Wooden flooring??

[Vernon]

Er indoors has decided she doesn't like the carpet in the living room, and she wants a nice wooden floor, not laminate and not engineered wood, but solid oak floor. I said ok lets think about it do some research and do it after Xmas, no whilst I was out at the weekend (queuing at the local tip) she has ripped up the old carpet and underlay. As a result the living room now has what look like lino tiles about 6-8 inches square, presumably fitted on top of original concrete floor when the house was built (1968). Can we fit solid oak flooring on top of these tiles? I have looked for information on the web, and most sites say no, (well no to concrete, as you have to nail the boards down) but some, including one video (wickes), said yes so long as the floor is glued together, and I use an underlay. She does not want an engineered wood floor, which as far as I can see would be the ideal solution, as I assume it could be glued to the tiles without too many issues.

The flooring she has seen and likes is sold in Costco, 300-1200mm planks

130mm wide 18mm thick. But I am unable to find the manufacturer to ask for advice, they are labelled up as Forester.

Can anyone help me out, either with a contact number for the manufacturer or with definitive fitting advice.

thanks

Vernon

[Tim S]

Vernon coughed up some electrons that declared:

I've heard of fully floating engineered wood and I have seen some some mention of bonding such floors down with a special adhesive.

In the former case, I would say leaving the tiles is fine.

Try googling for "engineered oak" or "engineered wood floor" - I think that's how I found some interesting info.

If I come across anything I post back.

Cheers

Tim

[PeterMcC]

Done that, works fine - make sure it can move. Don't get any points at which the wood is hard up against an edge - the floor shifts slightly and the bond between the planks can break as one part is free to move but the other part hits a bit of wall and gets left behind.

[Cash]

Generally *NO* - to lay oak flooring to any reasonable finish it either has to be secret nailed through any tongues, or in the case of wood block, stuck down with the proper adhesive - in either case, the tiles will have to be removed

If you want even a halfway decent job, then then see the comments above.

Is this what you are referring to?

to lay a 'proper' wood floor to a decent standard requires a fair bit of preparation, effort and knowledge of laying and finishing techniques - along with a fairly large bank balance - and I would suggest that you either dissuade the 'other half' from having it done or contract it out to a flooring specialist.

To give you some idea, it would almost certainly require that the existing screed be ripped up and possibly a bit of the concrete floor slab as well. You will then have to lay a new screed with timber battens inserted into it [1] and the boards nailed to these (this is to keep the floor at the same level to avoid having to cut doors etc to fit).

Or as above, without the timber battens [2]

[1] Presuming the floor is boarded and nailed [2] Presuming it is a block floor that is to be stuck down.

Oh, and if you start now, it is unlkely to be finished until the new year - happy Xmas. Lol

Cash

[ransley]

Is it ground floor, dirt is under concrete, if so moisture could ruin it. If concrete is over dirt it should be tested for moisture.

[Vernon]

That's why i tried to dissuade her! I just cannot justify the expense of all that, I am working on her, explaining the difference, and trying to tell her that no one will know if it is solid oak or engineered oak. But you know what women are like! Hopefully she will be happy to go with engineered, in that case, I presume I fit an underlay, then glue the boards together.

Any recommendations for underlay, I did see one that was self adhesive to hold the floor together, not sure about that.

thanks

Vernon

[Vernon]

Is it ground floor, dirt is under concrete, if so moisture could ruin it. If concrete is over dirt it should be tested for moisture.

It is the ground floor yes, but as I said initially, it looks like the concrete slab was covered with lino tiles, during the initial build, they are certainly not what I could imagine anyone buying and putting down!

[Tim S]

Cash coughed up some electrons that declared:

Here's the adhesive I came across, which claims to be for engineered wood.

It does however emphasise a strong dry sound substrate.

Cheers

Tim

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Think the boards you described are too short to be a true solid oak floor

- an original would have had much longer ones.

I've got what I think is a engineered one - rectangles of solid oak glued together into T&G planks which when assembled correctly don't show the plank joins - and it looks gorgeous. It's on a wood floor with heating pipes running underneath in places but hasn't moved at all.

[ConfusedCarbuyer]

Cash is quite right on all counts Chris

[Vernon]

Is that small rectangles like a parquet floor? sounds interesting if it is.

[somebody]

In message , Vernon writes

Have a look at

It is engineered flooring, but solid wood, no laminates etc. It can be laid as a floating floor.

They also advise on and supply the underlays to use in various environments.

Hth Someone

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Similar. The 'strips' are all 2" wide and the 'planks' 4". The plank lengths are all the same at just over a metre but the strip lengths within them appear random - but non shorter than about 9" The T&G - both at the sides and ends - is such that if tightly clamped when fitting the joins don't show, so the whole looks like it was made out of one sheet of those strips.

It was on special offer at Wicks - but even then not cheap. About 25 quid a sq. metre.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I would probably rather not.

I have looked for

No, you don't. You can lay on a glue. It needs to be flexible..but it can be done.

I don't like the idea of a glued floating floor o an underaly. That is going to sound 'clacky'.

I would be tempted to rip the tiles up and use something like 'no more nails' to glue the floor down.

BUT the reason we us carpets,is that solid concrete floors without insulation are fecking cold.

My REAL solution would be to get the old screed up, and then either go suspended or insulated + screed and THEN lay the floor..probably ona wooden frame.

Or, if you can afford the loss of room height, screw 2x2 on the floor, insulate between, and screw timber over.

[sm_jamieson]

Another option: the stretchy sticky underlay called Elastilon. Google it. Simon.

[Malcolm]

We recently had an oak floor laid in a hall+extension. The flooring came from B&Q at around 45GBP per sq M. It came as T&G in a range of lengths and was laid in the recommended self-adhesive underlay (beware - if you put anything on the adhesive you cant remove it). the flor was laid floating and the edge gaps covered with Oak skirting. The effect is very good and now that it has settled (4 months in) there is very little movement when walking on it.

Malcolm

[Vernon]

We cannot afford to lose height in the room, so that rules out the last option, equally digging up the screed is IMO a no go.

I am not adverse to taking up the existing tiles, but just not certain if it wouldn't open up more problems with the moisture content of the concrete floor underneath etc etc.

I guess it will have to be an engineered wood floor, there still seem to be various ways to fit those, including glue to floor, glue together over underlay, don't glue but use sticky underlay.

ggrrr why can't we have carpet like everyone else!

[Tim S]

Tim S coughed up some electrons that declared:

Ow - forgot the link - google for "Laybond"

I'm considering this as I'll be exactly the same position as the OP WRT a couple of rooms. As it happens, half the ground floor will be tiled (kitchen, hall, bathroom, utility) and a couple of rooms are slated for wood - so all the levels are coming up by a not dissimilar amount. I have no intention of removing any more screed, so doing this is conditional on sticking something down to the existing layer.

My only gotcha is no DPC under the floor, which is notionally dry but probably not bone dry, but if I can work an adhesive together with a paint on membrane, I expect it will work OK. OTOH neither thin wood stick on "parquet", not cemented quarry tiles nor vinyl have had any issues in the last 10 years. The "parquet" was the dodgiest but the floor was lumpy[1] and the adhesive was laid a bit thin and probably not the best type IMO.

[1] That floor is getting ground and latex screeded by builders in short course.

Cheers

Tim

[Rick Hughes]

Probably not what you want to hear ... but I would use a quality engineered floor with 7mm veneer, so will re-sand as much as solid wood .... and apply fully glued at joints, but laid over thin closed cell insulation as a floating floor.

If tiles and & floor are good and level enough a 2mm closed cell insulation would do.

I have laminate upstairs and engineered on all ground floor rooms .. all laid fully floating.