously it can't be more than the thickness of the skirting board that will be fitted after the floor (about 20mm I think).

The instructions for the batten adhesive say I should lay it 10mm thick and that it shouldn't be compressed to less than 1.5mm. What is the optimum compression and how do I ensure I bed down the whole floor uniformly? Spirit level I suppose?

TIA,

[Bilbo]

Hi - I've just recently been through this - I still have sore knees! First tip - buy some good knee pads ... very important.

Expansion - I pulled off the old skirting and replaced it with 4 inch high x 20mm thick Oak skirting - so I left about 10-15mm all round where I could. I must say the new skirting (just oiled) looks good.

I didn't lay the adhesive that thick - probably only about 5mm. No problems so far - no creaks or squeaks.

I also secret nailed along each plank - it doesn't take too long.

Main thing I learned - take your time! Have a selection of planks out and mix them up a bit, lighter ones here and there - it adds to the overall effect. Saying that, I did put the "ugly planks" where they wouldn't normally be seen!

Bilbo

[Paul Giverin]

In message , Bilbo writes

Thanks for the tips. I can't use secret nails though. My subfloor is 6mm ply over concrete. The ply isn't thick enough to take a nail.