Hardwood Floor Installation Help

Hello,

I have a 1920s house I am remodelling and got to the floor phase. Decided for hardwood. Problem is that the upper floor sagged about

15mm (in the centre) over the years and I cannot push the floor back up.

The hardwood planks are about 10mm thick and about 50mm wide and come in different lengths.

Right now I am considering two options.

1) get laminated wood in several different thicknesses, cut strips and screw them to the old floor trying to eliminate or, at least, reduce the sagging to a minimum and then nail the hardwood planks to them.

2) pour self-leveling compound (a kind of cement) and then glue the hardwood planks to the cement, as suggested by a friend, but I am not very fond of this method.

Anybody has experience with this problem and how it was solved?

Thanks in advance!

Reply to
Rookie_Remodeler
Loading thread data ...

My first instincts would be to remove all floor back to the joists then start from scratch. Solid wood floor is extremely noisy and whipping up the old floor would allow for the addition of insulation between joist which would also absorb alot of sound rather than give it scope to bounce back up again.

Trouble is... as I found out... you think while I'm back to scratch and installing insulation, I may as well install underfloor heating (wet) which then, for me lead to having to re-wire and re-plumb. All of which needed doing anyway.

A bit more info might help.

"upper floor" do you mean up-stairs of simply the current floor surface (floor boards or WHY)

better to do the job properly first time than spend money on a nice floor which is ruined by bodging the install.

Pete

Reply to
unknown

Hi!

Thanks for the reply.

"Upper floor" means the second floor. Removing the subfloor will not help since the joists are sagged themselves. Therefore, I can either fix the sag by adding strips of wood with different thicknesses or add the self-leveler (not very keen on this one unless somebody chimes in).

My concern about using the wood strips is that some of the wood planks will be "floating", that is, will not be supported by the subfloor, ergo asking what can be done in this case.

On the heating the rewiring, I redid all electrical and added a baseboard heater just to help the old central hot air furnace in colder days. On average it suffices.

Cheers!

Pet @

formatting link
;=AC) wrote:

Reply to
Rookie_Remodeler

What you normally do is take the floor up and start planting and sanding and cutting bits of timber up to fully level the joists.

Even better. gets some new (flat) joist and bolt them alongside the new ones, with a level and a steel rule laid over their tops..or a string..

That will stiffen the floor a lot..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Thanks for the suggestion. However, like I said before, raising the floor (eliminating the joists sag) is out of question. Folks who did the remodeling before built walls that would have to be torn down or the ceiling (and roof) would go up.

So, the question is. How much a 15mm thick wood plank can "float", that is, assuming I use the different thicknesses strips to level the floor and nail the hardwood planks to them. So, how much they can "float" without the support of the underfloor? 20, 30, 50mm?

Reply to
Rookie_Remodeler

Forgot to ask. What are the problems of gluing hardwoord floor instead of nailing it? Can it be done?

Reply to
Rookie_Remodeler

Suppliers advice:

formatting link
recommend laying hardwood flooring at 90 degrees over the top of existing boards using a secret nailer.

I'd consider thin plywood shims/sheets as necessary to take out any dips/uneveness in the original boards.

Reply to
dom

Yes. If you go that route EVERY NAIL needs support..

The model shop will be able to supply l=ply in 1/64", 1/32" 1/16" and

1/18" sizes..

The thicker stuff you get from a timber merchant. Just shim the floor completely till there is a level base with support strips no more than 400mm apart running across the span of the new floor.

Its easy enough..using strings and levels..to get a series of lines marked out level, and build 'new joists' up to the required depth. .

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.