Solid or engineered wooden floor

[CQMMAN]

Hello,

Not sure which wooden floor to go for. It is in a south facing conservatory, so will get hot in the summer and cold in those winter nights. For this reason, I have been told than engineered is better (more layers, more flexible). Is engineered better given these temperature fluctuations?

At a close flooring shop I was told that you shouldn't use ANY underlay apart from a plastic sheet thing for stopping damp (because this will void the warranty). I spoke to a specialist who said that I SHOULD use an underlay with either type of floor. Who is correct?

Should both types be "floating"? We have a screed on concrete floor at the moment.

Should the wooden pieces be "glued" together?

Also, I can still see damp areas in the screed. It has been down for about a month (perhaps a month and a half).

Is there much of a difference in terms of difficulty to lay?

Thanks for any advice and tips.

-- Saddam has continued to produce them, that he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes

- Tony Blair on Saddam 24/9/02

"For a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times." George W Bush -Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 18, 2002

suicide bombing is not a belief

-CrazyAlec (internet spook)

"I hear there's rumors on the Internets"

- George W Bush -Oct. 9, 2004

Even today I am willing to volunteer to do the dirty work for Israel, to kill as many Arabs as necessary, to deport them, to expel and burn them, to have everyone hate us, to pull the rug from underneath the feet of the Diaspora Jews, so that they will be forced to run to us crying. Even if it means blowing up one or two synagogues here and there, I don't care.

-- Ariel Sharon, interviewed by Amos Oz (published in the Israeli daily Davar, DEC 17, 1982

[quisquiliae]

Yes. All wood floors will more but the engineered type will be more stable with variations of tempreture and humidity

Use an underlay. It will provide sound insulation. But it needs to be the right type for the subfloor. On concrete you will certainly need a type that provides a dampproof layer (I used Impactafoam from

)

Engineered has to be floating.

For an engineered floor it depends on the type. click fit systems do not need glue.

You need to give it time to dry completely

I have just installed a Kahrs 'Woodlock' engineered floor.

) This has a click fit system so dosn't need glueing and fits perfectly. Cliping the boards together requires a little practice to get the to 'just click' but by the third row it had clicked. I would imagine a solid floor would be more work to assemble and with glue no chance to undo a mistake.

[CQMMAN]

Thanks very much for the information.

Cheers

-- Saddam has continued to produce them, that he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes

- Tony Blair on Saddam 24/9/02

"For a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times." George W Bush -Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 18, 2002

suicide bombing is not a belief

-CrazyAlec (internet spook)

"I hear there's rumors on the Internets"

- George W Bush -Oct. 9, 2004

Even today I am willing to volunteer to do the dirty work for Israel, to kill as many Arabs as necessary, to deport them, to expel and burn them, to have everyone hate us, to pull the rug from underneath the feet of the Diaspora Jews, so that they will be forced to run to us crying. Even if it means blowing up one or two synagogues here and there, I don't care. -- Ariel Sharon, interviewed by Amos Oz (published in the Israeli daily Davar, DEC 17, 1982

[N. Thornton]

Subject:Re: Solid or engineered wooden floor

Non-glue floors do need gluing, otherwise water gets into the cracks and they delaminate prematurely. With wood glue youve got ages to undo mistakes before it dries.

Egineered wood floors are far more stable than real solid wood in terms of expand/shrink/warp, but are a lot more vulnerable to damage by damp and wet. In practice they dont last anything like as long.

NT

[Rick Hughes]

conservatory,

I wrote an article on 'which flooring type' ... it's on ukselfbuild if you want to read it ..

simple terms if the floor is subject to movement due to heat then Engineered is better, it will take as many re-sandings as solid wood. Use an underlay that incorporates a vapour barrier (I used Quickstep Combifloor)

I have underfloor heating in my place to keep response time good - I went for 18mm thick floor, if you don't have UFH, then use thicket with no problem.

I have found BOEN to be very good ... and Flooring supplies to be the best on prices (mail order)

[CQMMAN]

Thanks. The tinyurl doesn't work, but the advice is good. Just to clarify, I

*can* use underfloor heating with engineered wood?

Cheers

-- Saddam has continued to produce them, that he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes

- Tony Blair on Saddam 24/9/02

"For a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times." George W Bush -Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 18, 2002

suicide bombing is not a belief

-CrazyAlec (internet spook)

"I hear there's rumors on the Internets"

- George W Bush -Oct. 9, 2004

Even today I am willing to volunteer to do the dirty work for Israel, to kill as many Arabs as necessary, to deport them, to expel and burn them, to have everyone hate us, to pull the rug from underneath the feet of the Diaspora Jews, so that they will be forced to run to us crying. Even if it means blowing up one or two synagogues here and there, I don't care. -- Ariel Sharon, interviewed by Amos Oz (published in the Israeli daily Davar, DEC 17, 1982

[Andy Burns]

Wow! I thought lotus notes made long urls, but that 80 character case sensitive alphanumeric string gives 62^80 combinations. How many gazillion URLs per sub-atomic particle in the known universe do Yahoo! think they need :-)

[Rick Hughes]

Strange I tested the url before posting, I have recreated it ...

tested and it does get the file OK ... (it may ask you to register, but that's Yahoo) Or go to click on link on the left to the files area.

Engineered floor is the way to go for UFH .... Some tips :

#1 use the correct underlay ... (Combifloor is good choice) you need a vapour barrier but a minimum TOG rating.

#2 Lay floating ... it needs to be able to move

#3 Make sure you allow correct perimeter gap

#4 I would REALLY recommend that you use t&g engineered floor and glue all joints with a D4 adhesive .... it's and easy enough task, I have done more than 175 sq.m. this way in last couple of months. I don't think the click fit joints are up to much on engineered floors - they are better suited to laminate.

#5 Choose an 18mm thick board with ideally 7mm veneer

#6 Scribe in the first run of boards down longest wall - very important to get this right.

Rick

[oleka2000]

What kind of dumbass are you?

[CQMMAN]

Don't worry about him :) I am sure the doctors will be around to collect him soon :)

-- Saddam has continued to produce them, that he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes

- Tony Blair on Saddam 24/9/02

"For a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times." George W Bush -Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 18, 2002

suicide bombing is not a belief

-CrazyAlec (internet spook)

"I hear there's rumors on the Internets"

- George W Bush -Oct. 9, 2004

Even today I am willing to volunteer to do the dirty work for Israel, to kill as many Arabs as necessary, to deport them, to expel and burn them, to have everyone hate us, to pull the rug from underneath the feet of the Diaspora Jews, so that they will be forced to run to us crying. Even if it means blowing up one or two synagogues here and there, I don't care. -- Ariel Sharon, interviewed by Amos Oz (published in the Israeli daily Davar, DEC 17, 1982